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Topic: **CONSERVATION ADVICE - check here for FAQs** (Read 625 times)
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PrueM
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Hi Sharron 
Sunshine will help with paper, too, but as you say, not really with photographs (unless you want them fried  )
Separating them out and laying them on a clean sheet or some clean butcher's paper etc. and putting them on a table or in a room with good air circulation is one possible solution. I don't mean a stiff breeze should be coming through the window, but somewhere with gentle air movement. You could put a fan on low and oscillate it around the room. This will help to dry out whatever dampness there is in the photos.
I've also had success placing photos, books, papers etc. into a sealed plastic container along with a sachet of bicarb soda. Pour some bicarb into a gauze pocket (I make mine out of wide gauze bandages, stitch up the sides and tie with string) - you want a good handful - and place it at one end of the container. Put some photos up the other end - you will need to interleave them with some clean paper, and have them quite 'loose' if you know what I mean, to allow air to get in around them. Leave them sealed up in the container for a week or so, then replace the bicarb and leave for another week. Hopefully alot of the smell should have gone.
I hope this helps - let me know how you get on!
Prue
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Paper and Photograph Conservator
I live in NSW, and am researching:
BALFOUR (Derry) BIGG (Kent) BONSALL (DBY, NTT, CHS) BRISBANE (Fife) DANKS (STS) DOBSON (BRK) FRANCIS (ESS) GOODE (HAM) HAYNES (Cork) INGRAM (MDX, SOM) LANGWORTHY (Jersey, DEV) MCKAY (Fife, Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, Inverness) MORRISH (LND) NANCARROW (CON) OGILVIE (Moray, LND) STRATHDEE (Banff) SWAN (Fife) WOOD (LND)
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PrueM
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Forgot to answer your question about the curling 
Once you have dealt with the mustiness, place the photos into an album (there should be details about albums somewhere back in this thread). Once they have come to equilibrium with the environment in your home or wherever you store them, the curling should decrease.
Prue
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Paper and Photograph Conservator
I live in NSW, and am researching:
BALFOUR (Derry) BIGG (Kent) BONSALL (DBY, NTT, CHS) BRISBANE (Fife) DANKS (STS) DOBSON (BRK) FRANCIS (ESS) GOODE (HAM) HAYNES (Cork) INGRAM (MDX, SOM) LANGWORTHY (Jersey, DEV) MCKAY (Fife, Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, Inverness) MORRISH (LND) NANCARROW (CON) OGILVIE (Moray, LND) STRATHDEE (Banff) SWAN (Fife) WOOD (LND)
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Brambletye
Restricted User
RootsChat Senior
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Posts: 387
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Major caveat about laminating photos - always keep at least one copy that is not laminated. If you are unlucky enough to lose or damage the original as well as any scanned file on your computer, it will be an absolute pig to rescan from the laminated copy - you'll get flare from the scanner light beam hitting the glossy surface.
If you have a monochrome photo, and you notice any small spots appearing on the surface, get a good quality copy made as soon as possible - these might not be mould. I had one where the print hadn't been fixed properly, and the image gradually broke up, luckily I had the neg. - and I have one with shiny areas which I believe are something to do with the use of silver halide in the developing process. This one doesn't seem to be corrupting, but I'm not taking any chances...
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Brambletye
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Comment on the caveat. Never, never, never laminate original anything!
That's what this thread is all about, conserving your precious photos and documents. Laminating is for copies only.
Cheers,
Leonie.
I have never perpetrated this sin myself, but I know someone who did, and the results were tragic - not only could the image not be rescanned successfully, but the chemicals or glues in the laminate started to act on the image, which began to "bleed" into it. The only cure was to get a pro. photographer as fast as poss., to stick it on a rostrum camera with an anti-reflective screen and retouch the result, but the copy was never going to be as good the original, no matter how hard he tried.
The photo this happened to was an original b/w photo print, and I'm backing up Leonie's warning with another horror story - it's not just cold or hot laminating machines that can destroy your stuff. Whatever you do don't use the self-adhesive peel-offs either (Transpaseal and the like) as they will absorb the dyes from printed matter of all kinds as effectively as the other sort.
I'm probably stating the blindingly obvious here, but if you have anything so precious it would just about be the end of the world if you lost it, scan it at the highest possible res. you can manage - you can archive that one (offsite backup too) and resample a copy downwards for everyday use.
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Jaag
RootsChat Extra
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Posts: 5
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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I have just discovered that my wedding photographs (1970s, presented in an album behind plastic sheets, not glued type) is deteriorating. The plastic is becoming brittle and going liquid and marking the b/w and colour prints. What should I do?
Help!!!!
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PrueM
Moderator
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Hi Jaag 
So the plastic sheets are deteriorating? Sounds like it's PVC and it's in its death throes! You must get those photos out of the album and away from the plastic. OR...get the plastic out of the album, if it's possible to do that, even just by cutting them out at the spine.
If you have plastic residue on your photos, you will need to find a photograph conservator to remove it for you. Where in the world do you live - depending on this I'll recommend a site where you can look up conservators in your area?
Once your photographs are safe, I would recommend having digital copies made, and stored on hard disk and CD in TIFF format.
If you would like more info about any of this, please let me know. There's a new topic on the Photo Restoration board with links to various threads on Rootschat about conservation matters...some of them might be useful:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,286501.0.html
Prue
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Logged
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Paper and Photograph Conservator
I live in NSW, and am researching:
BALFOUR (Derry) BIGG (Kent) BONSALL (DBY, NTT, CHS) BRISBANE (Fife) DANKS (STS) DOBSON (BRK) FRANCIS (ESS) GOODE (HAM) HAYNES (Cork) INGRAM (MDX, SOM) LANGWORTHY (Jersey, DEV) MCKAY (Fife, Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, Inverness) MORRISH (LND) NANCARROW (CON) OGILVIE (Moray, LND) STRATHDEE (Banff) SWAN (Fife) WOOD (LND)
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Jaag
RootsChat Extra
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Posts: 5
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Hello Prue,
Yes, the plastic is deteriorating. We have removed the photographs and wiped them down with paper towels, but I think there is still once-liquid residue left on them. I am still concerned about this being left on the photographs.
We have scanned them (colour, 600dpi, TIF - same as TIFF?), just on hard drive at the moment.
We live in Townsville, North Queensland, AUS.
Thanks.
Regards
Jeff
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PrueM
Moderator
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Posts: 5858
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Hi Geoff,
Be very careful about wiping the surfaces of photographs with anything...you could damage or remove the emulsion.
If you follow this link:
http://www.aiccm.org.au/public/content/ViewCategory.aspx?id=5
...you will be able to download a list of conservators who undertake freelance work. There is a separate list for each state/territory.
Let me know if you need any more help or information
Prue
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Logged
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Paper and Photograph Conservator
I live in NSW, and am researching:
BALFOUR (Derry) BIGG (Kent) BONSALL (DBY, NTT, CHS) BRISBANE (Fife) DANKS (STS) DOBSON (BRK) FRANCIS (ESS) GOODE (HAM) HAYNES (Cork) INGRAM (MDX, SOM) LANGWORTHY (Jersey, DEV) MCKAY (Fife, Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, Inverness) MORRISH (LND) NANCARROW (CON) OGILVIE (Moray, LND) STRATHDEE (Banff) SWAN (Fife) WOOD (LND)
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PrueM
Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Offline
Posts: 5858
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Preservation and Conservation advice:
http://amol.org.au/recollections/
http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/rkpubs/advices/index.html
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/genpub/
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Logged
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Paper and Photograph Conservator
I live in NSW, and am researching:
BALFOUR (Derry) BIGG (Kent) BONSALL (DBY, NTT, CHS) BRISBANE (Fife) DANKS (STS) DOBSON (BRK) FRANCIS (ESS) GOODE (HAM) HAYNES (Cork) INGRAM (MDX, SOM) LANGWORTHY (Jersey, DEV) MCKAY (Fife, Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, Inverness) MORRISH (LND) NANCARROW (CON) OGILVIE (Moray, LND) STRATHDEE (Banff) SWAN (Fife) WOOD (LND)
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