cleaning old prints: I have recently acquired several boxes and albums of old family pictures dating as far back as the 1920's. Is there a way to deodorize them. They were stored in a...

rwww80a Loc: Hampton, NH

I have recently acquired several boxes and albums of old family pictures dating as far back as the 1920's. Is there a way to deodorize them. They were stored in a damp basement and smell musty and moldy. So far no mold on the pix, just the albums, many of which are old leather. the pixs are b&w, sepia, color and polaroids, if it makes a difference.
Tanks for your help.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

If they were mine, I would carefully unmount the images and get rid of the albums. I temporarily would store the pictures in a Archival Print Box
https://www.dickblick.com/products/lineco-museum-storage-boxes/?clickTracking=true&wmcp=pla&wmcid=items&wmckw=15308-2007&gclid=CjwKCAiA_f3uBRAmEiwAzPuaM0QugyBXcPUIbsU-f0hlzemEPb8zbl8FQvC__6SB4S4nLpaMICyD2hoCIAcQAvD_BwE

Bill 45

One who had to do it, everything in to the trash can. It was not fun to do.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

rwww80a wrote:

I have recently acquired several boxes and albums of old family pictures dating as far back as the 1920's. Is there a way to deodorize them. They were stored in a damp basement and smell musty and moldy. So far no mold on the pix, just the albums, many of which are old leather. the pixs are b&w, sepia, color and polaroids, if it makes a difference.
Tanks for your help.

Had a similar problem a number of years ago.
I carefully removed all the photos from the albums, and put them on the bed, on the floor, wherever I could find space, and left them for a good week, with the window open.
Some of the photos had curled; after that week I placed them between stacked sheets of acid free tissue paper (on the floor - nice hard surface) and put a sheet of plywood (about same size as tissue paper) on top, and some heavy things on top of that.
Ignored the stack for several weeks. After that, many of the photos had completely flattened, a number of them only partially.
They are now in acid free albums, kept in a place where they're not likely to get moldy, and are inspected regularly.l

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Morning Star wrote:

Had a similar problem a number of years ago. br I ... (show quote)

Myself as well with about an 85% recovery rate....good luck ....

elee950021 Loc: New York, NY

rwww80a wrote:

I have recently acquired several boxes and albums of old family pictures dating as far back as the 1920's. Is there a way to deodorize them. They were stored in a damp basement and smell musty and moldy. So far no mold on the pix, just the albums, many of which are old leather. the pixs are b&w, sepia, color and polaroids, if it makes a difference.
Tanks for your help.

Hi rwww80a!

Carefully wipe off any mold and mildew from album covers (both inside and out), spines and pages as necessary. Use latex or silicon gloves to handle the albums. Get some boxes that are as deep as the albums are tall. Stand them up and fan the pages. Depending on the box, you can get several albums inside. Allow space to circulate air between pages. Use a box of baking soda. Remove one side of the box, preferably the largest side to expose as much baking soda as possible. Close the box and allow the baking soda to do its magic. Check every couple of days or so. Baking soda is also used in refrigerators to remove food odors. For stronger agents, see below.

Other useful items for cleaning include a "chemical sponge" (actually uses no chemicals), see: https://www.amazon.com/Soot-Dirt-Remover-Sponge-K-42R/dp/B001B31GA8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1481052760&sr=8-1&keywords=chem%2Bsponge&linkCode=sl1&tag=a0f1bbbb-20&linkId=73192b1f5f8b486c963f9ed322ed2580&th=1

For more heavy-duty odor removers, Odor Genie, see: https://us.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=itm&hsimp=yhs-001&type=smyds_ydef_19_43_xtn_ag24292&p=odor%20genie&param1=1&param2=f%3D4%26b%3Dchrome%26ip%3D72.248.2.209%26pa%3Dsearch-manager%26type%3Dsmyds_ydef_19_43_xtn_ag24292%26cat%3Dweb%26a%3Dsmyds_ydef_19_43_xtn_ag24292%26xlp_pers_guid%3D%26xlp_sess_guid%3D9d39797c-fac8-474a-b546-f656262fa775%26uref%3D%26abid%3D20166%26xt_abg%3D24292%26xt_ver%3D10.1.4.56%26ls_ts%3D1571711588#01DTVP77SNE1VWQKE1GEZ8H17P

And DampRid, see: https://damprid.com/

After you've removed odors, etc. transfer the photos to new archival albums and pages, see: https://www.universityproducts.com/photo-products

I took bookbinding and paper conservation courses back in the day and still keep my hands in this activity. I also have a strong interest in archiving photographs and film (especially mine!) as I had a photographic custom lab business, here in NYC for close to 40 years (retired in 2008).

Be well! Belated Thanksgiving wishes. Ed

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

I had the same task and did much the same recovery work but then scanned all the photos, cleaned the digital versions up in Photoshop and stored the photos in acid free paper in a box on the shelf. The kids got copies as well as one granddaughter.
We have three of those digital picture frames and I change the photos on the memory cards every so often.
The frames are set on random so it's fun to see what photo, from what era, pops up as you walk by.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

rwww80a wrote:

I have recently acquired several boxes and albums of old family pictures dating as far back as the 1920's. Is there a way to deodorize them. They were stored in a damp basement and smell musty and moldy. So far no mold on the pix, just the albums, many of which are old leather. the pixs are b&w, sepia, color and polaroids, if it makes a difference.
Tanks for your help.

Is there a museum around that may have a conservation department? That's where you can get best restore/preservation information.