#13: Tape That Took History With It
For much of the 20th century, tape seemed like a harmless little miracle. A torn page could be held together, a loose edge could be flattened, and an old document could be made usable again in seconds. The trouble came later, when ordinary pressure-sensitive tape aged, yellowed, stained, and sank its adhesive into paper fibers. Historical manuscripts and documents repaired this way often became harder to conserve because removing the tape could pull away the very material it was supposed to protect. There are a lot of examples of historical paper documents damaged by tape repairs.
