Tip #24: Learn to identify your materials.

Written By Dmitri Schmidt

The other week we talked about a type of degradation that only happens to certain audiovisual (AV) materials, but can you tell your AV materials apart enough to know which? Most of us can probably recognize vinyl from cassettes, but what about wax cylinders? Nitrate film from polyester? Betamax from VHS? The first step in any preservation project is to know what you’re looking at, so let’s start at the beginning.

Wax cylinders, also known as phonograph cylinders or Edison cylinders, were one of the first commercial methods of preserving sound. As such, wax cylinders are also one of the most fragile of our audiovisual materials and should be handled carefully. A dropped cylinder can shatter entirely and is almost impossible to repair. They often come with a cartridge which should be stored separately within the same container as the cylinder. Vinegar syndrome (the degradation we talked about the other week) cannot occur on wax cylinders.

For more on preserving audiovisual materials, stay tuned for our next archival tip! Can’t wait? Check out our AV preservation webinar on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtxDC7SPgW4

#ArchivalTips #BacklogArchivists #Conservation #Preservation

Dmitri Schmidt

Dmitri plays a pivotal role in coordinating Backlog’s outreach efforts. They curate our weekly #FridayFinds and #ArchivalTips social media posts, shedding light on items discovered in our genealogy work and providing tips and tricks to approaching problems in the archives.

Dmitri holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and German Studies from Saint Louis University. During their university years, they dedicated over 1000 hours to interning and volunteering at local St. Louis institutions, including the St. Louis Science Center and the St. Louis University Museum of Art. As the Collections Intern at the Science Center, Dmitri assisted in developing and installing the "Into the Vault" exhibit.

Before joining Backlog, Dmitri served as a Fulbright Grantee, teaching English as a second language in former East Germany. From guiding 11th graders in analyzing pop albums as poetry to discussing the significance of the civil rights movement with 8th graders, they covered a broad spectrum of subjects. While reveling in connecting with students and injecting fun into grammar lessons, Dmitri's deep passion for all things archival eventually drew them back home.

Today, Dmitri works as a Herbarium Assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden, helping digitize the millions of preserved plant specimens. After being scanned and transcribed, these images aid scholars around the globe in furthering botanical research. Dmitri also serves as the archivist for the Kirkwood Historical Society. They are currently overseeing the “Journeys into Kirkwood’s History” project, which aims to digitize documents related to Kirkwood’s early Black settlements.

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Preserving Paper: A Practical Guide