Handling Flat Items

Works of Art on Paper, Archival and Oversized Materials

Published in

Special Collections

5 min readJun 24, 2021

Black and white engraving of St Eustace featuring greyhounds and hunting hounds, a horse and a stag with Christ on the cross rising from between his antlers. — St Eustace, by Albrecht Dürer, engraving, 1501.

Flat paper items such as prints, drawings, maps and archival documents are fragile in nature and most commonly damaged by handling.

Always consult in a tray and avoiding direct handling if possible.

To move a flat item:

Observe for damage first: avoid touching fragile or torn corners and the image or text area.
Always lift it with both hands and using the paper folds between your fingers for particularly delicate items.
Avoid applying too much pressure.
Always lift on diagonal opposite sides, avoiding the corners.
Please ask Collection Care for assistance if needed for very thin or fragile items.

To View A Stack of Flat Items

A conservator carefully lifting a print from a stack of prints at alternate corners using small strips of archival paper which have been folded around the artwork. — Lifting an item from a stack using paper folds

From the top of the stack, lift one item at a time.
Place to the side in a new pile, keeping items flush if possible.
Never leaf through a stack of flat items; this may cause damage to edges.
Do not stack heavy items on top of smaller flat items, items with fragile or embossed media.
Maintain the order of the items

Viewing the verso (the back): flat items in folders

Place the item inside its folder and close.
Slide one hand underneath the folder for support and place the other hand flat on top.
Turn over the folder and then gently lower to the table. Open to view the verso of the item.

Two hands holding either side of a grey card folder. Text in bottom right reads ‘Recto’

Two hands on either side of the same grey folder from the previous image. Here it has been flipped over to show the other side. The text in bottom left corner reads ‘Verso’ — *Sequence showing how to access the verso of an item in a folder*

Viewing the verso: flat items without folders

Place a rigid support (card, board or blotter) slightly larger than the item on the table.
Place the item on top, followed by another rigid support of the same size.
Repeat the previous turning motion as shown for items in folders

A conservator placing a slightly larger sheet of grey archival card over a black and white historic print. The print is already sitting on another slightly larger sheet of grey archival card.

A conservator using hands on both outer sides of the archival grey cards to flip the flat item over, without the use of a folder. — *Sequence showing how to access the verso of an item without a folder*

Handling works of art: window mounts

Window mounts are used to protect works of art from dirt, fingerprints and damage caused by handling.

Conservator holding a mounted print of a flower by the edges of the window mount. — *Image showing correct handling of a flat item in a window mount*

Handle by the external edges of the window mount only. Open mounts by the outer edge, not by inserting a finger through the mount aperture.
Always keep the mount flat and horizontal when viewing and during transportation.

Handling Items with Fragile Media

Pastel portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell on a brown piece of paper. — Elizabeth Gaskell Portrait, by Samuel Laurence. Pastel on paper, 1854.

Art on paper with media such as pastel and drawings and paintings on paper are fragile in nature. Over time, fragile media may loose its stability and its adhesion to paper, causing it to be easily damaged or lost during handling.

A close up of a painting with a yellow background and white clouds. The paint layer is flaking off and powdering in many areas, with some losses. — **Details of pigment damage:** Flaking and powdering of gouache paint with some losses

A close up of a painted portrait of a man. The paint layer has cracked in several places and the pigment has been lost completely in small areas across his hair and nose. — **Details of pigment damage:** cracking of the paint layer

Place pastel, chalk, charcoal drawings and any flat items with cracked or loose paint layers onto a flat very rigid support (non-flexible card or board) before moving.

A conservator handles a Chinese pith painting by placing it on a rigid piece of archival card which she holds at the left and right edges. — Handling a pith painting on a flat rigid card support

Keep flat during handling. Bending or flexing the paper may easily cause damage and loss to the media.
Avoid touching the media or placing weights on top, even if it is in good condition. This may cause smudging, loss or damage to the media.
In books, try to avoid flexing the pages where media (e.g. illuminations) are present. See our Book Handling Guide for further information.

Handling Archival Documents

A birds eye view of a stack of archival documents banded together in an open box — Gathering of archival documents

Gently remove paperclips when handling gatherings of letters, and replace after consultation. This avoids creating a crease at the corner holding the paperclip.
Old paperclips may be replaced by brass paperclips by library staff. Place a folded piece of acid-free paper between the document and the brass paperclip.
For rusted or fused paperclips and staples, always contact Collections Care to remove for you.
Loose items may not be numbered. It is important to maintain the correct order as you work through.
Please follow advice for handling items in a stack

A close up of 2 rusted paperclips holding together stacks of handwritten papers — Archival documents held with rusted paperclips

A close up of the top left hand corner of handwritten documents which are held together with an archival brass paperclip over a tab of folded archival paper. — Safe use of a brass paperclip over an archival paper tab

Handling Over-sized Documents

There are many different types of large-scale document, including maps, plans, blueprints and posters. These may be stored flat, rolled or folded.

A large coloured wood cut print of a map of Edo, in Japanese. The map represents the whole city area, with roads highlighted in yellow, and major temple and shrine areas within the city and in its outskirts represented pictorially. — Enjū Oedo ezu (or translated title: Long-lasting map of Edo) woodcut print on paper, 1860, Japan, Tokyo.

Always handle one document at a time.
Make sure that you have enough space to work in before unrolling or unfolding a large document.
Unfold items cautiously, using soft weights to hold down the edges. Be aware that with age, documents may become brittle and resist unfolding. Fold creases can be particularly fragile so avoid placing weights on these.

A large parchment document which was previously stored folded, held open and flat at the sides with soft archival cloth covered weights — An oversized parchment document unfolded and held with weights

Pay attention to the order of the fold outs and refold the object back in the reverse order, making sure to never create new creases.
For tightly rolled items, use soft weights to weigh down areas which do not contain any text or inks.

A conservator unrolling a small section of a tightly rolled parchment scroll by placing small soft archival cloth covered weights along the edges. — Unrolling sections of a document using weights

A handwritten parchment scroll which has been unfurled in the middle section and held down by soft weights along the edges.

Make large rolls easer to handle by unrolling small areas at a time, and rolling back up areas you have finished viewing.
Be aware that rolls can consist of several sheets joined together. To view the lower sheet, gently roll the top sheet up.

If unsure of how to fold, re-fold, un-roll and re-roll large items, ask for a conservator to help you.

Images reproduced with the permission of The John Rylands University Librarian and Director of the University of Manchester Library. All images used on this page are licenced via CC-BY-NC-SA, for further information about each image, please follow the link in the description.

If you are interested in using any material from Special Collections please get in contact with our Reading Room staff : uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk

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