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Looking after family photos for future generations to enjoy
It's the job we all put off for that fabled "rainy day" – organising our old photographs. But whether you've got recent snaps or some from generations ago, it is important to ensure your precious memories are safely stored
It's the job we all put off for that fabled "rainy day" – organising our old photographs. But whether you've got recent snaps or some from generations ago, it is important to ensure your precious memories are safely storedAhead of special workshops aimed at teaching participants to do just that, Hannah Gray gets some tips:
AT THE back of a cupboard somewhere in your house, chances are there is a dusty box that an elderly relative gave you years ago and you've never touched.
Crammed with photographs and maybe even letters, you know it's a worthy project to put them in some sort of order, but you don't know how.
Well, now the staff at the local studies and archive section of Peterborough Central Library are here to help.
On Wednesday, July 1, there will be two workshops running on how to preserve memorabilia both old and more recent.
The two workshops will be identical, with the first part given by library staff from and focusing on photographs from previous generations, and a second part given by Creative Memories consultant Julie Peake on recent family photographs.
To help illustrate her points during the first part of the workshops, city council archivist Anna Sexton will be sharing photographs and images from her own family.
Her collection was handed to her by her dad, and is currently housed in a frail card box. The items are in no particular order, and at the moment run the risk of decaying or being damaged.
She said this kind of collection is very similar to what people all across the city may have at home.
"People might have one of these stuffed under their bed or in a wardrobe somewhere," Anna said. "When it's like this, it's difficult for the collection to have much meaning, because it's all in a muddle.
"It's important for these things to be stored properly to stop them deteriorating quicker than they should."
The workshops have come about because of a demand from the library's users.
"People continually ask us, because they know we're all about preserving the past so they ask 'what can I do to preserve my own collections?'," Anna said.
"The principles are exactly the same, so they'll basically be doing the job that we do when we get a collection into the archives."
Anna said when you are about to tackle a project like this, the first thing to do is get your collection in some kind of order, which generally means date order.
Before you go on to store your photographs, now is the time to decide whether or not you want to make digital copies.
"We always suggest that people do, because they can then get the digital ones out to show people and keep the originals safe," Anna said.
"People sometimes worry that putting a photograph on the scanner is going to damage it, but research has been done to show that it's the same damage as having it in the sun for an hour, so it's very little damage."
Once you have decided on an order, the next stage is to package the photographs. Ensuring the wellbeing of your photographs is not quite as simple as popping them in an album, as many have special requirements.Old black and white photographs contain silver crystals and these can react with chemicals found in some materials, and being to fade or turn all brown – eventually deteriorating to the extent that no detail can be made out.
Anna said: "If you put them in the standard polypockets that you put other papers in in an office, this would actually cause deterioration to the photographs, because the plastic in those has chemicals in it which would damage the silver in the pictures.
"You also need to be careful with glue and sellotape."
Although photographs no longer contain silver particles, these rules apply equally to your more recent pictures.
For the old photographs, Anna and her team recommend using clear polyester pockets, which are "silver safe". These have the added bonus of being stiff, so they help to the make the often frail old pictures more sturdy.
At the workshops, Anna and her team will be able to give participants tips on where to buy the right kinds of materials.
If a photograph is stored in the wrong kind of packaging, the results can be terrible.
"It goes the classic sepia brown first, or in really extreme examples, it would be really brown, really discoloured and so faded that you can't actually see the image any more," Anna said.
Anna pointed out that, although we associate sepia tones with old photographs, the brown shading is actually a sign of the photograph's deterioration. Some decline in the photograph's condition and quality is inevitable, but can be slowed down, Anna said.
"All photographs deteriorate over time, but by packing properly you're going to slow that process down and stop it going to the extremes," she said.
Once the photographs are safely stored in the polyester wallets, Anna advises sticking small labels onto the packaging to number them, and then writing a list of what all the photographs are of.
"Having meaning is really important. If you don't know the story, try to find out from your family," Anna said. "Talk to people who might still have an idea of what it is and get it written down because giving your photographs meaning adds real sentimental value to them."
One important tip Anna had is not to keep putting off picking relatives' brains about who is in the photographs.
"If you put it off too long then you may miss your chance," she said.
Often people's memorabilia consists of more than just photographs, and the workshops will also tell participants how to care for items such as letters and telegrams.
Anna said: "Letters are more forgiving than photographs, because they're not as chemically unstable. With letters, you've got more of a choice over your packing, you can put them in the polyester or you can use things like archive-quality envelopes that are acid-free and don't contain nasty chemicals."The workshops will focus on storing your photographs and letters safely in boxes, as that is how it is done at the library to save costs and also space. But you can treat your older photographs as you would your more recent snaps, and display them in an album.
"You can get specialist albums that are made using photo-safe materials. They tend to work out more expensive than the way we do it here," Anna said. "People have a choice, they can use a really nice archive quality album if they want."
Whatever you decide to do with your photographs, it is important to think about where you will store them once you've sorted, labelled and packaged them.
"For photographs, you need to think cool and dry, away from light and the big thing is avoid temperature fluctuations. So your attic is a big no-no, as is a shed or garage," Anna said.
"Photographs like it on the cool side, if you can get a temperature below 20C and relatively stable, then that's ideal.
"Ideally, if you've got a big cupboard that isn't on an external wall, that's great. If you want to be really safe, put them in a metal box, because that will survive a fire much better than a cardboard box.
"Then it's a case of if you've got negatives and digital copies, store them in another room. If you want to be really safe, take them to another building."
If all this sounds like a lot of work, Anna has some words of reassurance – it can actually be highly enjoyable.
"This box I've got is so exciting. When my dad gave it to me it was like 'wow, what's this?'," she said. "When you start going through it you learn so much about your family that you don't learn if you're doing a family tree and just working out names and dates.
"You learn about the actual people and that makes it more personal. It's definitely a fun thing to do and it doesn't have to be a chore, it can be interesting."How to book your place on course
The workshops will run twice on Wednesday, 1st July.
They will be divided into two practical sessions.
The first, run by the Local Studies and Archives team, will use real examples from the archive service's collections to give practical advice on how to package and store precious or fragile material properly.
The second session, run by Creative Memories consultant Julie Peake, explains how to care for recent family snaps.
Participants need to bring four to six current family photographs so that they can make an example album page as the first step in creating archive quality photograph albums that will give pleasure to generations to come.
The sessions will be equally useful to collectors of old memorabilia and anyone who has precious or fragile papers that they want to preserve.
The preservation workshops are taking place in the L P Hartley Room at Peterborough Central Library from 9.15am to 12.15pm and then repeated from 1pm to 4pm.
Participants must book either a morning or afternoon place by calling 01733 864159. Each workshop costs 3, payable on the day.
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