Do you have a piece or set of memorabilia that you would like to protect and preserve in order for it to stay in pristine condition for many years to come? This doesn't necessarily have to be something that is worth a great deal of money; it might be just valuable and important to you for many other reasons, such as being sentimental. The majority of people do own these types of items, but unfortunately, not all of them are protecting them adequately for the long term. The memorabilia might have just been placed in a drawer in the bedroom or in a box in the loft. This, of course, is absolutely fine if it is something that is not that important to them, but this is rarely the case. The real reason they have not protected their memorabilia sufficiently for it to last for decades is usually due to not knowing how to.
Ways to protect memorabilia for the long term
I have an aunt and uncle who went to watch The Beatles in concert many years ago during the band's heyday. They still have the original concert ticket all these years later. I will never forget the first time that they showed it to me. We had just finished eating a meal in the dining room of their house and were still sitting around the table. My uncle, whose name is Eric, started reminiscing about his youth and spoke about the thrill of going to see The Beatles perform live. "I still have the concert ticket", he proudly announced and then went to find it. He came back with an old shoe box and, after looking through its contents for a short while, came across the concert ticket. I was astonished to see that he kept this ticket, which obviously meant so much to him, in a shoe box.
On the way back home, I spoke to my wife and suggested that we really need to buy him and my aunt a frame to house the concert ticket. She completely agreed, as we are both aware that a frame offers multiple layers of protection benefits. These include physical protection, as it shields the ticket from direct handling. Passing the concert ticket around the dining room table like my uncle did on that day leaves it susceptible to getting tears and other forms of accidental damage.
If housing the concert ticket in a frame which has UV-protective glass or acrylic can protect it from exposure to sunlight as well as other forms of light, which could cause fading or discolouration.
The frame helps to keep dust, dirt and airborne pollutants away from the ticket. This is important as we wouldn't want to risk the ticket becoming stained or degraded.
A frame also provides an additional layer of protection against humidity fluctuations that can warp or damage paper, and as the concert ticket was in paper form, this was also of importance. The benefits of framing the concert ticket outlined above are also ones that can be utilised to protect many, if not all, other forms of memorabilia.