Last week I mentioned that I had been investigating techniques for the preservation of old family photos. Edwardssl mentioned that she had hoped that someone would write about this, so I said I would.
My motivation in learning about this is to understand how to care for the photos that I will inherit from my parents. I have photos from many different eras, from Civil War, to present and in different formats, from tintypes to card-mounted in the late 1880s, portraits from the early 1900s, snapshots from the 30s and up, disc camera film (remember that experiment! I had one), Polariods, digital etc. --these all need preserving.
I will take my turn in the open threads (and possibly extra diaries) to share what I discover.
This summer I will visit my childhood home, where my parents have lived for 40 years. There are more pictures there than I can possibly deal with in one trip (besides I want to go to some courthouses and cemeteries), so I must prioritize and target the most vulnerable photos to deal with on this trip. Those, to me would be the oldest photos we have--tintypes (or whatever type it is--I can't be certain without seeing it again), and some from the late 1800s mounted on cards. Some of those are still great but, one wedding photo is very faded. It's all in a plain old cardboard box about 10 x 20 x 20, stored by people wanted to protect them, but who didn't know how to do it safely.
For the serious archivist, I have read suggestions for using a freezer to store photos, but this needs to be a dedicated space, because every time it is opened it changes the climate for the photos. This is an interesting option for the long term, but short term, I need something like library boxes, and other supplies. I decided to search for a list of materials, which I could order online and have sent to my parents' house.
So I started looking at genealogy blogs for answers to my questions, figuring they would be the most up-to-date and, and I also checked out this book from the library (the 2002 edition). I haven't finished the book yet, but what I have found helpful about it is the explanations of the different types of images that may be in one's collection and the kinds of degradation that can happen over time and what can be avoided/repaired/restored.
The Practical Archivist was really informative. At her blog I found a link to an old webchat about the topic of preserving family documents. On another page she had links to four other sources of preservation information that she recommended, and a customized google search that would hit those sites (and trusted sources) to conduct your search. One pamphlet I found linked through one of those sites looked relevant--Storage enclosures for photographic materials.
The Practical Archivist also explained that Photographic Activity Test (PAT) passed boxes and envelopes are the best, and discusses how to find them in her FAQ ...
Q. How can I find PAT passed boxes and envelopes?
A. Archival supply companies
The bad news in all this, I guess, is that it’s difficult to find PAT passed boxes in stores. You need to purchase them from archival suppliers like Gaylord.com or LightImpressionsDirect.com or MetalEdgeInc.com. The good news is that all these companies have online ordering and will also be happy to send you a paper catalog in the mail. Yay!
(I have since read people complain about Light Impressions Direct's not sending orders in a timely manner, so I probably won't use them.)
So, since most of the old photos I have will be looked at, but not often, I plan to keep them stored, like sizes together, and I will put them all in sleeves of some sort--NOT PVC--and then into an archival box. This means my collection will be broken up into separate boxes--by size. I don't have so many different families' thing to try to separate them by family name too, so I won't. Part of my organizing effort will include labeling them on the back with a very soft pencil (#1). If you must erase, try to use one of the white erasers (not rubber, which one source said had chemicals which may damage the photos).
Here's some of the stuff I anticipate needing (without seeing the photo collection recently). I will probably want to shop around to make sure I'm getting the best deal--maybe the sources have grown in the recent past?
This box is an example of a product that has passed PAT, and would be suitable for storing your photos. Anyway, I will likely get some of these albums (an economical solution--about 2 times the cost of a normal 3-ring binder in a B&M store). Although the kind that are also enclosed on the sides would keep dust and light out much better. These gloves for handling the photographs will be used EVERY time I handle them, although if they are in clear protectors I shouldn't NEED to handle them. Some pages for the binder. And some plastic envelopes. Paper may be a better option for things that are not going to be viewed, as they can absorb some of the chemicals that may be off-gassed by the photos themselves.
After I get the photos from that box taken care of I have retarded the decaying of the photos, and can then consider what, if anything, should be restored. What should be scanned (and can safely be scanned) and how should this be done? Then I need to figure out what to do with those more modern color photos (especially in magnetic albums!)--all things I'll try to cover in subsequent diaries as I figure out what I'm doing!
Please consider hosting an open thread--it's easy!
Upcoming schedule for open thread hosts:
may 20 - figbash
may 27 - chun yang
june 3 - hayden
june 10 - (I'M VOLUNTEERING! if still available)
june 17 -
june 24 -
And don't forget about NFTT.