Preserving old newspaper clippings and photos

August 14, 2023 2:53 PM

My parent just sent me a giant box of old photos and newspaper clippings. Some of them are 50+ years old. The newspapers are yellow and fall apart when I try to unfold them and some of the photos are stuck together. It's a big mess, but I'd love to preserve what I can. How can I do this? Is there someone I can hire?

Additional issue is that my house is very mildewy and so storing these items safely is challenging. I'd love to know what I can do to preserve them into the future.

I appreciate suggestions around document and photo scanning, but my preference is to try to preserve the originals because they are so neat to have.

posted by Toddles to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

I am not a professional archivist but I'll tell what I would do if it were me. Hopefully someone with actual knowledge chimes in eventually!


I would take photos as I go, just in case the act of unfolding or unsticking them ruins them.

I would look up how to unstick photos. I think I've heard at various times that it's ok or not ok to get them wet again, or to use floss to gently wiggle between them, or other random hacks. I don't know what the current best practice there is but I would definitely figure that out before I just start pulling.

Once everything is separated, I would scan it all at 600 DPI and then back up the scans. I would also scan the backs of photos if there's writing on them.

I would store everything in acid-free archival photo sheets.

I have heard that lamination is not good for archival materials so don't do that
posted by Nickel at 4:29 PM on August 14, 2023

You could talk to the folks at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. They're very nice people!
posted by knile at 4:53 PM on August 14, 2023

Acid-free and lignin-free.

As a professional organizer, I often point my clients toward experts in photo preservation and archiving. Not knowing where you are, I'd suggest you contact a university archivist or the archivist of the university of which you are an alum, depending on which is easier or more applicable. The archiving world is small, and if you just ask for guidance regarding to whom you should speak (rather than asking for free assistance), you'll likely get lots of unexpected direct help.

You also might want to visit the site of the Society of American Archivists and see if you can find a consultant near you. Even if you can't afford to work with one, you are likely to find individual websites with blogs explaining how to do what you need. (We professional organizers provide a ridiculous amount of free advice on our blogs and even to prospective clients, or people who call/email but realize they can't afford us. You can't shut us up, especially when we're warning against dangerous moves. I'm willing to bet archivists are the same.)

If you do use dental floss to try to separate papers stuck together, be sure you use unwaxed floss. You also might have better luck with dental tape than floss. (Glide makes both.) But I'd hold off for now.

The National Archives advise consulting a conservator when you need to unstick papers, so I'd encourage you to leave the papers and photos somewhere safe, cool, and dry until you get to talk/email with some experts. Heat and humidity are not friendly to papers or anything with adhesive or goop. As you said mildew is a problem, heat/humidity must be, too. I can't advice refrigerating the papers, but maybe if you have a foam picnic cooler, you can put the papers in a manila folder and put everything in a cooler to limit the impact of heat/humidity/insects.

Also, Don't put the papers inside anything plastic -- no plastic bins, no plastic zipper-lock baggies. (Sorry, I know more about what not to do than what to do.)
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 5:36 PM on August 14, 2023

Ask Donia from the ALA is another great resource! For the newspapers, I would try to scan them and/or photocopy onto archival paper - this is what I do as an archivist when I encounter paper items that might not survive another folding (or are already disintegrating). If you can somehow find the metadata from the clippings (newspaper name, date, surrounding stories that might give you a hint of the date, etc.) that might be helpful in getting a backup copy in the future if you find that a chunk of the clipping has gone missing before you can preserve it.

For the photos, if they're stuck together so tightly that you feel you have to force them apart, I'd say leave them alone for now, ideally in a humidity-controlled environment. If they don't require force to separate them, you can gently pry them apart using either unwaxed floss as mentioned above or a microspatula. Sometimes they can be stuck together more firmly than anticipated, so stop immediately if you encounter any resistance. If you can separate them safely, give them more permanent homes in archival photo sleeves.

A local historical society may also have ideas for you, in my experience they tend to have more experience with smaller-scale preservation projects and using materials you might already have to hand. Good luck!
posted by quatsch at 8:30 AM on August 15, 2023