Pictures Questions

[DiGilio]

I have some pictures (mainly 3 1/2 by 3 1/2" Kodak) from the 1960s and very early 70s that were not stored the greatest. Someone removed them from and album and I dont know where they were kept after that but it obviously wasnt the best place since some are damaged. They edges all sort of slightly curled up a bit. I was wondering if there is any way to flatten them out again without causing any more damage. What causes this to happen and is there any way to prevent it.

[Tom @ Snake River]

I have some pictures (mainly 3 1/2 by 3 1/2" Kodak) from the 1960s and very early 70s that were not stored the greatest. Someone removed them from and album and I dont know where they were kept after that but it obviously wasnt the best place since some are damaged. They edges all sort of slightly curled up a bit. I was wondering if there is any way to flatten them out again without causing any more damage. What causes this to happen and is there any way to prevent it.

 

Here at the local archive, they place old photos in plastic sleeves. However if you purchase an album, go to a quality store that knows what they are doing, to sell you something of archival quality. Some album types can actually be detrimental to the photos.

[itsybitsy]

This is how I recommend storing pictures, many picture framing stores sell archival quality 4 ply uncut mat boards which can be cut down and made into image folders. I highly recommend this. It provides a nice stiff folder to prevent bending and the technology behind true archival boards is astounding. It actually has pockets in it designed to trap harmful gases and keep them away from your artifacts/artworks. A good 32 X 40 should cost around 15-20 dollars if not more. Ask for archival mat board, Acid free is not the same as archival, you need archival quality materials.

 

-Sarah

[srossio]

I place my snap shots in individual Mylar sleeves I have ordered from GAYLORD BROTHERS. Just place Gaylord Brothers in your search engine, click on the Archival tab at the top. Click on the Archival Photo Storage button and choose Envelopes, Folders, Pages and Sleeves. This will give you a wide selection. I always go with the Self-locking top fold 3mil melinex which runs between $12.00 to $45.00 per pkg of 50. I know that is not cheap but I like the clarity of the sleeves, the ease of placing the material inside and the fact that I can now handle my images without touching them. You can even scan through the sleeves if you desire. The sleeves will also help to keep your images some-what flat. (NOTE-there are also many other sleeve choices available on their web-site for less) I will then place the images in archival manila file folders (also ordered from Gaylord) which I label with the photographs information, etc. The folders are also great if you have other material to place with the images such as print-outs off the internet, etc. or if there are multiple images. These are then arranged in a file cabinet by subject matter. I try to keep the subject headings very general with such things as Army, Navy, Air Corps/Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Home Front, etc.

 

As a side project I am copying all of the images and placing the copies in a binder with a reference number corresponding to the matching folder for quick reference. This prevents me from having to go back through each and every folder to find images I need for displays, further research, etc.

 

As for the curl of the images, I would have to see a picture of them to determine what the problem is. It could be as simple as a lack of humidity causing the images to curl or it could be something happening to the image itself.

 

Here is their website.

http://www.gaylord.com/

 

Good luck and have fun.

 

Steve

 

JUST ONE QUICK NOTE FOR CLARITY...These are sleeves which means you can place the image in and take it out again. For anyone reading this who may not know this...please do not laminate the images (or documents). It will ruin them...and could eventually destroy them. I always recommend adhering to the archival credo "DON'T DO ANYTHING TO AN ITEM THAT CANNOT BE UNDONE IN THE FUTURE!"

[DiGilio]

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

 

Here are the pictures I mainly made the thread about. These are about 40 pictures taken by a soldier in the 101st Airborne Divion in Vietnam 1971. Someone took them out of a sticky album and they are now curled up and some damaged. I have other small groups of VN photos like this without albums that are slightly curled but this is the worst. They are a little more curled than they look in the pictures.

 

[thefallenbuddha]

Both Staples and Office Depot sell archival museum quality plastic sleeve pages for keeping photos. They are all one page in size, but come in different variations for holding 4 or 3 or 2 photos on each page. A dozen such pages can be purchased for about $3.00. This is what I use for keeping all my ARVN photos.

[srossio]

From the pics you have included of your pics...it looks like the curl could be due to the climate. I have seen images lay perfectly flat in humid weather only to curl into a tube during extremely dry weather (I should note that the images were not mine, but part of an experiment at the university). I have also seen images go through this phase when they are removed from a photo album which upsets the stable climate they were used to for 10,20 or 30 plus years. Placing them into a sleeve will help somewhat. I find that if I have a badly curled image, I will place into a photo sleeve with a piece of acid free card stock. The card stock gives some support to the image and helps to eventually bring back the flatness. I may also weight the image but usually the card stock works. Remember use only "acid free card stock." Anything else can react with the image causing damage.

 

By the way, your images don't look in that bad of condition!

 

Steve

[DiGilio]

Thanks for the info again. I plan on putting all my photos that dont have an album into somewhat rigid plastic photo archive sleeves. I have hundreds of photos like the ones I showed (although most in better condition) that dont have an album and I want to keep them as safe as possible.

 

I have one more question. What about military newspapers from the 1960s and 1970s? I have rare ones made especially for Vietnam troops and units along with more common ones that I would hate to see fall apart and become garbage. Its already happened to civilian ones from that time I had in my house (they were basicly thrown in a closet and attic though so I can see why they fell apart). What would be the best way to store those?

[Shenkursk]

I always recommend adhering to the archival credo "DON'T DO ANYTHING TO AN ITEM THAT CANNOT BE UNDONE IN THE FUTURE!"

 

Amen brother! Great advice here and in the other replies. I can only add one thing. Many chromogenic color photos from this time period use organic dyes that are simply going to fade away, no matter how well we store them. Proper storage can slow this process, but nothing can reverse it. (No, not even Pecard's...) Therefore, one of the best things that you can do in addition to good storage is to shoot good digital copystand images or make color scans of images that you believe should be preserved. Folks with large collections of significant 20th Century color images have been doing this for a while now - the trick is to keep up with modern data storage and make sure that you are not left with images on media that can no longer be accessed by the current technology. Years from now these physical images may have faded into obscurity, but if we act as good custodians the information that they contain will live on for many generations to come.

 

As for the newspapers, same thing goes. 20th century newsprint is typically highly acidic, and will be easily outlived by higher quality rag paper products from the century before it. You can slow this process by storing newsprint in alkali reserve tissue, as the PH will tend to balance out through acid migration to the less acidic material. If something is truly significant, some archives use a variety of of 'deacidification' treatments and techniques, but for most papers that we have in our collections this would be something of an extreme use of resources best allocated to more viable preservation projects. Think of it as a 'relic death panel' decision. If you have something you feel very strongly about preserving, contact a university with a good archives and see what they have to say about it. More often than not the only real value is in the information itself, and that is preserved through making copies. The big "VICTORY IN EUROPE" newspapers that everyone seemed to save are really not unique and would not be anywhere near worth the kind of effort and expense that it would take to significantly slow their decay. There are exceptions, though - scarce unit newspapers, etc. that may be quite a different story. At the very least, the unit newspapers that you describe may merit the relatively simple and inexpensive step of storage in alkali reserve paper.

 

Good luck!