How to preserve a pencil drawing?

momlove
Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:31:53 +0000

My dad just gave me a pencil drawing for my birthday that he drew when he was a young man. The drawing is probably 60 or more years old and my dad has not drawn since then, so this is really precious to me. I love it but I want to be very careful about preserving it into the future. His sister had it for most of the past 60 years, and he received it after she passed away a couple of years ago. I don’t know how she stored it. The paper is a little bit thinner that a normal sheet of paper, and I think it may have been folded at one time. The paper is slightly yellowed around some of the edges.

How should I go about preserving it? Should I make a copy for display purposes and store the original separately? If I do display it, what special precautions should I take? Should I go somewhere special to have it mounted for display?

My dad had a very rough childhood and the tenderness in the drawing is so touching to me. I want to be able to pass it along to my son someday (he is majoring in art in college).

Thanks in advance for your help.