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 --------------B6D849A960C710BAB88BC4EF Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="roots-researcher.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Paula Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="roots-researcher.vcf" begin:vcard n:Jamison;Paula x-mozilla-html:TRUE adr:;;;;;; version:2.1 email;internet:[email protected] note:Surnames: ARNOLD, BLACKBURN, DAWSON, DIXON, DYE, ELLIFRITZ, FLEEK/FLICK, HAWS, ISER, JUNKINS, KITZMILLER, LILLER, McHENRY, MILLER, MINNICK, PARKER, ROGERS, SPENCER, STAGGS, THRASH, UMSTOT, URICE, WILSON, YOST fn:Paula Jamison end:vcard --------------B6D849A960C710BAB88BC4EF--