I saw your posting and asked the Conservator at work (National Geographic Society) if she could offer any advice. Here's her response: ================= Subject: Re: old photos The chemicals that are used to get rid of mold are highly toxic, and only used by professional conservators. The treatments can be long and costly, but if your friend wants a list of photograph conservators in her area she can email me or log on to the AIC website at aic.stanford.edu. http://aic.stanford.edu/ ================= The website looks informative. Good luck. Liisa Maurer ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paula" <roots-researcher@home.com> To: <WVHAMPSH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 3:26 AM Subject: [WVHAMPSH-L] OLD Photos mildewed, HELP! > This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > --------------B6D849A960C710BAB88BC4EF > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > I found a lot of old photos among my grandmother's things after she > passed away. Unfortunately, what I did know is that moisture had > apparently gotten into the pictures. Now the photos, some of which > predate the civil war, are starting to disappear before my eyes, so to > speak, in that they are slowly but surely being covered by a > blackish-green substance that I assume is some kind of algae. > > A few of the pictures are too far gone to rescue. I have scanned all > the pictures now (just finished moments ago...geez, what a huge > project), but would dearly like to be able to save the originals. I am > aware of archival safe materials (pens, papers, special sheet > protectors), and acid-free pens. Unfortunately, many years ago my > grandmother didn't know about archival safe pens, so she wrote on the > back of the pictures with ball point pen so I would know who the people > were. Of course, I'm very glad she did that, but at the same time I > wonder if the ball point pen has contributed the slow demise the > photos. In addition, because I wasn't aware the algae-like substance > was on some of the photos (it was in a tiny area and hard to detect), I > separated the "good" from the "bad" pictures. Obviously, I missed some > "bad" ones and now others are started to go. I'm so sick about it I > could cry. > > I know they have a spray that you can buy to help remove acidity from > photos/papers. But what in the world do they do if algae/mildew has > formed. Would having them sealed in an airtight bag help? I've called > a couple photograph stores here in town, but no one has really been able > to give me much information. I figure there must be someone out there > who has come up against this and would have an answer. If I don't act > quickly, I could lose all the photos. > > I apologize for cross posting, but wanted to get the question out to > everyone. This are my "family" email groups and I appreciate any help > anyone can give me. Thanks so very much. > > Paula

Thank you so very much. I will email her. I really appreciate you going the extra mile. :) Paula E Maurer wrote: > > I saw your posting and asked the Conservator at work (National Geographic > Society) if she could offer any advice. Here's her response: > > ================= > Subject: Re: old photos > > The chemicals that are used to get rid of mold are highly toxic, and only > used > by professional conservators. The treatments can be long and costly, but if > your > friend wants a list of photograph conservators in her area she can email me > or > log on to the AIC website at aic.stanford.edu. http://aic.stanford.edu/ > ================= > > The website looks informative. Good luck. > > Liisa Maurer > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Paula" <roots-researcher@home.com> > To: <WVHAMPSH-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 3:26 AM > Subject: [WVHAMPSH-L] OLD Photos mildewed, HELP! > > > This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > > --------------B6D849A960C710BAB88BC4EF > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > > > I found a lot of old photos among my grandmother's things after she > > passed away. Unfortunately, what I did know is that moisture had > > apparently gotten into the pictures. Now the photos, some of which > > predate the civil war, are starting to disappear before my eyes, so to > > speak, in that they are slowly but surely being covered by a > > blackish-green substance that I assume is some kind of algae. > > > > A few of the pictures are too far gone to rescue. I have scanned all > > the pictures now (just finished moments ago...geez, what a huge > > project), but would dearly like to be able to save the originals. I am > > aware of archival safe materials (pens, papers, special sheet > > protectors), and acid-free pens. Unfortunately, many years ago my > > grandmother didn't know about archival safe pens, so she wrote on the > > back of the pictures with ball point pen so I would know who the people > > were. Of course, I'm very glad she did that, but at the same time I > > wonder if the ball point pen has contributed the slow demise the > > photos. In addition, because I wasn't aware the algae-like substance > > was on some of the photos (it was in a tiny area and hard to detect), I > > separated the "good" from the "bad" pictures. Obviously, I missed some > > "bad" ones and now others are started to go. I'm so sick about it I > > could cry. > > > > I know they have a spray that you can buy to help remove acidity from > > photos/papers. But what in the world do they do if algae/mildew has > > formed. Would having them sealed in an airtight bag help? I've called > > a couple photograph stores here in town, but no one has really been able > > to give me much information. I figure there must be someone out there > > who has come up against this and would have an answer. If I don't act > > quickly, I could lose all the photos. > > > > I apologize for cross posting, but wanted to get the question out to > > everyone. This are my "family" email groups and I appreciate any help > > anyone can give me. Thanks so very much. > > > > Paula