Last month’s photogenealogy article explained how to prepare printed family history photos for scanning. This article will explain how to care for prints post-scanning, that is assuming that the prints will be kept after scanning. My experience suggests that most people keep their prints, but some don’t! And, of those people that keep their prints, some want to have regular access to them, while others just want to store them away safely. Either way, there are several factors that should be considered when deciding where and how to keep precious family history prints.
11 threats to prints
Threats to prints arise from fire, water, loss/theft/vandalism, physical, chemical and biological damage, fading due to light especially ultra-violet light, humidity, temperature, time and finally, disassociation, which occurs when photos are not annotated by the people who remember them, or annotations are not captured or transferred during the scanning process.
Many of these threats can be mitigated by thinking about the locations and the conditions in which prints are kept.
Location
Places not to keep prints are the garage, basement, loft or attic, shed or other unheated outbuildings, near to a source of water or heat, or against an outside wall. Places to keep prints are upstairs, in a spare bedroom or office, and in a cupboard or bookcase.
Conditions
Ideally, prints should be kepntin the dark at a temperature between 13 and 20oC and in a relative humidity of 35-60%. The actual temperature and humidity levels are less important than avoiding fluctuations in them; it is the changes in conditions that can damage photos (see Links). A good rule of thumb is: if you are comfortable, then your photos will be too.