Archiving, Saving, Organizing Old Photos

Treetopleaf
Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:20:21 +0000

I thought I’d access the collective brain here for this question. I’ve rediscovered an archival box that some years ago I filled with old photos. These photos had been stored in a flimsy old shirt gift box. Many of these photos are still in their display paper frames. I had sat down with my mom and together we labeled these, so I want to keep the frames, on which we wrote notes, and the photos together. Other photos are loose, some labeled on the back side, some not.

Do I just pile these back up in this box? Do I try to put them in an archival album? What album allows you to easily see the reverse side of the photos?

This topic drives me nuts. I have DD’s baby pix in an album, but to see if someone wrote on the reverse side you have to pull the photos out of their sleeves. I once had access to my grandma’s photo album, and peeled away the glued-in photos to reveal writing no one knew about on their reverse sides. At least with that album I was able to write up a summary describing the album contents e.g. page 5, upper left, Suzie and Sammy Smith.

I could always photograph the photos and make digital notes, and just stick the photos back into the box. But the box method bugs me - you can’t easily see the photos, and have no idea what’s in there.

Thanks for any suggestions!