A quiet autumn evening is a good opportunity to sort a family album. That need not mean transferring every old photograph into a new one. A small index, a better storage place and leaving fragile or stuck prints alone may be the more useful outcome. These suggestions concern ordinary photographic prints and albums, not glass plates, specialist negatives or digital files.
Prepare a clean workspace
Choose a dry table away from drinks and food. Work through a small group at a time rather than spreading out the entire family archive. Hold photographs by their edges with clean hands and avoid touching the image. Keep a separate sheet for notes: who appears, where the photograph was taken and what date is known.
Separate established information from guesses. “Tartu, probably the 1980s” is more honest than an invented exact year. If a relative supplies a detail, note who provided it. This keeps pictures connected to their stories without adding writing or adhesive labels to the prints themselves.
Label the enclosure, not the image
The Library of Congress recommends marking the enclosure where possible and avoiding adhesives and sticky album pages. Do not attach a sticky note to a photograph or secure a loose corner with ordinary tape. Choose materials whose suitability for photographic storage is clearly specified; the phrase “acid-free” alone does not establish every necessary property.
If an old photograph is stuck to a page, do not peel or soak it off. Discuss fragile or valuable material with a conservator. Organising a collection does not require attempting restoration.
Choose the storage place first
- Keep the album flat in a well-fitting preservation-quality box.
- Choose stable, cool and relatively dry surroundings.
- Avoid radiators, damp storage and large temperature fluctuations.
- Label the box clearly and keep its index accessible separately.
Before filling a second-hand album, check the condition of the pages, the mounting method and any available information about its materials. An attractive cover says little about whether the inside is suitable for long-term storage of original photographs. Do not experiment with important family prints if the materials are unknown. Improving the index and storage location is already a worthwhile project.
Sources: Library of Congress: caring for photographs; preserving albums.