Recently I gave a talk to Devizes Camera Club on the care and preservation of old photographs. While preparing this I realised how bad our centrally heated homes are for storage of this material compared with the old days of one two open fires and perhaps one electric fire switched on for going to bed! The required temperature and relative humidity varies according to the type of material but for general collections, as we have at the History Centre, we keep;

Black and white materials at 12°C and 35% relative humidity

Colour materials at 2ºC and 35% relative humidity

Nearly built barge by Robbins, Lane & Pinnegar at Honey Street, c.1860s – photograph recently given to the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre

Not the conditions that you are likely to achieve at home, even your ‘fridge won’t be quite cold enough for colour prints and negatives, but you do need to keep them as cool as possible. As a rule of thumb every 10ºc drop in constant storage temperature should double the life of a photograph. Also keep all photographs in the dark – bring them into light as little as possible – and preferably not in contact with materials (including card and paper) with acidic or high sulphur content or containing chlorine bleaches. Look for card and paper that are acid and lignin free or use an inert polyester material. Do not use paper clips (rust marks) rubber bands (nasty stains as the rubber perishes) or let them come into contact with wood. Be wary of damp, black mould and insect attack – silverfish like photographs!

The older the photograph the better it will survive as modern traditional photos (not prints made from digital images) are far more complex in structure and generally far less stable than early ones. However your early photographs may be mounted on card, which is likely to have a high acid content, and as this ages and becomes brittle it could snap leaving your treasured photograph in two pieces. It is not always safe to soak the photos off the card as some types of emulsion will also float away – our conservators use a scalpel and gently ease the photo away from the card.

 Until after the Second World War many photographs were contact prints and so they are the same size as the negatives. This is fine when plate cameras were used but with later roll films the size may be 2¼” x 3¼”, 2¼” square, or even1¼” x 1½”. They may also be on single weight paper and will easily curl.

                                                            Carte de visite by J. Owen of Salisbury, c.1880s

With all early photographs it is sensible to make a digital copy as this will preserve the image as it is and you will also be able to enhance it a little without changing the accuracy of the original. However the original may not always be accurate – we have early postcards of Salisbury Plain with five biplanes in the sky, all inserted after the photograph was taken! When scanning do use a high dpi – 1,200 up to 2,400 for small photos – to create as large a file as possible – and save as a TIF. You can then always make a JPG version for PowerPoint presentations or the web. Remember if you have interesting old Wiltshire photographs, we would be interested in making copies for the archive!

 If you have enjoyed this article, the following entries may also be of interest:

Wiltshire's Treasures Photographed 

Do you recognise these pictures?