Wilmington Memorial Library

How to weed your attic, getting rid of the junk without destroying history, Elizabeth H. Dow, Lucinda P. Cockrell

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

How to weed your attic

bibliography

1027109616

Elizabeth H. Dow, Lucinda P. Cockrell

getting rid of the junk without destroying history

"How To Weed Your Attic: Getting Rid Of Junk Without Destroying History" provides answers to the question: When someone dies or it's time to move - or just clean out the attic, garage, or basement - what papers and other things should we save for the sake of history and what can we safely toss? After reading this book, you can comfortably clean out your attic - or office, garage, basement, cupboards - with confidence that you're not tossing out historically valuable (or invaluable) things, and that you will not ask your local museum to take things that really belong in a thrift store, junk yard, or recycling center. This book includes a brief description of the basics for preserving materials the reader wants to keep and references sources for more detail. It also recognizes that the reader may not want to keep stuff that clearly has historical value. For those readers, the authors describe how to donate materials to a cultural repository. In broad strokes, they explain how repositories differ, what the repository will want to know about the stuff you're offering, where an appraiser and/or tax advisor fits into the process, and what the reader can expect the repository to do and not do. -- back cover

Why the things in your attic matter to history -- General rules for making decisions -- Historical value: Mass-produced material -- Historical value: Individualized material -- Historical value: Corporate material -- Historical value: Commermorative material -- Special issues -- Preserving your family objects and papers -- Donating your your family objects and papers