Hello list, I wanted to share my final result with you after many of you gave me ideas on how to uncurl two of my old photos. First I filled a 2 qt. saucepan about 1/3 full of water, placed a wire rack on top of a small jar which I placed in the middle of the pan. I put a layer of acid-free paper over the rack, placed the photos on the acid-free paper, photo side up, and put the lid on the pan. By morning the larger one had uncurled about 90%. The next day I took the photo out and used another piece of acid-free paper as a blotter and soaked up the extra moisture from the photo. That took 4-5 blots. I taped the tear with my acid-free repair tape, and placed the photo in a mylar photo sleeve and placed the sleeve under a light-weight paperback book for about 24 hours. The photo seems to be fine, has retained its flatness after I took it out from under the book. The same was done with the other smaller photo. Both seem to be doing fine. Thanks for all your suggestions. What a wonderful list!! JB Wilson ---------------------- >At a seminar on conservation, I once heard that old curled/rolled photos >could be put into a homemade humidity chamber. Take a 5 gal plastic pail >and put water an inch or so in the bottom. Place a grill or grate above >the water line and then stand the photo the pail and put the on. Check >every few days, it might take a few weeks or maybe even 2 months but we >were told they would unroll. > >One of the articles below explains that the paper and emulsion expand >and contract at different rates-thus the curling. > >Interesting article under 'museums & galleries commission' then >'photographic materials' >http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/genpub/ > >The NARA site says never to force a rolled photo to unroll, as once the >emulsion cracks it will always be cracked. >http://www.nara.gov/arch/faqs/aboutph.html > >The Minnesota Historical Society PDF on photographic materials >http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/genpub/ > >http://aic.stanford.edu/treasure/photos.html > >JB Wilson wrote: > >> Hi again, >> They are curled in. Any suggestions for how to obtain/maintain a 30% >>humidity? >> >> I really appreciate the list and all the suggestions! Thank you all! >> JB Wilson :-) >> > > >==== VINTAGE-PHOTOS Mailing List ==== >We have over 223 members of the Vintage-Photos Mailing List. Posting back >to the list helps the whole group, not just one person. If we work as a >team, >we'll succeed as a team. >To learn more about my world visit http://dwp.bigplanet.com/kburnett > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, >go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JB Wilson, Beaverton, OR, USA "Searching for the Living, Honoring the Dead" <designs@hevanet.com> Researching: Kangas, Eskola, Mattson/Matson, Makkonen, Aho, Runtujärvi, Barnes, Benedict, Crandle/Crandall, Miner, Ufford, Berry & Williams NY/PA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~