Flattening old Snapshots

[Wake1941]

Anyone have any tips? I've got quite a pile of marine corp photos, but most are quite curled up.

[Mr.Jerry]

I have done this method myself with a bunch of WWI ones and some for my book I needed to scan

:

Take a baking pan and put a baking cooling rack (cookie rack?) or maybe some screen mesh over it.

Put some distilled water in the bottom of the pan, but only about 1/2 way up to the cooling rack.

Lay out the pictures on the rack so they will uncurl downwards, picture side up.

and I have covered the whole thing with another larger pan to keep the humidity in.

Let them sit in there until they gradually uncurl. Time varies. some did it in hours, some took days.

once you can safely uncurl them you need to get them into a sleeve or album or something to keep them flat as they will dry out again and will curl back up.

be careful NOT to actually get the photos wet or drop them through the slots. You are just using the evaporated humidity from the pan.

 

I am not a museum curator, so this method may not be archival safe but is one way that I found to be able to save and use photos.

[Wake1941]

I have done this method myself with a bunch of WWI ones and some for my book I needed to scan

:

Take a baking pan and put a baking cooling rack (cookie rack?) or maybe some screen mesh over it.

Put some distilled water in the bottom of the pan, but only about 1/2 way up to the cooling rack.

Lay out the pictures on the rack so they will uncurl downwards, picture side up.

and I have covered the whole thing with another larger pan to keep the humidity in.

Let them sit in there until they gradually uncurl. Time varies. some did it in hours, some took days.

once you can safely uncurl them you need to get them into a sleeve or album or something to keep them flat as they will dry out again and will curl back up.

be careful NOT to actually get the photos wet or drop them through the slots. You are just using the evaporated humidity from the pan.

 

I am not a museum curator, so this method may not be archival safe but is one way that I found to be able to save and use photos.

 

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to give that try.

[tdogchristy90]

Wake, this is what archivist recommend. You can find videos in YouTube. Nice job Mr. Jerry.

[Wake1941]

Wake, this is what archivist recommend. You can find videos in YouTube. Nice job Mr. Jerry.

 

 

I've seen a couple videos on youtube, I wasnt sure about using an Iron though. I was just curious if anyone has had luck with any one method.

[tdogchristy90]

Simple water humidity using the bucket/tray method talked about above should do. No iron needed.

[warguy]

I agree, some call it a humidity chamber. I have used this method for old documents as well with a sealed Rubbermaid bin and it worked well. Good luck.