n.the process of adhering gauzy fabric to both sides of a document to reinforce itKimberly 1938, 116Of course documents, such as those bearing wax or metal seals, which are not amenable to lamination occasionally appear, and in such cases, recourse is had to “silking.” Although this operation is widely known, it may be of interest to outline the method of application practiced in the National Archives. A thin layer of paste is applied to a sheet of plate glass with a brush and a piece of crêpeline (about one inch larger in each dimension than the document under treatment) is spread upon it. The cloth is given another coat of paste, and the document spread upon it using the paste brush to smooth the paper down. Another coat of paste is then applied and a second sheet of chiffon is placed over the record and carefully smoothed down with the brush. The document, together with the two adhering crêpeline sheets, is then stripped from the glass and hung up to dry. When half dry, it is placed between wax papers or wax boards and pressed until completely dry. If necessary, the wax papers are changed during the pressing operation. When entirely dry, the document is removed from the press and trimmed. A narrow edging of fabric is left on each edge to show that none of the paper was removed in trimming.Browne 1953, 223The old Vatican library process of silking manuscripts to preserve them against the ravages of time in the form of moisture or chemical reactions due to the ink or contact with another substance has generally given way to what is called lamination, a distinctly American contribution to archival science.Turner 1957, 326–327My criticisms of present day repair processes involving the use of cellulose acetate foil have been voiced in a spirit of constructiveness. There is no doubt that the processes need refinement. On the credit side, however, the use of cellulose acetate foil in conjunction with a good quality of tissue can result in an outstanding product—one that is not only chemically, physically, and economically far superior to that of the traditional method of silking, but is esthetically more pleasing than the product of any other method of repair.Evans, Harrison, and Thompson 1974, 430SILKING. The reinforcement of documents by pasting silken gauze or a substitute on both sides of each page with a thin flour paste containing a small amount of glycerin.O’Toole 1989, 18Advancing far beyond early methods of “silking” or backing documents with synthetic crepeline, Barrow had perfected a method for deacidifying archival materials by about 1940 . . .Ritzenthaler 2010, 358Silking as a method of reinforcing paper is of interest primarily for historical reasons; many repositories contain silked documents, and it is important to be able to recognize such treatments. Sheer silk gauze (referred to as crepeline, chiffon, etc.) was adhered with a dextrin or starch paste to both sides of a paper document.Ritzenthaler 2010, 359Silked documents that are found in archival holdings must be handled very carefully; edges, especially, of both silk and paper, tend to chip and break away to the degree that text or image area may be vulnerable to loss.Woodward 2017, 110Cellulose acetate lamination in the 1930s continued a tradition of strengthening documents that began first with silk, in the latter part of the 19th century. The process of laminating with silk, or “silking” continued, albeit limitedly, into the mid-twentieth century. Silk was later supplanted by cellulose tissue, which was also used to “strengthen” documents as a conservation technique. These conservation techniques fell out of favor because silking was expensive, laminating with tissue made the documents difficult to read, and both had a limited life expectancy of 20 to 30 years.
Notes
Silking is no longer considered appropriate for archival preservation.
