Home >> Hobbies >> Photography

How to Archive Photo Albums

Historically photo albums have been created by individuals or groups to document a period of time, people or events. They tell a story and the structure of that story should be maintained when archiving the album. Albums can pose a lot of problems to the photographs inside depending on the adhesives used for mounting the photos and the stability of the paper or binding. Interleaving the pages should help support brittle pages, but when there is severe physical or chemical damage to an album it must be dismantled.

Things You'll Need

Alkaline buffered sheets
Polyester film
Clam shell box
Floss

Instructions

Interleaving Album Pages
- 1
  Purchase alkaline buffered sheets or polyester film to put between the album pages if they are brittle.
- 2
  Cut the alkaline buffered paper or film so that it fits between the pages and does not stick out. Some polyester film can be purchased specifically for fitting around a page or sheet of paper. This helps provide extra protection for the pages.
- 3
  Interleave the pages with the film or paper so that the weight of the brittle pages has extra support.
- 4
  Bindings on some books cannot handle the extra bulk of added sheets. If this is the case, you may have to consider unbinding the book and storing the pages in order in an acid-free box that is as close in size to the album as possible.
Dismantle the Album
- 5
  Photocopy the entire album so that the original order of the photographs is retained as well as any notes in the album. You can also scan the album for the same effect.
- 6
  
  Floss can be used to separate photographs from album pages.
  
  Remove the photographs from the album that are easy to take out. Carefully use a piece of dental floss to separate photos that are taped or glued to the album.
- 7
  Encapsulate the photographs in polyester pages inside a new album or box in the same order they were in the original album.

Photography