
(Please click on the image to see our BRAND NEW minute-long video on our Drop Front Boxes!)
Archival Solution of the Week: 3-Inch Drop Front Box
Available in a number of sizes (10 of ’em!!!) and colors (tan / gray / black), our economical (and VERY popular!) metal-edged 3-Inch Drop Front Box is absolutely perfect for storing all kinds of 2-dimensional materials including artwork, photographs, documents, maps, matted pieces, record albums, newspapers & magazines, genealogical records, musical scores, posters, or any other items in your collection that should be stored flat.

In addition to “traditional” prints, photographs and other flat images – both matted and unmatted – that one might usually associate with a 3-Inch Drop Front Box, they are also quite useful for safely and archivally storing a variety of other assorted 2D and 3D artifacts and collectibles (see pix above).
As the name 3-Inch Drop Front Box implies, these boxes consist of a removable top and a bottom with a hinged “drop front’’ panel on one of the long sides (see pix above). This feature “opens’’ the bottom section of the box so that the contents can be inserted and removed safely, without bending or flexing your items in any way. The risk of “dog-earing’’ your materials is also greatly minimized with this simple yet quite effective design. (Please click here to see our new short video that demonstrates this convenient feature.)
Each 3-Inch Drop Front Box is manufactured from durable .056-thick tan or gray (smooth finish) or black (lightly-textured finish) acid-free / lignin-free ArchivalGrade™ boxboard (please click here to see our fully illustrated blog that explains everything you need to know about “acid-free” materials).
As with all of our metal edge boxes, the metal corner clamps are anti-corrosion treated with a black polyester coating with a wax-free polyester finish on the blind side (see the red box in the pix above). These tough, workhorse clamps provide both rigidity and high stacking strength, so you can rest assured that your important prints, photographs, collectibles, and family artifacts are ALWAYS safe and secure!
As with many of our metal edge boxes, our 3-Inch Drop Front Box has an embossed labeling area for a standard pressure-sensitive (PSA) identification label or an adhesive-backed label holder.
Each 3-Inch Drop Front Box is made – one at a time, by hand! – in Archival Methods’ own on-premises manufacturing facility (right here in the USA!), and is available in Tan, Gray, and Black in the following sizes:
3-Inch Drop Front Box: Tan
• 8½ x 10½ x 3″
• 9½ x 12½ x 3″
• 11-3/4 x 15 x 3″
• 11½ x 17-1/4 x 3″
• 12-3/4 x 16-5/8 x 3″
• 13-3/4 x 19½ x 3″
• 14½ x 18½ x 3″
• 16½ x 20½ x 3″
• 16½ x 22½ x 3″
• 20½ x 24½ x 3″
3-Inch Drop Front Box: Gray
• 9½ x 12½ x 3″
• 11-3/4 x 15 x 3″
• 14½ x 18½ x 3″
• 16½ x 20½ x 3″
• 20½ x 24½ x 3″
3-Inch Drop Front Box: Black
• 8½ x 10½ x 3″
• 11-3/4 x 15 x 3″
• 11½ x 17-1/4 x 3″
• 12-3/4 x 16-5/8 x 3″
• 13-3/4 x 19½ x 3″
• 16½ x 20½ x 3″
A 3-Inch Drop Front Box has literally hundreds of uses! (Please click here for our illustrated blog on Archivally Preserving Old Books.)
As with most other items in your collection – flat or otherwise, whatever they may be – it is recommended that your items should also be placed in an appropriately-sized protective enclosure such as an archival polyethylene bag (see pix above), a crystal clear bag (see pix below), an acid-free open-end envelope or flap envelope, or interleaved with sheets of archival tissue or paper before being placed in any sort of archival storage box.
This will further protect your items during storage and subsequent handling, and will give you that all-important sense of “peace of mind,” knowing that your materials are archivally safe and secure!

3-Inch Drop Front Boxes can help you turn THIS… …into THIS!
(Please click here to see our new minute-long video on Drop Front Boxes!)
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