Aunt W. passed away this summer at age 92. Two years ago, knowing that I'd be the only one who would be interested, she sent a large box, full to the top with my mom's photo collection. Mom passed away in 1995. She was an inveterate photographer, and had saved the very old family pictures, as well as the records of her own younger life, and those of myself and my own family.
From tintypes going back to the early 1860's, to snapshots taken on her Baby Brownie 620, there are about 1,000+ pictures. Surprisingly, except for some early 1900's photos that were pasted face to face in albums, and somewhat degraded, almost all of the photos are in very good condition, and quite sharp.
So, here's the problem. Almost all of the shiny snapshots are "curled"... into a circle. When flattened, to view, they do not crack or degrade.
I'd like to sort them, by approximate year, and by the different branches of the family, (going back four generations), and send them to the younger generations. The pictures can be scanned, but after spending three days scanning a few hundred, and crashing the hard drive, I have no inclination to do that again.
The first thing I tried was going to the internet for some way to flatten the pictures. You can't imagine.... to do one picture, a 12 step process, involving humidifying, steaming, blotting, special paper etc... No way...
I have tried flattening between the pages of books... for a month, steaming them in a hot shower on towels, then pressing between glass. I also had five large empty picture albums, where I put the photos into the glassine slots...
Nothing worked... they all curl up. (The tintypes do stay flat).
This is not a crisis. As with most family photos, no one is really interested in spending hours looking at their own life history, never mind those of relatives they never knew, but over the past three days, DW and I have spent some very pleasant hours going through these rolled up 3x5 and smaller pics. Since we've been friends since age 8, much in common... old friends, old places from summer camps, to old hangouts, schools, and houses and hundreds of locations that measured our lives over the past 70 years.
I am not optimistic about resolving this, but thought to ask our ER creative experts for suggestions. Am willing to spend few hours "fixing", but not important enough to spend a lot of money or time.
(have probably posted this before, but one of my favorites... Tom and Tillie, with my mom in the sidecar... Mom was about 6 months old... in Fall 1911.)
From tintypes going back to the early 1860's, to snapshots taken on her Baby Brownie 620, there are about 1,000+ pictures. Surprisingly, except for some early 1900's photos that were pasted face to face in albums, and somewhat degraded, almost all of the photos are in very good condition, and quite sharp.
So, here's the problem. Almost all of the shiny snapshots are "curled"... into a circle. When flattened, to view, they do not crack or degrade.
I'd like to sort them, by approximate year, and by the different branches of the family, (going back four generations), and send them to the younger generations. The pictures can be scanned, but after spending three days scanning a few hundred, and crashing the hard drive, I have no inclination to do that again.
The first thing I tried was going to the internet for some way to flatten the pictures. You can't imagine.... to do one picture, a 12 step process, involving humidifying, steaming, blotting, special paper etc... No way...
I have tried flattening between the pages of books... for a month, steaming them in a hot shower on towels, then pressing between glass. I also had five large empty picture albums, where I put the photos into the glassine slots...
Nothing worked... they all curl up. (The tintypes do stay flat).
This is not a crisis. As with most family photos, no one is really interested in spending hours looking at their own life history, never mind those of relatives they never knew, but over the past three days, DW and I have spent some very pleasant hours going through these rolled up 3x5 and smaller pics. Since we've been friends since age 8, much in common... old friends, old places from summer camps, to old hangouts, schools, and houses and hundreds of locations that measured our lives over the past 70 years.
I am not optimistic about resolving this, but thought to ask our ER creative experts for suggestions. Am willing to spend few hours "fixing", but not important enough to spend a lot of money or time.
(have probably posted this before, but one of my favorites... Tom and Tillie, with my mom in the sidecar... Mom was about 6 months old... in Fall 1911.)
