19th Century Paper

[adamandnicole]

All,
I am wanting to recreate some 19th century printed items, but am not quite sure as to what modern paper equivalent to use. I have seen people use heavy resume style paper, but I don't think that matches any of the original paper items I've handled, either in weight or texture. Obviously regular copier paper isn't right, but I cannot seem to find a good compromise. Any suggestions?

Adam Dickerson

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: 19th Century Paper

Depends on your scale of desired authenticity...

You won't be able to 100% match most printed items, because there's no commercially available paper today that is as thin (light weight) as most 19th century paper. That weight of paper won't go through copy machines and laser printers, so there's no market for it, ergo no one makes it.

The closest I have ever seen to many of my original military forms (and patriotic stationery envelopes) is a paper made by the Mohawk division of Via (or maybe it's the Via division of Mohawk. the particular style is called Satin 2.0, and is available in a 28 pound text weight in a color called Cream White. This paper is a dead ringer for many of my larger forms (11 x 17) and the partriotic envelopes. You can also get what is called laid paper, which most office supply stores sell as resume paper if they don't call it laid paper. This is a pretty good match for the finer style writing paper of the period. I do have a few original forms printed on laid paper. Either of these would be the "campaigner" style repro paper.

If this stuff is too rich for your blood, then use Hammermill 20 pound bond paper. Use the cream color. This would be the "mainstream" style repro paper.

Now here's the next problem: Most of this is available only in 8.5 x 11, unless you want to order full sheets (22 in. by 35 in.) and cut it down yourself. So good luck finding legal size or 11 x 17.

White bond copy paper would be farb paper.

A couple of things to think about:
Yes, they had different colors of paper. I personally own original samples of white, blue, rose, yellow, and orange paper.
Yes, they had white paper, but it wasn't as bright as modern paper. To us paper snobs, nothing screams farb like white bond copy paper.
When they printed stuff, it was new. Don't try to make it look "old-timey". I hate that tea-stained fake parchment junk that every museum shop tend to sell just as much as most of you can't stand inauthentic uniforms. If not more.
Their paper was thinner than ours is. Don't use heavyweight stuff.
Vellum was reserved for important things (like officer's commissions). It was NOT an everyday paper. In fact, it wasn't paper at all. It was sheepskin. Modern vellum looks like vellum, but it's not sheepskin. It's paper.
Parchment was RARELY used.
Until about 1880 (give or take), all paper was made from cotton or linen rags. All of it was acid free. As a result, most originals that had even a little bit of care are still in pretty good shape. Book pages from books printed in 1860 are in a lot better shape than book pages from books printed in 1900 (or 1950 for that matter).
Many Confederate forms were printed on paper that has a surprisingly nice feel to it, feels like regular old paper, is the same weight as regular paper, but is the color of a grocery store bag. I found some once, bought a whole bunch of it, and don't what I'm going to use when it runs out.

Good luck with your quest. and if you don't feel like looking for the paper yourself, contact me.

[CSchneider]

Re: 19th Century Paper

Griffen Mill out of the UK reproduces 17th, 18th, and 19th Century paper largely for manuscript restoration purposes. Their paper is nearly indistinguishable from the period stuff, and of course, is not made from wood pulp. They reproduce a 19th Century blue ledger paper and their "Griffen" paper is a great match to standard Civil War era cream writing paper. I don't know if they still make it, but at one time they were making a remarkable reproduction of the paper used to make Enfield cartridges. Now, the paper is about $10 or more per sheet (a sheet being uncut and for reference, about the size of 6 pieces of letter paper). For using it to make printed items it would almost be a shame to buy such great (and expensive) paper and not make your reproductions using a period printing press, but with this paper, a nice Gillott pen, a bottle of gall ink, and some time spent studying period copybooks, you can write some great letters for a few bucks apiece.

A more modern and less expensive product that I've found useful for some things is regular 20 lb. xenographic paper in 84 bright. If you look hard enough it can be found for sale at some online office supply stores or in the back of your office stockroom buried under 15 or 20 years of more recent paper purchases. 99% of the stuff made in the last decade or so is 92 or 96 bright, but this stuff which used to be the standard until recently is at least quite close in color and somewhat close in weight to period "white" paper. Not perfect, but another option to think about.

-Craig Schneider

[adamandnicole]

Re: 19th Century Paper

Craig and Bob,

Thank you for the great answers. Exactly what I was looking for.

Adam Dickerson

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: 19th Century Paper

A few other observations:

For foolscap/legal, I've used off-white acid free drawing paper, which comes in 14" by 17" tablets, and cut it in half. Again, not perfect, but a lot better than regular printer paper.

A paper cutter saves a lot of time and makes it much easier to convert 8.5 by 11 sheets (which did exist, but not it seems in great numbers) into 8 by 10 or 7.75 by 9.75 (much more common for letter size).

The best argument for resume paper is that it tends to have at least some rag content (depending on what you get) so it bears up better in the field. This might seem like a small point, but if you're actually trying to fill out a form with a dip pen on a humid summer morning, it really makes a difference.

That said -- and I admit this expresses the personal bias of a paperwork geek -- any paper is more authentic than no paper at all. Stationery, like forage, straw, and firewood, was one of the army's "regular supplies." Issues occurred quarterly down to the level of individual companies and officers, and it ranked right up there with ordnance and rations in its importance to operations.

I only wish it was easier to find red tape these days. :)

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: 19th Century Paper

I have over 500 yards of it (red tape).