53 Years of Fixtures, One Collection, 18 Months of Work – In a Jar

By Mishelle Muāgututi’a & Tracy White (Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision)

Pictured are some (not all) of the metal fixtures from one of the largest collections (Pacific Films Productions) in Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision’s Documentation & Artefacts Collection. Their removal was one part of the preservation process for these materials, after assessment and preliminary accessioning of the entire collection. Fixtures such as staples, wiro bindings, bull clips, pins, and metal clasps can – over many years – damage archival documents by creating indents, tears and rust residue. We have therefore been removing them in favour of gentler methods of holding documents together. The fixtures are either removed completely, or replaced with archival brass clips or folded sheets of paper.

This one project involved:

• 2 full-time staff members (4-6 hours per day, depending on other archiving needs)
• 4 volunteers (6 hours each per week)
• 18 months to stabilise and remove 53 years of staples and metal fixtures, and rehouse material in acid free enclosures
• 270 archival boxes – containing various types of documentation. This includes financial records, production records, personal papers, periodicals, press and publicity, books, flyers, posters, still images, artefacts and textiles related to the one company – Pacific Films.

We would like to extend our thanks to the following volunteers for all of their time and effort on this project: Jill Goodwin, Shona Fretwell, Daisy Wang, and Gema Ibanez.

Hero image: Large jar of metal fixtures, removed from archival documents.