What To Do If a Scrapbook Gets Wet (or Photo Album or Pictures)

water damaged scrapbookWhen family scrapbooks get wet, the result is not pretty. In fact, it can be quite dire for the scrapbook and its precious contents.

“Water can cause the bleeding of inks and dyes in journal entries, digital photographs, and decorative papers, causing them to appear blurry or streaked,” says this article in Scrapbook Retailer. “When exposed to water, some prints and materials will soften and stick to adjacent surfaces. Papers that get wet can become distorted or warped and some may even dissolve completely in water.”

Even more yucky? “Dirty water from sewage leaks, floodwaters from rivers, and colored liquids like fruit juices make the clean-up process more difficult and staining of the album materials more likely.”

Preventing the damage in the first place is of course the best option, but it’s not always an option we’re given. Floods happen. Spills happen. Windows get left open.

So what to do if a scrapbook gets wet? Or a photo album or loose pictures?

First, says the Library of Congress, “Take necessary safety precautions  if the water is contaminated with sewage or other hazards or if there is active (wet or furry) mold growth.”

“In general, wet photographs should be air dried or frozen as quickly as possible,” states the Northeast Document Conservation Center website. “Once they are stabilized by either of these methods, there is time to decide what course of action to take.” But don’t delay too long, they say. “Time is of the essence: the longer the period of time between the emergency and salvage, the greater the amount of permanent damage that will occur.”

A few more tips from that same article on the Northeast Document Conservation Center website, written by Gary Albright:

  • Save prints before plastic-based films, as the latter will last longer.
  • Allow water to drain off photos first, as needed. Then air dry photographs, face up, laying flat on paper towels. Negatives should be hung to dry.
  • Separate wet photos from each other and other items (like a scrapbook page) as much as possible.
  • If photos are stuck together, freeze them as a bunch, wrapped in wax paper. Then thaw them. As they gradually thaw, peel photos off and let them air dry.
  • Don’t worry if pictures curl up while they are drying. You can flatten them once they’re totally dry.

Unfortunately, some very old photo types will not survive a water bath at all. Others may weather a quick dip but not long-term exposure to dampness. It’s SO important to preserve images digitally! You can scan entire album pages if they fit on your scanner, so you can record captions or the arrangement of pictures on a page. Or use a scanner like Flip-Pal that has stitching software to help stitch together larger images.

In a pinch, snap pictures with your mobile device: close-ups of photographs and captions, and full-page images that at least capture how it’s laid out (even if at a lower resolution). Mobile Genealogy: How to Use Your Tablet and Smartphone for Family History Research by Lisa Louise Cooke has a chapter on digital imaging apps that can help you digitally preserve family albums and scrapbooks–whether they’ve gotten wet or not.

Christmas in July BackblazeLisa Louise Cooke trusts all our computer files–including images, sound files and videos that have taken thousands of hours to create–to Backblaze online backup service, the official backup of Genealogy Gems. For about $5 a month (or $50 for an entire year), you can protect your files, too. It only takes a couple of minutes to give yourself the peace of mind of knowing that, even if disaster strikes, you’ll still be able to recover your digital files quickly and easily. Go to www.Backblaze.com/Lisa to get started.

 

 

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 248

Free Genealogy!

You will find the complete show notes for the topic discussed in this episode at the show notes page here

This episode is brought to you by:

In this episode we cover a plethora of strategies that will give you access to loads of free genealogy records and resources. We cover:

  • How to follow the path of least resistance to find what you need for your genealogy research.
  • The best ways to find free genealogy records online.
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  • How you can bee-line your way to the free records that are to be found at each of the big subscription genealogy websites (Ancestry, MyHeritage and FindMyPast).
  • Two Google secret searches that can help you locate free genealogy resources.
  • How to search online to find free records offline.
  • A clever way to get free help with your genealogy brick wall.

Companion Video and Show Notes

This topic comes from my YouTube video series Elevenses with Lisa episode 21. You can find all the free Elevenses with Lisa videos and show notes at https://lisalouisecooke.com/elevenses.

Genealogy Gems Premium Members have exclusive access to the 5-page downloadable show notes handout in the Resources section of the Elevenses with Lisa episode 21 show notes page here.

Premium Members also have access to all of the archived earlier episodes. To access the Elevenses with Lisa Premium Member archive, log in to your membership at https://genealogygems.com and under in the main menu under Premium go to Premium Videos and click on Elevenses with Lisa.

Elevenses with Lisa Episode 21 – Free Genealogy! Watch the video and read the full show notes here.

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Getting Your Old Home Movies Digitized with Larsen Digital

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Podcast Resources

Download the episode mp3
Show Notes: The audio in this episode comes from Elevenses with Lisa Episode 21

 

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