Preserving precious documents

[scrapmate uk]

I have been given a very old letter which my mother wrote to her aunt in India shortly after I was born (yes it's THAT old!) enclosing a pic of me. The letter is in a very delicate state (it's basically the folder that the photographer put the pic in) but I would love to do a page about it. I have scanned the letter to use on the page but I would like to keep the original with the page. What would be the best way to do this? Would a regular office page protector work or would it react with the letter over time? Any advice would be welcome as I'm more a papercrafter than a scrapbooker with very little knowledge about archival materials.

[jld]

Archival spray!!!
My Gran had a jar with notes & newspaper cuttings taken over her life. She was 100 when she died. I sprayed them all with archival spray & I laminated a lot of them to make sure we never loose them. Not sure if that's the best but definately archival spray.

[glynisrose]

Archival spray but DON'T laminate them!! Laminating sheets will eat away the paper over time.

[here be dragons]

There are specialist archival products for such delicate documents ... will try and find the link for you

Wendy

[here be dragons]

Well that didn't take as long as I thought it would do... managed to remember the name
http://www.secol.co.uk/
they have museum quality products.

Wendy
alternatively there is this one, which sells pcokets in packs of 10 rather than 100
http://www.arrowfile.com/

[scrapmate uk]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I would hate to have destroyed this piece of my past with my ignorance.

[beanpole]

That's very useful - thanks for the advice.
Have got quite a few bits n bobs of old letters I'd like to keep with the family history scrapbook.