How do I remove photos from old scrapbook?

[Vincennes]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to safely remove photos from old scrapbooks? The scrapbook has those black paper pages and the photos are glued in at the corners.

 

I am considering moisening the pages (not very wet) to see if I can then pull the photos off. I do not mind if some of the black page remains on the reverse of the photos thus destroying the album page, but I do not want to damage the photos.

 

Any ideas?

 

Paul

[memphismeister]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to safely remove photos from old scrapbooks? The scrapbook has those black paper pages and the photos are glued in at the corners.

 

I am considering moisening the pages (not very wet) to see if I can then pull the photos off. I do not mind if some of the black page remains on the reverse of the photos thus destroying the album page, but I do not want to damage the photos.

 

Any ideas?

 

Paul

I personaly would leve them be after so many years of being there

[Chukpike]

Safest way would be to try and steam them loose. If it works no damage to either the Photos or the pages. Since its an old photo album and the pictures didn't already come loose, I wouldn't know what they used for glue that would work that well.

[Bluehawk]

Chances are that the glue used originally would probably have been musilage, which IS soluble with water/steam.

 

However, there is every possibility that the photos could have been re-glued back in at some later time, probably with Elmer's Glue-like stuff, or even with contact cement popular for a long time in the 1960-70s - which is a whole different beast.

 

Believe it or not, you can tell if its musilage by tasting it with your tongue. If it gives a hint of "animal", then its definitely musilage.

 

Be very careful if the photos are old because their surface emulsion (the shiney coating), too, will probably be water soluble.

[Abby K-9]

In cases where only the corners were glued, I've had some good results using a fine razor blade and literally separating the photo and page little by little using that. Basically "cutting" the glue. It's very time consuming and you can easily cut the photo if you are not very careful, though.

[Dirk]

I would not remove the pictures unless they were clearly suffering acid damage from the backing paper.