Box-tastic!

Here’s a puzzle for you: How does one best store and deliver architectural drawings ranging anywhere from 6 feet tall to 12 feet long? In these new custom boxes of course!

Mary Samouelian in her new forest of boxes for the Doris Duke architectural drawings.

The wide variety of architectural drawings in the Doris Duke Collection do not always fit into standard sized map cabinets, so they either have to be wrapped around tubes or rolled up within tubes. However, using tubes does not always offer the protection needed to store these fragile drawings — nor are they always the best way to deliver them to patrons for research.

Architectural drawings from the Doris Duke Collection, wrapped around tubes in storage.

The solution? Architectural boxes that give both rigidity and stability to protect the drawings, meanwhile making it easier to deliver to the reading room.

The new boxes will hold our extra-large architectural drawings and protect them from damage.

For more information about some of the Doris Duke architectural drawings, visit the Inventory of the Duke Farms Residence finding aid.

Post contributed by Mary Samouelian, Doris Duke Collection Archivist.