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Surrey Archives to offer tips on how to best care for family heirlooms

Free talk, ‘Caring for Your Family Treasures,’ to be held Nov. 27
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A woman looks at archival slides. (Photo submitted: Chung Chow, Surrey Archives)

The Surrey Archives wants to share its tips and tricks for caring for sensitive items.

The Archives will showcase how it takes care of photos, documents, textiles, etc. in an effort to help the public care for their own family heirlooms.

Called “Caring for Your Family Treasure,” the free talk will be held Nov. 27 from 1 - 2 p.m.

“Perhaps you have photographs from the 1970s, a favourite teacup from a great-grandmother, letters from home received by your family when they first immigrated to Canada, or your mother’s wedding dress,” said archivist Chelsea Bailey.

“What makes items ‘treasures’ are the stories and significance behind them,” she added. “These items all need special care to ensure that they, and their stories, can continue to be passed on from generation to generation.”

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Bailey said family heirlooms don’t have to be expensive to be valuable. The talk is aimed at teaching people how to care for those items in the best way possible.

The Surrey Archives collection has a lot experience with caring for fragile items. They have a collection of more than a million photographs and thousands of documents and maps.

“Made up of over 20,000 objects, there are thousands more artifacts in the city’s heritage artifact collection than can be displayed in Surrey’s museums,” said Kristin Hardie, curator of collections. “Ranging from industrial equipment to handmade hats to promotional items from local businesses, every object has a story to tell.”

The free talk will be held at the Cloverdale Library, 5642 176A Street. People can register in-person at any Surrey Library, or email familyhistory@surrey.ca, or call 604-598-7328.

Visit surrey.ca/archives or call 604-502-6459 for more information on the talk.



editor@cloverdalereporter.com

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Malin Jordan

About the Author: Malin Jordan

Malin is the editor of the Cloverdale Reporter.
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