Featured Any suggestions for foxing?

Hi my wonderful friends here at the Forum...

I have a most wonderful 1880's leather album that was my Great Grandmothers. We've pondered what to do with it for some time since MOST of the photos are of cousins that are pretty distant (and are fortunately named). My sister and I have pondering this last pile of family historic photos which does include this album.

My Grandmother's family was from Cornwall, England and the largest Cornish American archives is fortunately at the VanOpie and Pelt Genealogical Library on the campus of Michigan Tech in Houghton, Michigan. I've already taken them 40 banker's boxes of my mother's genealogy, newspapers, books and other ephemera which they have most graciously received and much has been put on line.

So, back to the album: My sister and I have taken digital photos of immediate family, and on up the tree and she's making those available on a flash drive to family; as no one has seemingly wanted the hard cabinet cards.

I hated to see this beautiful album leave the family, but gosh - no one we know in it. So I got the bright idea to very carefully remove the cards IN said album... and replace those with the direct family line photos that we do have. In the process; I did a repair on the silvertone buckle that holds the album pages together... and if I might say so, I'm pleased as to how it turned out!

The buckle is held in place with 3 small pins that go through the buckle and then the cardboard album cover and then back out the back of the buckle. The cardboard was torn badly. I managed to glue it internally, so it is "solid" now, only added a tiny bit of glue to the buckle that slips over the edge of the front and back side of the cover, and then replaced and glued the 3 new pins in place. It looks untouched! Happy with that!

So now I'm looking at pages. These are those thick cardboard gilt edged pages...with beautifully lithographed pages of mountains and animals. Amazingly, NONE of the pockets are torn! But, there is some light foxing on the pages. IS there ANY way to safely remove the foxing?? The album itself is only slightly scuffed on the covers, and the pages are all intact, along with the spine. I'm sure it was very expensive once upon a time. The foxing isn't "awful"... but is mostly visible when the light hits it just right and looks like a dull splotch. I'd post a photo; but getting it to my computer is a problem right now....and light foxing is light foxing ... right??

Hoping for a simple answer.

My second questions is: Although the photos will all have names on the back. I want to avoid having them pulled out to look at the back. I don't want to write on the album page either. Does anyone have a suggestion for labelling each photo where it can be easily read? I've pondered a 8 1/2" x 11" index page - but it would just be loose inside the album... or cutting down an index card which would have a tab that sticks down inside the front of the pocket and folded to the front, it could house information. I really hesitate to use sticky notes - which seem easy; but surely they could discolor, loose stickiness and become lost.

Hoping for a second simple answer.
Cheerio for now!
Leslie

 

@Ex Libris

 

Although I am more knowledgeable about older paper, I’ll do my best to answer your question.

Foxing on 19th-century paper is primarily due to the poor quality of the materials used. Before the Industrial Revolution, paper was typically made from old rags. In the 19th century, however, paper was produced from wood pulp, which was of lower quality and more prone to deterioration. As far as I know, removing foxing is not really feasible. According to this Wikipedia article, it may be possible, but it involves considerable risk and is likely quite costly.

 

Pictures please!

So a general word of caution...old paper and cardboard is not acid free. As @Ex Libris said, foxing is also a feature of this type of paper. I would not repurpose this to store your photos in as the paper and cardboard can cause those photos to degrade. If the photos were already mounted in it, or are affixed as CV cards are, then it's just a feature of how they will age and understandable. But if not, then they shouldn't be placed into that environment. Best to store in acid free archives. Not as pretty, but they'll be protected. There might be a happy medium with putting them in acid free sleeves and sliding those in the album but idk what yours looks like.

 

Thanks everyone... I was afraid that the foxing was just "here to stay" without a big effort. I like the idea of sliding the cards into acid free... I'll look into it! Thanks everyone!
Cheerio, Leslie

 

You can usually find a variety of acid free sleeves/envelopes at art supply stores and online archival shops.

 

Since the album is very decorative and you've repaired it already, you could just put it out on display somewhere, even if empty.

 

You could scan the photos and remove with Photoshop if you have the time and patience. You could then have them reproduced.