Featured Antique Family Album Storage

So over the past year I've purchased some antique family albums with CDV's, tintypes and cabinets (red felt like, leather like and celluloid, etc.). I'd like to now put them out for display on a bookshelf for easy access. I'm been storing them in plastic bags inside boxes. The bookshelf I have in mind does not get direct sunlight, is in a dark/usually cool corner of the room, is not near an ac/furnace air output and our house is very dry, as is our outside climate. If I do store these on a bookshelf, is there anything else I need to account for, to protect the photos? Thanks for any input/suggestions.

 

Any visible light at all is eventually going to react with materials. As you are aware, direct sunlight is brutal and swift and is to be avoided. Ideal conditions are in total darkness, constant temp, low humidity and enclosed in acid-free, non-reactive type archival materials. Not all plastic bags are safe and may off-gas. Open air has chemicals that can off-gas and react with photographs and paper. Even the albums themselves, which were often very acidic, can affect the materials stored inside of them, particularly celluloid. It must also be monitored for signs of celluloid disease. Even human breath will interact with materials. Having said that, is the value of displaying these worth the accelerated exposure they will receive if left in less than ideal conditions? Are you removing them from the original albums, or are they staying in situ? Would the educational value or convenience of accessibility be as well served by using facsimiles and keeping the originals in deep archival storage? These are all the questions and trade-offs that curators face when it comes to exhibiting materials. It's a delicate balance!

 

If you have family you might someday want to pass the archives ON to, then MY personal suggestion might be, which I believe @Darkwing Manor above suggested above, would be to make very nice copies and nicely displayed, BUT KEEP the ORIGINALS safely tucked away in archival storage boxes to preserve them for future generations!!! If you don't and they are just for your pleasure, well, they WILL surely deteriorate over time, AND start to lose some value, but then the choice would be up to you......my very short synopsis here.....I think @Figtree3 could add a LOT more than I can, as well as a couple of other members!!!

 

Cats !!!

 

I don't think the cats care much.

 

Thank you for the replies! These are not my family photos, but other families albums/photos that I purchased mostly off eBay. I started off just wanting to have some CDV's, tintypes & cabinets in my photograph collection, and I had no examples. Anyway, once I received my first album of 19th century photos I became hooked. Some of the subjects/sitters are fascinating, and quite charming. And if there is any provenance (names, photographer info., etc.) it makes it even more enjoyable to research some of the families. I have about a half dozen albums and have reached the point where I need to decide how to display or store them. The first 2 albums I received I removed the photos and put them in plastic pages with binders. These are the same type of plastic pages I store all my sports cards in (Ultra Pro archival safe pages). But the last few albums I received I left the photos in the album and stored them in plastic bags in boxes. I now prefer leaving the photos in the albums, as they were originally, and like the idea of putting them in my bookcase. But I'm still a little concerned about the photos long term safety being stored in their original albums. Most of the albums have some foxing (brown spots), which I believe some photos may have inherited over the years. Unfortunately, some of these albums may not have been stored properly before I got them. So maybe I should store all the photos in archival pages/binders. I just can't decide. Oh, and I do photograph all the album photos, so I have digital copies. Lastly, I suspect I will hold on to all these photos for awhile, and they may end up as part my personal collection of photographs that I will to my family. But I've been collecting photographs and other memorabilia for 40+ years, and if there is one thing I've learned, its that my collecting habits can change!