Archive Boxes

For artwork, prints, photographs, important documents, leather bound books, fabrics, family heirlooms, archive material or just about anything of value, sentimental or monetary, an archival box is a cost-effective storage solution that will add many years to the life of your item, safely tucked away from the effects of light, the aging process, environmental contaminants and being handled. Leaving valuables or cherished items out in the open will degrade them over time and they will eventually perish if unprotected.

 Archival boxes are available in many shapes or sizes to suite your needs, or the size of the item that needs to be safely stored away. Most of these boxes will be made from durable materials such as high density cardboard with reinforced corners, metal, acrylic or recycled material, fully assembled or flat packed, and to suit your budget. They range from around $10 for economy to $70 for high quality boxes. It goes without saying that it would not be practical to invest in a $70 archive box if you are looking to protect inexpensive objects with little or no sentimental value.

Along with being age resistant, an archivally sound storage box must be acid and lignin free with a pH balance of between 8 and 9.5 to protect the stored items not only from external elements, but the material that the box is constructed from. Libraries and museums looking to protect old, historically important volumes from corrosive elements or from the effects of being handled over many years have increasingly turned to archival boxes to protect their books for posterity. Acid is a major problem for stored items as it weakens paper, cloth and board by causing these materials to become discolored and damaged. An alkali reserve might be added to neutralize any acidity within the box. Lignin is a wood compound, prone to decomposing and causing rot. Other important contributing factors to an archivally sound storage box are that they are made from sulfur-free materials and are completely light-resistant.

If you are a collector or have live storage needs (items that you will need easy access to), smart looking portfolio archival boxes can also be used as a display case. Artists and gallery owners often find that they have many pieces of older artwork taking up prime floor space, and due to the constraints of the various pieces on display (odd shapes and frames) they often do not realize the potential of archival boxes to pack these pieces conveniently away. Reinforced corners will keep the box sturdy and allow them to be stacked on top of each other without the risk of buckling or sagging in the middle. This also allows artwork with elaborate framing to be stored away as easily as a flat picture or print, making room for new pieces to be displayed. 

An archive box can be labelled to fit your own organizational preferences, storing by name, date, alphabetically or any other method. Having a good indexing method will save you the time from having to reopen the boxes unnecessarily once stored. Storing the boxes out of the attic and in dry areas above floor level will increase the life of the storage box. 

Whether it’s items of value, sentimentality, extreme age or things you just do not want to throw away, then it is worth storing them in an archival box.