The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #70794 Message #1209099
Posted By: Liz the Squeak
17-Jun-04 - 12:38 AM
Thread Name: BS: Tech: Rescuing old photographs
Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Rescuing old photographs
If you are in the UK, I'd recommend giving the Bradford Museum of Photography & Film a ring. They know everything there is to know about preserving and restoring photos. Go to their site and put 'restoration' in search - you'll get huge amounts of bibliographies and some advice.
For the rolled ones, it's a long and boring process. We had this problem in the museum I worked in, regimental photos that were about 2ft long and had been rolled since WWI! We were told to put them in a safe environment (no damp, no excess heat/humidity, no strong light, no draughts), and carefully, using acid free tissue to protect the surface, to push the rolls out, making them slightly fatter each day. Once they reached a certain stage (fatter than they were wide) and sure they weren't sticking, then we could carefully unroll them from the middle and weigh them down with an inert item - we used linen cloth bags full of rice - so that you unrolled them gently scroll fashion. Move the bags of rice outwards slowly and then when fully unrolled, carefully turn over and flatten out with more tissue protecting and more rice bags. It took ages, but the results were very good. We only lost one photo this way, and that was because some git took his tea into the library (strictly forbidden!!) and it got warm and wet.
The tighter the original roll, the harder it is to unravel. Patience and a very long table you don't use for more than 3 days a year is vital! Oddly enough, it was the more modern ones (1950-1970's) photos we had most trouble with - something about the emulsion that broke down quicker and got decidedly sticky.