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Martha Stewart Living, November 1997, page 53; Saving Old Photos Dear Martha, I have several photo albums and scrapbooks that are falling apart. Pictures, wedding articles, and birth announcements were glued in. How can I remove these items without damaging them? ___Opal Linville, Colby, Kansas Photographs are fragile things. In the wrong environment, they deteriorate, becoming brittle, yellowed, and faded. Once the damage is done, you can't undo it. Still, old photos are well worth saving. I consulted a professional conservator, José Orraca, for some ideas for restoring albums. Here they are. There's no easy way to remove the photos from the pages without doing more damage. If you want to try, start with a photo that doesn't mean a lot to you. One problem is that it's hard to know what kind of glue was used. If the glue is animal or starch-based, as is likely in older albums, it should be water soluble. Work the photo free of the paper as much as you can without tearing it. Then dab on small amounts of water to dissolve the glue - however, the black dyes in the old paper pages could bleed, staining the photos. In more contemporary albums, a glue like Elmer's may have been used; for this, dab on denatured alcohol or acetone instead. Newsprint is even more delicate and likely to be destroyed if you try to remove it from an album page. A professional can do the job for you with much better results. However, Orraca often tries to dissuade clients from removing their photos at all. It's a time-consuming, and therefore expensive, process, and you may lose more than you gain. Lots of old albums have inscriptions under the photos, and they are as much a part of a family's history as the photos. And unless you have good plans for them once out of the album, they're more likely to get lost. Instead, leave them in the album, and handle it carefully. If the pages are falling out, dismantle the album and slip each page into an archival-quality clear sleeve, like one made of Mylar or another inert plastic. Keep these, and any other photos, in stable conditions. Light, heat, and moisture are photo's enemies; keep them in dark, cool, dry places. The ubiquitous "magnetic" albums encourage deterioration, so always use archival-quality albums and boxes. For slides and negatives, use files made of inert plastics; acid-free-paper files also work for negatives. The most effective way to keep a newspaper clipping is to photocopy it onto acid-free paper. For an important but damaged photo, contact a conservator, whose painstaking work is an art in itself. Photo labs, also called copy labs, can reproduce pictures, retouching them on the computer to "repair" rips, restore colors, even fill missing details. Archival-quality supplies can be ordered from Light Impressions (800-828-6216), Talas (212-219-0770), and University Products (800-628-1912). To find a conservator in your area, contact the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (1717 K Street, NW, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20006; 202-452-9545)

Your questions for askMartha (please include a daytime phone number) should be sent to the Letters Department, Martha Stewart Living, 20 West 43rd Street, New York, New York 10036. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. Send e-mail to mstewart@marthastewart.com (Martha Stewart)

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