5/1/2004
By Maureen A. Taylor
Don't risk damage to your prints and negatives! With the proper precautions and our guide to safe storage, you can preserve those pictures for generations to come.
Each year, we produce billions of photos worldwide, documenting family milestones, vacations and gatherings with friends. Our ancestors' photographs are similar to the ones we take today, but were created with different chemicals and processes. Lay out photos from every era side by side and you'll see a rainbow of colors because of the variety in photographic processing techniques. Yet all of those prints have two characteristics in common: They were produced from negatives — ranging from paper to glass to contemporary films — and they're susceptible to damage. Understanding the different types of photographic materials in your collection will help you take steps to care for them. Read this guide to learn the history of prints and negatives, and ways you can preserve the ones in your own collection.
First shots
Around the time that Louis Daguerre developed his images on metal in 1839, an English inventor, William Fox Talbot, found a way to make paper prints from paper negatives. Although these prints (called calotypes) lacked sharpness and clarity, they laid the foundation for today's photographs.