The precious paper documents, photos and keepsakes that tell the stories of our lives can become prematurely brittle and fragile due to harmful acids that destroy paper fibers.  Proper preservation of the papers that make up a family history collection is often neglected by many people. The papers I’m referring to could be printouts from your computer, newspaper clippings, birth/death/marriage certificates, old report cards, mom’s love letters, photos, and so forth. A little bit of care is all that is needed and you’ll greatly increase a document’s longevity. After all, we want them to last so our descendants can enjoy them.

Unfortunately, a great deal of photos and documents end up being stored in attics, garages and basements, these are probably the worst places to store such things. 

In the summer, temperatures in an attics reach 125 degrees F. or greater while in the winter they can get down to less than 0 degrees. With the constant high temperatures and humidity in the summer and low temperatures and humidity in the winter, the photographs or documents will become brittle. In severe cases, the emulsion (image) on the photograph can separate from the base (paper). These cyclic conditions will have a devastating effect on any paper product.

Uninsulated basements are usually moist which can cause photographs to stick to each other. Another problem encountered in basements is that they are great breeding grounds for insects and rodents which are strongly attracted to gelatin and cellulose in the photographic emulsion.

The best places to store important photographs or documents are in a safe deposit box at your bank. They are usually climate controlled and kept dark to provide almost ideal storage conditions. The ideal storage conditions are 68 degrees +/- 2 degrees and 50% relative humidity +/- 5% relative humidity.

The following pages were sourced from the Library of Congress and answer many questions about the care, handling and storage of your valuable collections.