Solander box

Description

A type of sturdy storage box developed by Daniel Solander, an 18th century Swedish botanist, for the storage of his specimens. Solander boxes were originally made of wood then covered with cloth and lined with paper. The clamshell design of the boxes allows almost no light or dust to enter when it is closed. In addition, moisture variations are minimized by the buffering capacity of the materials. Currently, solander boxes are made from a variety of materials some of which are not acid-free. Solander boxes are used for the storage of prints, drawings, photographs, maps, miniatures, and biological specimens.

Synonyms and Related Terms

clamshell box; overslagdoos (Ned.); solander (Ned.); boîte à archives (Fr.); Sammelschachtel (Deut.); Kapsel (Deut.); scatola a forma di libro (It.); caja en forma de libro (Esp.); kapsel i form av en bok (Sven.); dokumentask (Sven.)

Resources and Citations

• Marjorie Shelley, The Care and Handling of Art Objects, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1987

• Caring for your Collections, Arthur W Schulz (ed.), Harry N. Abrams, Inc. , New York, 1992

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• A Glossary of Paper Conservation Terms, Margaret Ellis (ed.), Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York City, 1998

• Multilingual Glossary for Art Librarians at http://www.ifla.org/VII/s30/pub/mgl.htm

• AMOL reCollections Glossary -http://amol.org.au/recollections/7/c/htm

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997