Why Handwritten Labels Are Often the Best Part
A handwritten label may be inaccurate, untidy, or incomplete. It may also be the only surviving connection between an object and the life it lived.
By Akurium
The label is crooked.
It was cut from lined paper, written in fading blue ink, and attached to the underside of the object with an adhesive that has yellowed at the edges.
The handwriting reads:
Aunt Rose’s — brought from Boston, 1954
There is no last name. No description of what happened in Boston. No explanation of whether Aunt Rose bought the object, received it, or merely carried it home.
The label would not satisfy a professional cataloger.
It may still be the most informative part of the object.
Objects acquire histories after they are made
Catalog records often begin with manufacture:
- Who made it?
- When?
- Where?
- From what material?
- By what process?
These are important questions. They describe the object’s origin.
But an object’s life does not end when it leaves the workshop or factory. It is bought, used, repaired, given away, inherited, displayed, stored, sold, rediscovered, and misunderstood.
Handwritten labels can preserve traces of those later lives.
A label may identify:
- A previous owner
- A family relationship
- A former location
- An acquisition date
- A purchase price
- A maker or subject
- A storage system
- An earlier catalog number
- The reason someone thought the object mattered
The information may be incomplete. It may even be wrong.
It is still evidence.
Incorrect does not mean meaningless
Suppose a label identifies a ceramic vessel as “Mexican, 1800s.” Later research shows that it was made in California in the 1930s.
The label has failed as a current identification. It has not become useless.
It tells us what an earlier owner believed. That belief may explain where the object was displayed, how it was described in a family inventory, why it was acquired, or which other objects were kept beside it.
The catalog should not silently repeat the label’s claim as fact. It should preserve the distinction:
Handwritten label identifies the vessel as Mexican and dating to the nineteenth century. Current identification differs; label attribution retained as part of the object’s history.
Now the record holds both layers.
Corrections should improve knowledge without erasing the route by which the object arrived there.
Handwriting contains information beyond words
A transcription preserves language:
Aunt Rose’s — brought from Boston, 1954
A photograph preserves more.
It records:
- Handwriting
- Ink color
- Paper
- Spelling
- Punctuation
- Layout
- Corrections
- Fading
- Tears
- The way the label was attached
- Its physical relationship to the object
These details may help connect the label to other notes, identify the writer, or establish when it was likely created.
Even when they answer no formal research question, they preserve the presence of the person who wrote them.
The difference between typed metadata and handwritten annotation is not that one contains facts while the other contains feeling. Both may contain facts, errors, assumptions, and personality. Handwriting simply leaves more of its author visible.
Notice before removing
An old label may look like clutter.
Before changing it:
- Photograph the entire object with the label in place.
- Photograph the label close enough to read.
- Transcribe its wording exactly.
- Note where and how it is attached.
- Record any connection to packaging, mounts, frames, or associated objects.
- Decide whether specialist advice is needed.
Do this before cleaning, reframing, repackaging, or reorganizing.
A detached label can lose its meaning surprisingly quickly. Once separated from the object, “Aunt Rose’s” may no longer tell us what belonged to Aunt Rose.
Conservation professionals describe this kind of loss as dissociation: the separation of an object from its identifying information or associated records. The Canadian Conservation Institute notes that historical labels may have informational, aesthetic, and historical value of their own.
The object may survive while part of its identity does not.
Preservation and retention are different questions
A label can be historically important and physically harmful at the same time.
Pressure-sensitive adhesives can stain, become brittle or sticky, fail over time, and damage fragile surfaces. The Canadian Conservation Institute advises against applying adhesive labels directly to collection objects and warns that removing old tape from paper, photographs, or delicate surfaces may require a conservator.
This does not produce one universal instruction.
“Never remove a label” is too simple.
“Soak it off” is considerably worse.
The appropriate decision depends on:
- The object’s material
- The label’s material
- The adhesive
- The condition of both
- Whether the label is attached to the object or an enclosure
- The label’s informational significance
- The risk of leaving it in place
- The risk of removal
Sometimes a deteriorating label should remain attached and receive protective support. Sometimes it should be removed by a conservator and preserved separately with a clear connection to the object. Sometimes a recent damaging sticker has little historical value and can be safely removed through an appropriate method.
The useful first instruction is not “keep” or “remove.”
It is document before acting.
Packaging can belong to the story
Labels do not appear only on objects.
Boxes, frames, mounts, envelopes, folders, and wrapping may carry:
- Shipping addresses
- Dealer information
- Exhibition labels
- Repair notes
- Prices
- Previous owners’ names
- Storage instructions
- Catalog numbers
- Family annotations
Separating an object from deteriorated packaging may be necessary for its care. That does not mean the packaging should disappear without a record.
Photograph it. Transcribe it. Note its relationship to the object. Preserve it separately when appropriate and safe.
Institutional guidance for removing paper objects from frames specifically recommends preserving labels attached to backing materials and leaving removal to a conservator when a label is attached to the artifact itself.
The back of the frame may be less attractive than the front. It can also contain more biography.
Make room for more than one voice
A good catalog record can distinguish among:
- What the object says
- What an earlier label says
- What the collector believes
- What a seller claimed
- What current research supports
- What remains unknown
These statements do not need to collapse into one authoritative sentence.
For example:
Inscription on base: “E.M., 1912.” Family note identifies E.M. as Eleanor Morris. Identity not independently verified.
This is not indecision. It is careful attribution.
The record respects the family knowledge, preserves the inscription, and avoids transforming an unverified identification into fact.
Future evidence may confirm it. Until then, each voice remains visible.
The label is part of the object’s life
Not every sticker deserves reverence.
Some are recent, unrelated, damaging, or actively concealing more important information. A price label applied last week does not automatically become sacred because it has touched an old object.
The point is not to preserve everything indiscriminately.
It is to pause long enough to recognize that significance can accumulate after manufacture.
The handwritten label may be awkward. It may be wrong. Its adhesive may need professional attention. Yet it may preserve the only surviving link between the object and a person who once knew why it mattered.
“Aunt Rose’s — brought from Boston, 1954” does not tell us enough.
Without the label, we would know even less.
Suggested further reading
- The Canadian Conservation Institute’s guidance on dissociation discusses the loss of relationships between objects, records, and historical labels.
- CCI’s bulletin on products used in preventive conservation explains the risks of adhesives and when removal should involve a conservator.
- CCI’s guidance on removing paper artifacts from frames specifically addresses the preservation of labels and backing materials.