Need help with 100+ year old photos About This Page:

[kimberlym322]

I was sent a photo album that belong to my great great aunt, how she got it I dont know. She passed away 2 years ago and her kids went through it and took out the photos that were known who they were and easyley removed. They were going to just toss the album and other photos in the album, however my grandmother saved it for me. Because the book is so old photos are stuck on the pages, to each other, and when the idiot kids pulled the photos they wanted did not take care with the others so there is paper covering some of the photos (stuck to them is more like it). Photos of family members mean the world to me...is there any hope to save the photos?? If so how do I save them???? someone once told me that I could put them in the freezer and that would take the wetness out of them and would be able to remove them, can you do that??? I dont want to lose our family history that is over 100 (really almost 200 years (one photo was dated 1816)) years old.

Thank you for any and all help anyone can give me.

[Cam22]

I've never had experience with old pictures that have been damaged this way. But back in 2000 when the school where I teach was hit by a tornado, the stuff in my classroom sustained heavy water damage. Teaching materials and new photos (I was yearbook sponsor at the time) were sent off by our insurance company to be freeze dried. Most of it was salvageable, but the paper did get crinkly. For the photos once they were dry we could scan them and print new copies. I'm not sure about doing it yourself as we had a company in Chicago that took care of all of it for us. Maybe you could try a single photo first to see what happens.

[oldmom]

The company had special equipment for doing the freeze drying. I would find a professional restoration for help with this one.

[LizardCop]

As old as these are, I wouldn't recommend trying it on your own....

[A & J's Dad]

Ditto taking it to the pros. I found a list of restoration folks in MD. I can't vouch for any of them, but it's a start. Maryland Photo Restoration and Repair - Maryland Photo Retouching

Good Luck
Craig

[Pax]

Definitely, get it doen professionally.

Those photos are ABSOLUTELY IRREPLACABLE, make no mistake about that. And as old as they are, even if you don't know WHO they're pictures of ... you know what? They're history, and if you can afford it, they deserve to be conserved and preserved, just for their own sake.

Good luck!