Storing old photos

[Chris L]

My mother-in-law came over today with some things she'd been left in a will.

There were several items of memorabilia from a relative that was an observer in 149 squadron during WWI and the following occupancy of Germany.

There were some medals, his commission, a notebook listing the details of his postings and missions flown during 1918. There was also a small photo album with lots of roughly 3"x1 1/2" prints, mostly of individual portraits of various uniformed people and some shots of their planes including a couple of interesting attempts at landing their planes!

There were also three large prints (11" on the long side for 2 and a ~16" panoramic). The pano showed what seemed to be all the pilots of 149 squadron in 1918 posing in a fairly formal shot of two rows. The others showed the bombs waiting to be loaded onto the bombers and the armoury which showed a couple of guys surrounded by *loads* of handguns.

Anyway...the point of the post The three large prints all had a silvery reflection to them when held at an angle to the light. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to look after these images to ensure they don't deteriorate? Is it good enough to simply keep them out of the light?

We're currently trying to find organisations that may be interested in the items to ensure others can see them too.

 

[s162216]

I would probably get a preservation expert to look at them, a lot of old photo albums are made of acidic paper which can slowly degrade the prints over time. Its probably best to get them remounted on modern non-acidic paper.

Keep them in a cool, dark place and consider getting them professionally scanned, that way theres a copy of them which can be printed again should anything happen to them and will guarantee their survival should they degrade too far. (Assuming of course you can keep the scans safe as well!)

 

[CT]

Definitely get them copied asap. The silvery reflective surface sounds like chemical degradation of the emulsion which is just going to continue once started unless you want to go to the lengths of enquiring about specialist treatment.

The things which cause damage to prints are the obvious things like shoving them loosely in a drawer where the emulsion gets cracked and the damage sets in. Once cracks appear airborne pollutants work their way under the emulsion and deterioration is inevitable.

Daylight is the other big killer of prints, or the ultra violet part of daylight to be more accurate. If they're framed and hung on a wall which doesn't get direct sunlight they'll be fine if the back of the frame is properly sealed against the ingress of dust and other pollutants.

Your safest bet is to store them flat in a drawer or cupboard well away from light, but I'd make copying them your first priority.

 

[Chris L]

Thanks for the great advice guys. We noticed that one of the small prints had already faded completely. TBH, she's been storing all the images in a black bag on top of a wardrobe so they are definitely out of the light with nothing on top.

We're going to contact the RAF museum to see if they would like the images etc.

 

[Alastair]

You could also ask on the Airfield Information Exchange (AIx) forum.. if Hendon are not interested I am sure that they would be.