Fiber Identification for the Early Twenty Century Archival Documents

Abstract

Fiber identification was attempted for the early twenty century documents that were classified as national archives in Korea, as an initial step for establishing scientific preservation and restoration method. Fiber staining with C stain and a digital microscope were used for the observation. All the documents observed consisted of mostly softwood fibers from fir (Abies) and other minor supplementary fibers, and they were all deteriorated seriously by various damages and aging process. It seemed that at around 1914-1934, fir was used frequently as papermaking raw material.