I need help preserving the WWII enlistment and honorable discharge documents for my dad.

[onecaliberal]

Doors anyone have experience with this? The paper is very fragile, 75+ years old.

[Tetrachloride]

1. Consult a museum. Suggest a visit in person to get an overview

Do not bring the paper unless they say so

[YDogg]

4. Agreed. Or a local college or university archives.

Some general tips, echoing another post: https://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/archives/preserve/encapsulate/

[onecaliberal]

6. We have a small veterans museum near here, I think I will check it out again.

Thank you for suggestion.

[onecaliberal]

7. Thank you for the suggestion. I am going to do just that.

[Ohio Joe]

2. I'd suggest starting here...

https://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives

[Just A Box Of Rain]

5. Most likely the documents were printed on acidic based paper

that self-destructs over time. It is a huge problem.

There are methods of de-acidifying paper but they are expensive and when the paper is already brittle it can come apart. Sometime brittle paper can be bound to a new substaight as part of the de-acidification, but--again--this is expensive and doesn't help with double sided documents.

The suggestion above to layer the document in "acid-free" paper above is a good one, as is the suggestion to keep the document out of the light.

Scanning the document has its own risks, light and possibilities of being torn in handling, but if the paper is going--and it sounds likely--at least you'd have a digital copy.