Skip to Main Content

Preservation at Home: Best Practice for Photo Albums & Scrapbooks

Taking apart old photo albums

If you have old family photo albums that are attached to adhesive or magnetic self-stick pages, try to remove them, carefully. These types of pages have adhesive that will leave sticky residue on the back of your photos and their pages tend to yellow quickly. 

For stubborn photos that are not peeling off the page, you can place the page in the freezer for 30 minutes. After removing the page from the freezer, take a long piece of unwaxed dental floss and a pair of gloves. Wrap and hold each end of the floss and gently start to slide the floss under the corner of the photo. The floss will help to separate the photo from the adhesive page.

If you have any photos that will not peel off the page, take a picture of the photo to re-print. Another option is to scan your photo album pages and have a digital copy to better preserve.

Best way to keep photos

If you want to display photos in a photo album, make sure the plastic sleeves to hold photos do not contain Polyvinyl Chloride. Polyethylene and polypropylene sleeves are the best for. If you are just going to store stacks of photos, you can use the plastic sleeves mentioned or even sandwich bags for an inexpensive option. It is best for photos to be stored individually. For packing photo albums or scrapbooks to store away or move locations, pack them spine down and tightly together.

Make sure to handle photographs with clean, dry hands or a pair of cotton, lint-free gloves. Oil in your hands can leave permanent marks on the face of photographs. 

Taking apart old scrapbooks

Scrapbooks from decades past tend to contain acidic paper and glue. It can be very tricky to try to remove the photos glued to the paper; however, you should scan or take a photograph of the page before trying to dismantle the photos and paper. Once you have captured the page digitally, you can take a craft knife and cut around the photo (still attached to the paper) to be able to transfer to acid free paper and attach using adhesive photo corners.

Another option is putting the page in the freezer, to help make the glue brittle. You can then try sliding a micro spatula (thin and made of metal) under a corner of the photo once the page is removed from the freezer. Gently slide the spatula back and forth as you try to lift the photo.