Apologies if this question isn’t right for this sub.
My grandmother recently passed, and at her house I found an old rolled up document. It was my great great grandfathers discharge paperwork from the Civil War.
It isn’t in horrible shape, but it has been rolled up sitting in a closet for who knows how long.
I’ve tried going to some local antique shops but I haven’t had any luck in getting help trying to restore it. I live in Northern Virginia currently if anyone knows anything in the area.
Where should I begin with a project like that? I would like to restore it and frame it. It’s like 24”w x 36”l.
For the interested- he joined the 95th Illinois volunteer infantry in August of 1862, fought at Vicksburg where he lost a finger, continued on to Atlanta, pursued Hood into Tennessee, and then it states he was transferred to Sherman for the march into Georgia. It closes with his honorable discharge “by reason of the close of the war.”
Thanks for any help.
I don't know what you mean by "restoration" (and I don't think historians have any special expertise on these topics — this isn't what we do), but I will say that I was able to get a historical document (a very large map) that had been folded up for seven-plus decades flattened and framed by asking around at local frame shops, not antique shops. The one I went with had some kind of machine that would simultaneously steam the thing while flattening it, so that they could then mount it under glass in a custom frame. For something the size of my map (very large) it was not cheap (the map itself was a lucky find at $20, the pressing and framing cost ~100X more than that), but the final quality was very good (you can barely tell there were any folds in it, and the whole thing looks much newer than its +75 years, to the point that visitors are often surprised when I tell them it is an original).