Some items that are collected or saved over the decades in families might have a historical or cultural value. But much more important are the items to which there is attached emotions and stories and memories. Therefore, what must be saved for future generations among your collectibles or family heirlooms can only be determined by YOU! Remember, also, and give serious thought to whether the item you’re wondering if it should be saved or not will be a value to future generations as an item to hold which will be significant in connecting them to your generation or earlier.
Not only choosing the items to hand down to future generations is important but the question of how to take care of your “memory triggers” is urgent so as not to cause damage and take the best care of them.
Perhaps protecting and saving the family heirlooms from bugs, wet and damage can seem like a unwelcomed addition to your already busy schedule. And the question of how to do it correctly may hold your back.
But you have help, expert, authoritative help to make the process fast, interesting, fun and economical.
How To Get Professional Help For Your Treasured Objects
There is, in fact, international interest in helping people just like you to get answers to their questions and how-to help.
The well-known UK based international conservation organization, ICON, mostly publishes to professional conservators, volunteers at non-profits, heritage professionals, and many others who show a commitment to improving the understanding of and access to cultural heritage.
Consulting with an accredited conservation professional is the best way to guarantee that your objects are in safe hands and will be conserved to appropriate standards.
How ICON can help conserve your treasured objects
You can easily get access ICON’s Conservation Register where they provide an up-to-date list of all ICON Accredited Members (ACRs).
ICON Accredited Members are a great source of help and inspiration for everyone as they work in a range of settings; some work for museums, galleries, or archives, and others work in the private sector. You can get collection care leaflets at,no charge, that provide preservation information written for their membership. Get your Collection Care Leaflet here.
In the USA, the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works provides similar information on their website.
The Most Distributed, Authoritative User Friendly Help
The most distributed, authoritative help, however, is a series of books that are more appropriately written for public use in easy to understand language and instructions. The author of the Save Your Stuff series, Scott M. Haskins is a renowned art conservator with decades of experience who also provides fun and interesting information on YouTube videos and blogs.
The Save Your Stuff series has had over 8,000 copies distributed since the Los Angeles, Northridge Earthquake in 1995.
The verbiage, approach, and presentations are written for public consumption, and presently, the Save Your Stuff – Collection Care Tips 210-page multi-media book is downloadable FREE.
The last book, just added to the Save Your Stuff series, recently received a prestigious international book award for How To Save Your Pet from A Disaster – the essential emergency preparedness guide for feathered friends and fur babies
If your house was on fire and you had to grab and go, would you grab your house pet or your family heirloom?
But, while at a glance, it may look like a pet care book, both heirlooms and pets are heartfelt treasures that you would regret losing… for years.
Remember, though, heirlooms and house pets don’t mix!!!
Mr. Haskins remarked, “At any given time we can have items in the art conservation lab damaged by pets costing $1,000s to restore… its quite common to see artwork scratched or peed on by cats or ripped by dogs. Even crazed parrots have done damage to artwork.”
This book is full of tips for protecting your pet and collectible care and maintenance. Available in print and Kindle from Amazon but go through the website to order so you can more easily take advantage of the authoritative continuing education included with the book price.
George Clooney playing the part of George Stout as a Monuments Men pitched to the American “War Machine” the value of protecting and saving the European people’s heritage. It worked!
To illustrate the importance of this idea of preserving and saving family history items that document the legacy and heritage of a family (which after a few generations can represent quite a lot of people), the movie, Monuments Men teaches an important lesson.
These World War II heroes, named the “Monuments Men,” were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. This heroic work, as was mentioned in the movie, was the saving of our heritage and history.
“While we must and we will win this war, we should remember the high price that will be paid if the very foundation of modern society (or your family-added) is destroyed.” George Clooney. But it’s not about praising people and giving credit. Its about teaching an important, essential lesson. It wasn’t just about saving art.
It was about saving of our heritage and history that was so important to the people in those European cities that it turned the tide of the war. Do what is best for your family. Whatever you can do, no matter how little, may be very important in the eyes and hearts of your family’s future generations.
“Always such interesting, useful and exciting articles from you!”
Ms. Casalvieri, Laguna Niguel, CA