Detail of a typed document demonstrating the thin, semitransparent quality of onionskin paper. UWM Mss 223, Archives and Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. (Courtesy of Derek Webb)n.a lightweight, semitransparent paperGallagher 1991, 54The member’s office must do all of the preparation, including removing staples and clips, arranging the papers, and providing targets. Stafford provided a full-time intern to help with the project, but the preparation of 35 feet of onionskin copies still took nearly two months.Yates 1993, 49Third, the onionskin paper on which carbon copies were usually made had more body than the soft and flimsy tissue of press copying, making carbon copies easier to handle and less likely to fall to the bottom of vertical files.Rowe-Sims and Pilcher 1999, 20Since the records could not be removed from their secure location, project staff gathered examples of like records from other archival collections of the same time period, including browned Thermo-Fax copies, transparent onionskin paper, black and white photographs, newspaper clippings in varying shades of yellow and brown, and light pencil and pen handwritten documents.Ritzenthaler 2010, 62Lightweight, durable, and highly glazed, onionskin is a nearly transparent paper used for carbon copies of typewritten material and for airmail letters. It is made from cotton fibers, bleached chemical wood pulp, or combinations.Algee, Ferriter, and Van Hyning 2019, 5Rickey’s scouting reports were scanned by the Library of Congress in 2018 but could not easily be turned into searchable text. Many are grainy photocopies, on thin onionskin paper or including statistical tables, which stymied Optical Character Recognition software.
Notes
Named for its resemblance to the dry outer layer of an onion, onionskin is commonly used to create carbon copies of typewritten text, with additional uses in art and film animation. It is made from cotton fibers and/or bleached wood pulp. Despite its durability relative to its weight, it frequently requires special handling.
Detail of a typed document demonstrating the thin, semitransparent quality of onionskin paper. UWM Mss 223, Archives and Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. (Courtesy of Derek Webb)
n.
a lightweight, semitransparent paper