At some time your wedding photo album, scrapbook or special collection may be showing symptoms of deterioration from age, exposure to changes in temperature, humidity, sunlight, water or fire damaging your family photos.
So what can we do to Preserve our family photos or documents ?
To preserve photos first we must consider our means of storage. Albums, storage containers, envelopes must all be archival and acid free. When possible, you need to keep all paper documents or photos in an acid-free, humidity-controlled environment away from excessive light, heat, humidity, acids from papers, plastics, and adhesives, pollution, and pests. For storing and preserving your documents or certificates you can use acid-free folders, and keep them in an acid-free box. Or you could place your documents in archival safe plastic sleeves in an album or binder. NEVER STORE THEM IN THE ATTIC OR BASEMENT. because extreme temperature and humidity changes can cause rapid deterioration accelerating the aging process . Store your items in a room that is with stable temperature and humidity.
Some plastic enclosures are safe if they are made of polyester, polypropylene, or polyethylene. Other plastics that are not chemically stable can release acids over time like PVC (polyvinylchloride) commonly found in store-bought binders which emits hydrochloric acid over time. Acid-free paper that is buffered will also counteract the formation of more acids in the future.
If you have a news print you would like to preserve, newspapers are made of highly acidic paper and deteriorate very fast, a good practice is to scan the information you want from them and digitally print it on acid free paper using archival inks. If you want to frame it you should frame the acid-free copy with acid free matting. have it framed with UV-protection glass at a Custom Framing shop. For storing Documents or photos in albums dont be fooled some photo albums in scrapbooking stores or other store-bought albums with static magnetic type pages because these are highly acidic and dangerous to photos they are not acid free or archival I have seen this problem in many stores that sell photo albums.
Find a safe storage location in the event of a flood, fire, or other disaster. the worst place to store them is the basement for a disaster waiting Store negatives and prints in separate locations to decrease the possibility of an image being destroyed forever. Keep pictures away from fire places, off the floor.
Do not use adhesive tapes to repair torn or damaged photographs. Do not clean photos with water- or solvent-based cleaners. Improper cleaning will cause serious abrasions or staining.
When the enviroment is High in humidity, do not let photographs or negatives come into contact with glass or other materials This can be a difficult problem to solve if not removed quickly. High humidity areas can cause mold or fungi development.
Old brittle certificates or documents that have been rolled up for many years can be restored but need moisture added. Placing your document in a high humid environment for several hours should make it more flexible, a good test for humidity is to have some birch bark in the environment you will see that when it is humid it will lie flat but when it is a dry environment it will curl so when you see that the humidity is at a good level you can carefully unroll and flatten it do not proceed if it resists or begins to crack or tear. You could then flatten it by placing the document between two pieces of blotting paper, with a heavy object on top for a few days.
One of the best ways to protect your photo collection is to have Brians Gallery a photo restoration archiving service to create digital copies.
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