Preserving photographs

[Boomn4x4]

Spent the last few days cleaning out my father-in-laws house after his recent passing. My wife and I came across an old photo album that is nothing short of a genological master piece. Not sure why he kept it a secret, but neither my wife or her mother knew it existed. It has no less than 3 generations past my wife worth of photographs in it dating back to at least the 1910's. The photographs themselves are in pretty good shape, and I'd like to keep them that way. The album itself is on its last leg.

Any advice on how to preserve the album and photographs?

 

[ann]

this should get you started
http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=497&parentID=472

 

[flyingember]

low humidity
low light
controlled temperature
don't seal it in plastic perhaps a cloth bag

your best option is to do that as well as create a digital copy of the photos at a high DPI. the core problems comes back that photos do fade depending on the process used and how well they followed it. there's a lot from the 1970s that turn pink for example. I know in HS we pushed photos at deadline sometimes to get all the photos done in time. they lasted long enough so it could be scanned in and used for the yearbook or newspaper. 5 years later they were almost completely faded

 

[pbelarge]

this should get you started
http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=497&parentID=472

Ann
This is an interesting site, thanks.