Hello! 

I'm working with a collection that has a lot of advertising ephemera including matches. Match cover collectors remove the matches and staple and store the covers flat as a card, while this does seem like a good idea for long term preservation it does not leave us with an item that will display well in an exhibit. 

Does anyone have experience with storing or preserving matchbooks? Most are the common 20 count fold over style, but we have some 30 and 40 count as well. I'm leaning toward leaving them intact, putting them in polyester pocket sheets for photo slides and foldering with the other paper items. 

Thanks in advance for your insight!

I remembered looking this up for a friend who wanted to save some matches and found this article that shows a custom made enclosure for matches. While you have way more than they have, it does show that saving them whole is an option. 

https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/their-heads-matchbooks-archives