Historical Documents are documents that contain important information about a person, place, or event. Some important and famous American or U.S. historical documents include, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
All old legal documents contain information. They were usually intended to communicate information.
Traditionally, the medium of a document was paper and the information was applied to it as ink either by hand as in hand-written document or by a mechanical process as in a printing press or printer.
As the organic material in paper begins to age, it produces a brownish cast to the paper, otherwise known as browning. Many older documents have a natural toning, a patina that appears when paper has survived the passage of time and has been well cared for.
Foxing refers to brown stains or spots found on old paper, mainly caused by age, storage in damp conditions or the chemical content of the paper. Unless it is excessive, foxing does not detract from the value of a document.
