You mean the recipes cut out of a magazine?
Don't mean to belittle your find, but a magazine from 1937 shouldn't be brittle and crumbling.
However you can prolong their life by mixing milk of magnesia with distilled water and wetting the clippings in that and spreading on a white terry towel to dry. It should neutralize the acid.
And get those precious recipes copied on your scanner before they deteriorate any further.
Linda C

Some magazines, depending on the paper content, from the 60s are crumbling. Your public library might subscribe to a service called ProQuest, which lets you search old newspapers online, and delivers a scan of the page. Or else you can just scan the cards.

Thanks, Linda, for the milk of magnesia notes. I don't see anything belittling at all, so no worries. No, most of the recipes are hand-written on note cards. Some note cards had either a newspaper clipping or a box-top recipe glued to them and then hand noted comments. Those seem to be doing fine despite grease stains and water marks.

My original concern stemmed from keeping what was originally a stuck together stack of commercial work at the back of the box stuffed in with the family recipes. These are things like "Eagle Brand Magic Recipe" booklet, or a "Betty Crocker says" icing recipe with a coupon for a Queen Bess Pattern spoon. Mostly they are recipe folders from companies like Pillsbury flour, Princess Gelatine, Knox Gelatine, Mueller's Noodles, and Betty Crocker. Their condition caused me concern. They were covered with mold and mildew, stuck together. Just icky. But I've spent the morning cleaning them off. I brushed off the black mold and wiped away some mildew. I've been able to gently unfold them all & am beginning to scan them.

I'm not returning anything to the orignal metal box. It was painted, but even that is bubbling. The rust was so bad that someone placed notecards in the lid a while ago to stop the rust from flaking down among the cards. The interior sides and back are bubbling paint & rust flakes. I'm moving everything to a new, plastic, index box. Anyways, that's my current plan of action. It's not as romantic as keeping my grandmother's box, but I don't know how to fix that.

But back to the milk of magnesia - do I brush that on newsprint, or is this good for just magazine paper, or any kind of paper? Also, I'm still quite open to suggestions on how to preserve these items. Do you think it's possible to continue to use the originals, add my own to the collection, actually use the new box? Thanks!

ideefixe Thanks for dropping by!

-a

Here is a link that might be useful: pictures of my recipe box project

some of that writing looks very like what's in my recipe box....my grandmother's hand and my husband's grandmother as well as both out mother's recipes.
It must have been stored in a very damp place to have gotten so rusty and moldy!
Actually it's not so very old....my recipes look very like that, although the recipes are 20 years newer....but the box is an old oak file box, bought 2nd hand by an old neighbor lawyer when he was an undergrad. He had scratched out the name of the original owner and put his own in it's place. If he were alive he would be about 110.

Milk of magnesia is good for preserving high acid content paper....news print, cheap magazines, sheet music, cheap books etc. make the solution and dip the paper and allow to dry.

Here is a link that might be useful: preserving clippings

The link tells all about the salt tree recipe in your box.
It's really very interesting....but will stain if it grows out of the bowl.
Can you even buy mercurichrome any more?
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: salt tree or garden

Thanks so much, Linda!