[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Need help cleaning backs of old photo's

[Royal Natzke]

Janine:

I agree with Gary on scanning the pictures with high resolution (at least 
300 DPI) to make sure you have a good image.

It is important to keep things dry. Working with 220 or rougher sandpaper 
should get the black paper off and start to do a little bit toward getting 
off some of the glue. When you are down to the glue you might want to go 
back to real fine sandpaper to smooth out the glue for an easier 
read-through. Start the process in a blank part of the picture and see what 
happens, without ruining the image on the other side right away.

Rub gently and do not be in a hurry.

I would appreciate hearing how that works for you.

Royal Natzke
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Warner" <gary at warnerengineering.com>
To: <jankohl57 at aol.com>
Cc: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Need help cleaning backs of old photo's


> Janine,
>
> I do not have an answer for how to get the glue off, but I think that
> you should assume that you are going to ruin the photos in the
> process.   That means that you really MUST scan them before you try to
> get the glue off.
>
> If the glue is old enough, it may be a water soluble glue, but if you
> soak it or even brush the glue with water, it would then most certainly
> ruin the picture.   Such a process may also dissolve the wrting on the
> backs of the picture, so you probably do not want to use more solvent of
> any kind that is absolutely necessary to remove the black paper and thin
> the glue so that you can read through it.
>
> Gary Warner
>
> jankohl57 at aol.com wrote:
>> Looking for any suggestions on how to safely clean the backs of old 
>> photo's from ca. 1910.? They were at one time glued into a photo album 
>> with black pages.? I can get some of the black paper off, but some of it 
>> is really adheared to the glue.? I'm desperate to see what the writing 
>> says underneath!. I can actually see through the glue and make out 
>> letters, so it is more a matter of getting the black paper off without 
>> taking some of the ink beneath.? Is there some gentle way of removing the 
>> paper without going through to the other side of the photo?? Thanks so 
>> much...Janine
>>
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