MAAS - First Day Covers Collection

Overview

ICS partnered with Datacom IT to audit, undertake condition assessments and digitise over 40,000 first day covers (philately envelopes) from the MAAS collection.

The collection of covers includes themes commemorating achievements of early Australian aviation, science and technology, Soviet and US space missions and various international Olympic games.

Year

2021

Client

Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (The Powerhouse Museum)

Services

  • Digitisation of collections

Awards

Condition

Project Activities

After an audit of the collection was undertaken on site at MAAS, the collection was uplifted to ICS and information was exported from the MAAS collection system into a spreadsheet. A condition assessment was performed on each item, with data recorded and cross-checked with the MAAS data spreadsheet. Any objects in need of conservation treatment were provided recommendations.

The collection was then sorted into accession order and re-housed in new archival mylar sheets and binders and paired with their associated Tyvek barcodes.

Each of the objects was digitised by Datacom IT in a high-quality image, capturing both sides where necessary. These images were then transferred to MAAS for ingestion into their collection system.

Treatment

Outcomes

  • Collection audit, safe packing and transport
  • Each object provided with a unique Tyvek barcode
  • Individual assessment of each object in the collection performed with treatment recommendations where necessary
  • Collection digitised in high-quality images meeting MAAS specifications
  • Objects rehoused and organised in robust archival sleeves and binders with information recorded on spines

Before treatment

After treatment

Testimonial

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