From June 1998 the poster collection of the Foundation, housed at the Nijmegen Municipal Archives, will be preserved and if necessary restored. Among the total collection of 248 objects are 229 printed posters and a number of other objects such as a book cover, maps, photographs and children's drawings.
First the posters were studied and a damage report was made. Extensive damage was found. 90 per cent of the objects is not in the best condition. The damage varies from small tears and stains to serious damage caused by crêpe tape. From the point of view of preservation the 100 posters that have this tape on the back, must be dealt with first. The use of this tape, applied for strength on the advice of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, has an adverse effect in the long run. Crêpe tape, also called artist's tape, is a tape on the basis of synthetic rubber. This adhesive degrades rapidly and does a lot of damage to the paper in the proces. The adhesive oxidizes and then follow several stages of decline. At first little change will be noticed, but when the oxidation continues a rather rapid change in the composition and colour of the adhesive follows. It gets sticky, oily and it turns yellow. Several components penetrate into and can even go through the paper. Dark lines may become visible on the obverse side of the poster.
It is important to remove the crêpe tape before the proces of degrading reaches the final stage, for then it cannot or hardly can be removed. The adhesive and with that the edges of the posters turn hard and brittle and make the paper very vulnarable.
Besides removing the tape the tears are repaired and if necessary the paper is strengthened by doubling it with Japanese paper. If the paper is acidic it is rinsed to restore the correct acidity, which lengthens the lifespan of the posters, in short the necessary actions to prevent further decline of the collection are carried out. No less important in this context is good storage of the posters. This is also seen to.
