Among all the amazing things out there in the world, the smell of wet concrete after a thunderstorm and the whiff of old paper rank at the very top for me. Couple the latter with my love of old books, documents, and all sorts of arcane papyri and you’ve got yourself a literature lover. I’ll read everything. Heck, I’ll read anything, even your cereal box. So I was pleasantly surprised after I stumbled upon the ‘Found Paper’ community over on Reddit.

A community of just over 147k members, r/FoundPaper likes to keep it simple and does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a community dedicated to documenting various pieces of paper found out in the wild. We’ve collected some of the best paper mementos as shared on the community for you to enjoy, dear Pandas, so remember to upvote your fave pics as you scroll down. Be sure to check out r/FoundPaper when you have the time and give them a follow if you like their stuff.

#1 Good Advice For Everyone!

Image credits: pioneercynthia

#2 Death Warrant For My 10th Great Grandmother Susannah North Martin, Tried And Convicted At The Salem Witch Trials

Image credits: reddit.com

#3 “Ain’t I A Peach? Ha, Ha” In A 1895 Bible

Image credits: byParallax

The r/FoundPaper subreddit celebrated its 7th birthday a few days ago, on April 30 (congratulations!), proving that communities thrive and survive based on the quality of the content they post. And the fact that the subreddit has had so many birthdays is proof enough that it’s got quality entertainment locked down tight.

One of the ‘Found Paper’ community’s greatest strengths is how streamlined and niche its interests are. Its second strength is that it actually encourages its members to get out of the house and start their own small adventures in order to have something to post.

#4 Friend Of Mine Just Moved Into A New House. Took Off All The Heating Vents To Paint Them, And This Was Behind One Of Them

Image credits: perfect_square

#5 Found In The Hallway Of My School

Image credits: millez_dot_exe

#6 Paper Found Among My Late Grandmother’s Belongings Talking About The Armistice Ending Ww I

Image credits: kaganey

“Photographs of found pieces of PAPER(!) with writing on them. Look for paper, make every day a scavenger hunt. Appreciate the forgotten artifacts of everyday life. Share any paper that you found (on the ground, stuck in some bushes, or between cans of soup at the store for example) and you do not know who wrote it,” the subreddit’s moderators explain what their community is all about.

#7 Was Told To Post Here: My Cousin Is Using This Bag Which Originally Belonged To Our Great Grandmother For Her Dance Tomorrow Night And Found A Note Which Has Been Hidden For 81 Years

Image credits: loumat

#8 Purchased Old Poetry Book At Flea Market And Found This Old Receipt For A College Poetry Class. This Receipt Has Been In This Book For 102 Years!

Image credits: Dogspokerpolitics

#9 "No. Not Yet." ~ Found In 1908 High School Geometry Textbook

Image credits: drewfuss99

“Love letters, doodles, interesting to-do or grocery lists, notes from the past—share your discovery with us!” the mods encourage book, paper, scavenger hunt, and adventure lovers to share their awesome finds with everyone else.

#10 Garage Sale Find (1929) - About 100 Love Letters Over Two Years From A Guy In Seattle To A Girl In Aberdeen, Wa

Image credits: Braunnoser

#11 Found This Passive Aggressive Customer Service Letter From 1964 In My Garage

Image credits: theologically

#12 This Came Out Of A Book I Was Flipping Through

Image credits: Urban_Archeologist

The moderators also highlight the fact that in order to post any photos, the paper has to be found and it has to be paper. No forgotten plastic from your garage. No granite engravings from your neighbors Tom and Jane’s farm (because you know exactly whom they belong to and, well, paper beats rock).

#13 Found Posted On A Couple Of The Walls Around My City. Email At The Bottom Blacked Out

Image credits: MyWingedLiner

#14 This Dollar Bill I Found In My Change

Image credits: bamboo_robot

#15 In A Vintage Hemingway

Image credits: cassodragon

What’s more, the mods want everyone to be “courteous and friendly” toward one another, avoid being “overly annoying or bothersome,” embrace tolerance and sensitivity, as well as remove any and all sensitive personal info from the photos before posting them. Sounds simple enough and it’s the basis for the rules most larger subreddits follow. Disruptive, chaotic, and intolerant communities don’t tend to last for long on Reddit (unless they’re doing it on purpose for the sake of humor).

#16 Bought An Abandoned House And Found This In The Attic

Image credits: apatheticweasel

#17 A Tarot Card Found In The Wall Of My 120 Year Old Apartment Building

Image credits: unknown

#18 Prom - April 24, 1970. Found While Walking The Dog This Morning

Image credits: MrDorkESQ

The Library of Congress explains that how quickly paper deteriorates depends on its quality and in what environment it’s stored. Some ancient tomes and documents can actually be in far better condition than a scrap of paper that’s just a few years old.

“Paper is made of cellulose—a repeating chain of glucose molecules—derived from plant cell walls. One measure of paper quality is how long the cellulose chains, and subsequently the paper fibers, are: long-fibered paper is stronger and more flexible and durable than short-fibered paper,” the LoC points out that not all paper is created equally. If you’re going for longevity, long-fibered paper is your best bet.

#19 Found On A Collected Airplane Food Tray By Flight Attendant

Image credits: TheSoulOfTheRose

#20 Found (Under) Wallpaper

Image credits: therankin

#21 Sad Find Today

Image credits: 1DeltaBlu

Acids from the environment (like from air pollution or poor-quality enclosures) or from within the paper cut these glucose chains into shorter and shorter lengths in the presence of moisture. “This acid hydrolysis reaction produces more acids, feeding further, continued degradation.”

#22 Found Under Windshield

Image credits: Spacemage

#23 Found On My Daily Walk —“Wow”

Image credits: iodine5

#24 Found This Left Behind In My Sons Room As We Were Moving Out

Image credits: Lefttuesday

One of the reasons why newspapers don’t last for long is because they’re printed on mechanically pulped paper, meaning the paper has got the shortest fiber length. Meanwhile, the lignin from the wood isn’t removed (as in the case of chemical pulping) and promotes acid hydrolysis, shortening the glucose chains even more.

#25 A Paper Found In A Middle School Classroom A While Back

Image credits: youngandstarving

#26 Found This Entire Jar Of Paper Behind A Trash Can

Image credits: virtualtrack32

#27 Contractors Working In Our Basement Found A Package Of Letters Hidden In The Floorboards From The 1920s

Image credits: destructsean

What’s more, it’s not just acid hydrolysis that threatens a piece of paper’s structural integrity. It can also be damaged by light (what’s known as being susceptible to photolytic degradation) and oxygen (oxidative degradation).

The poorer quality of the paper, the more light degradation affects it. Meanwhile, oxygen degrades paper in a very limited way, unless there are nitrogen oxide pollutants in the air.

#28 This Book From 1892 I Found Inside A Hole In The Wall In A Rental Flat

Image credits: reddit.com

#29 My Friend’s Uncle Is Moving Out. Found This In A Box

Image credits: delgadophotos

#30 This Original Notice From 1967 About The Creation Of Zip Codes

Image credits: machiavaci

Generally, what you want to aim for is having high-quality paper that’s stored in good conditions. Cooler temperatures and 30 to 40 percent relative humidity can help paper last for a very long time, according to the Library of Congress. That’s something to keep in mind if you want to take good care of the interesting finds and documents you may have picked up on your scavenger hunts.