Care of old photographs

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Care and conservation of old photographs cleaning old negatives and glass plates storage books on old photos restoring old photos These notes are simply the accumulation of my 45 years of experience working with pictures. I have no other qualification in this field, so I give no guarantees!
	Photographs are undoubtedly an integral part of the historical record; original prints survive even now from the earliest days of photography over 150 years ago. But that’s not long compared to the imagery that survives in Egyptian tombs and indeed the caves of primitive man. He/she got it right; they used pigments that endured and they knew that even those paints would do better if shielded from direct daylight. Photographs are important historical documents to both your family and more widely the rest of us; the older they are, the more significant in the absence of other visual records.
Today we are making more pictures, capturing more moments than ever before, and this trend will increase especially with the advent of the photo facility in modern mobile phones. We must do better if images of today will be seen in centuries to come. The snaps from the chemist’s shop in the 1980s – only 20 years ago! – are already fading in my family albums; luckily I still have the negatives (I have never thrown a negative away). Electronic storage is fine in terms of the steadfastness of digital quality as long as we have the machines to replay the CD or hard disc or tape or whatever. (Do you still have an 8mm film projector?) Whatever the age, conserve what you have before attempting restoration. Copies of old pictures are just that – copies. While long-life inkjet print copies may last as long as or even longer than a Victorian silver gelatin or other kind of print, your originals deserve respect. Given great care, they can be made to last for many more years.
	Caring for old photographs. As I said earlier, photos are part of the historical record; to me this implies that we must preserve the originals as best we can. They are fragile. If you must handle them at all, then hold photographs, be they transparencies, prints or negatives, only by their edges; on no account touch the surface. Even from clean fingers, natural secretions can damage a photo over time. Preferably wear clean fine cotton gloves. Remove extraneous materials like elastic bands or paper clips. Don't mark the back of your treasured print permanently in any way; if you really must make a temporary identification, write brief information gently with only a very soft 2B or 4B pencil. Don't throw any photos away even if they don't clean up or restore perfectly; they are valuable historical documents and too many are being lost. And of course, the snaps you take today may be your grandchildren's family treasures.
Cleaning old negatives whether film or glass plates Before copying or storing, it helps to clean your old picture, but be very careful. If it were me ... first I would blow loose dust from them – with 'dry' breath or a can of pressurised air. You could brush them with a large but very soft brush, maybe the kind used for water-colour washes or make-up, but take care not to scratch them. Then I would lay them on a flat, soft surface covered with a piece of soft, lint-free cloth. Wipe them very gently with a lint-free cleaning cloth moistened with 'isopropanol', also known as isopropyl alcohol; you should be able to get it from the pharmacy counter at your local chemist. You don't need a large quantity; I had the same 100 ml bottle for years.
	A similar technique applies to prints and transparencies, but with equal caution. Use a clean, soft, lint-free cloth; just wrap the cloth across your index finger or make a small pad and moisten it with the alcohol. Wipe gently to see the effect. It should remove greasy marks and hopefully mildew without softening the emulsion and it will dry quickly. Try one of the least important pictures first to see how it goes, and then just on a small insignificant area. On no account use water or any water-based material on the emulsion side as this will soften the emulsion and spoil the image. More risky is to wipe only the glass side of a plate neg with a water-moistened cloth , but do not get any damp at all on the emulsion side. Don't use water at all on either side of a film/Celluloid negative or transparency. On no account use water or any water-based material on the emulsion side of a paper print either, as this will soften the emulsion and spoil the image.
At all times, handle negatives (and prints) only by their sides, so as not to put finger prints on the surfaces. Finally, when clean and dry, put them in clean, chemically inert polyester bags or sleeves. Store them in a dry atmosphere at normal room temperature. Plate glass negatives should be kept upright on their sides – like they were in those custom made boxes that one can still find in antique shops – so that there is no excess pressure on the thin glass.In fact, to store any kinds or sizes of negatives and prints, I would have a word with the specialists - see below.
	Created with light, photo images are also destroyed by light; hang framed originals in subdued light, certainly away from direct daylight. Preferably display copies and keep your originals in the dark. Relatively dry and clean conditions at a steady room temperature will help; preferably store them away from light and dust, between 10-18 degrees C, humidity 30-50%. Damp promotes mould growth; for mildew spores, paper and gelatine are food. Prints should be kept flat, perhaps between sheets of acid free paper, or in specially made sleeves. Specialist suppliers provide sleeves made from inert polyester film, in all manner of formats for archival purposes, plus the containers in which to store them and protect them from light and so on – see below. Keep negatives and prints in different places in case of fire or flood. Having secured your precious original, then you can think about restoring the image it holds.
Equally important of course is to preserve today's images for our descendants. If you are using a digital camera, think very carefully about the long term storage of those files. Have you transferred them from the camera to a computer? What if your hard disc crashes? Or if you change your computer? What might future formats be?! Do back-up your images onto archival quality DVD and/or CD in cross-platform format. Also I advise making and putting away prints, made with pigment inks on archival quality paper. Other precautions mentioned above still apply.
	A very wide range of museum and archive-standard materials for storing photographic negatives, slides and prints - and other valuable records - is available from: Secol Ltd Norfolk, England tel +44 (0) 1842 752 341 Conservation By Design Bedford, England tel +44 (0) 1234 853555 If you really want to have restoration work done directly on an original print, or any another old document for that matter, you may wish to consult a professional conservator like Muriel Ebert-Gomes London SE15 Tel: +44 20 7252 8841 Philippa Ellison Oxfordshire, England +44 (0)1865 514670 Or contact The Institute of Conservation In the USA, try the Northeast Document Conservation Center or The Midwest Art Conservation Center Ask your picture framer about soda lime or conservation grade glass which claims 99% protection against damaging ultraviolet rays. To protect your picture further, consider the use of conservation grade mounting board such as that from Nielsen Bainbridge Artcare
Helpful and interesting books Understanding old photographs Dating old photographs Looking at old photographs They are available from: Federation of Family History Societies (Publications) Ltd. 2-4 Killer Street, Ramsbottom, Bury, Lancs, England BL0 9BZ tel +44 (0) 1706 824 254 The Permanence and Care of Color Photographs: Traditional and Digital Color Prints, Color Negatives, Slides, and Motion Pictures by Henry Wilhelm. A free but large download from Wilhelm Imaging Research Other titles to look out for include: Collecting & preserving old photographs, Elisabeth Martin, Collins, 1988 Caring for your family photographs at home, Audrey Linkman, 1991 To find them, try abebooks.co.uk The excellent BBC History website has material on old family photographs. Other links: Copying and preserving photos Preserving Old Documents Dating old photos The Genealogist's Internet lots of useful genealogy-related stuff at http://www.cyndislist.com
	You can of course use digital scans of your family photos in family history applications like Reunion by Leister; their product is for Apple Macs. For Reunion in the UK and software for PCs, try S&N (genealogy suppliers). Printing out the files from such software or publishing them on the Internet as PDFs are other ways of disemminating your historical information while hanging on to your originals.
copyright © Colin Robinson 2008 You may well know more about caring for old photos than I do. If you have anything to tell me, then please email me or telephone +44 (0) 1869 338 272 While you're here, please visit my gallery Back to the top of this page restoration \| care of old photos \| care of fine art Home \| Gallery \| Shows \| Site map \| search \| About me \| Links	Today's snaps are tomorrow's historical documents. Cheers lads!