Time capsule
Can the Museum of the Mississippi Delta release its methods on how they are going about “freezing” the letters recovered from the time capsule to “wick away the moisture”? Freezing does not “wick away the moisture,” as stated by the museum and the Leflore County Board of Supervisors. Freezing the letters via freezer or refrigerator only delays the disintegration of the letters. Freezing water only turns it into a solid state. Freezing water does not remove it.
Could the museum release its methods on how it is going about in freezing the letters? Is the museum preserving the letters for us, or are they only putting the mold in a dormant state?
These are legitimate questions that many families are wondering. The museum could educate the public on its process.
Hopefully, the Board of Supervisors can find someone to care for and properly preserve the items in the 2071 time capsule.
Editor’s note: Representatives from neither the Museum of the Mississippi Delta nor the Leflore County Board of Supervisors said freezing the envelopes would “wick away the moisture” from them. That terminology was the Commonwealth’s and reflected our misunderstanding of how the preservation process worked.
Katie Mills, the museum’s executive director, did provide, at the Commonwealth’s request, the following response. This will hopefully clear up any confusion or misinformation, to which the newspaper unintentionally contributed.
The director of conservation at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History instructed the museum on the steps to preserve the items until they could be picked up by their owners. She advised the museum to freeze the items. Of the three phases of water, the liquid phase is the most damaging to paper, so freezing the items slowed the deterioration process down greatly. The items are being held in a large freezer the museum purchased for this purpose.
I am not aware of anyone from the museum making the statement that freezing would “wick away” the moisture. We are simply freezing the items to prevent water in the liquid state from doing further damage to the items. Perhaps the writer is making reference to the Commonwealth’s reporting that stated the items were being frozen to remove moisture, but those observations were the newspaper’s and did not come from the museum.
For those interested in more information on this process, you can visit the websites for the National Archives, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts and the National Park Service.
