I found some old negatives at my mothers house over the weekend (100's) and some of them were stuck to tissue paper she had them wrapped in. Needless to say, when seperated from the paper, some of the negatives still have paper stuck to them.

My question is, how would be the best way to clean and preserve these negatives? These are 6x6 and 6x9 negatives from the 1930's, 40's and 50's depicting rural life in north Texas. I have plenty of negative sleeves for storage. Is this enough for preservation? How do I get the paper off without damaging the negative?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kevin

-- Kevin B. Finigan (kfinigan@swbell.net), January 05, 1998

Answers

I'll assume they are B&W. Try soaking one in 68 deg. water with gentle agitation for a few minutes.

-- Tim Brown (brownt@ase.com), January 09, 1998.

old negs

Let me add this to the last post. Try soaking in a solution of photo flo for a few mins. after the water soak. This is not to take care of water spots (although it will) but the photo flo will advance the softening effect of the water on the paper. You do not want to attempt to remove any of the paper while the negs are dry.

-- jim megargee (mvjim@interport.net), January 10, 1998.

Old Neg's 2

Kevin, I had the same problem with some 1920 4x5" and 4x6" neg's my dad gave me of europe. I used distilled water a drop of dawn and alcohol, dont leave the negs in to long as they get soft wipe gently with a cotton ball, rinse and dry. test this out on a bad negitive first my pic's were not kodak yours might be above all be careful and dont do this when someone can interupt you. Good luck.

-- Al Sevrey (alsevrey@acd.net), February 15, 1998.