The Doris Duke Archives recently sent us this “Tiny Thai Village” for boxing. Read about its history on The Devil’s Tale.
The TTV came in a small box with all of the models inside. Obviously a box half the size of a Twinkie would disappear in the stacks and make access difficult. While these models aren’t fragile per se, they are delicate and the little houses had no real protection.
Our goals for the final housing were three-fold
- The new enclosure had to be big enough to go to the stacks
- Each little house needed its own compartment for safety and security
- You needed to be able to lift out each model with your giant fingers
Experimental Box-making
I thought this would be easy, but it took a lot of trial and error to figure it out. I grabbed a standard Metal-Edge box meant to house cabinet cards and started experimenting. Here’s what I did:
- Created a tray with a compartment for each house
- Built up the inside so that the models would be level with the top of the box
- Inset the original box so it was at the same level as the models
- Lined the lid with Volara to provide a cushion should they get shaken
- Labeled the box with big “Fragile-Do Not Tilt” labels
The Final Box
While 
each model can still move around in its compartment, they don’t knock into each other and you can still get your fingers in to take them out. You can also quickly tell if one is missing since each compartment should be occupied.
Although I would likely do something a bit different if I were asked to house this again, I think this enclosure achieves the goals and will provide more protection than the original box.