Found family negatives from 1916. How to preserve them?

Hello, rummaging thru our old ranch home I found a small rusty can. Opening it,

more than sixty negatives fell out. Most are moldy, all of them have rust and

dirt sticking to them.

 

They were shot with a kodak autographic (68x40mm neg size), and one of it is

clearly imprinted '1916' with the stylus. Can anybody identify the camera used

with those leads?

 

I was excited at finding them, and not knowing better, washed them in water and

some drops of dishwasher soap. Reading on, this is not recommended for nitrate-

base negs (as I assume they are), because if the gelatin has started to

degrade, it can fall out. Luckily, I dodged that bullet, as the base and

gelatin look sound - apart from the mold.

 

So... I don't want to make more mistakes. What would be the best way of

preserving them?

 

As an aside, I fired up the durst as soon as the first neg was dry. It was

incredible eerie to see the photos coming to life in the developer, and seeing

my great-grandfather and mother for the first time in my life.

Here's the tin can and pile of dirty negs.<div></div>

Cleaned negs<div></div>

Single neg<div></div>

Print<div></div>

Other print<div></div>

Another print<div></div>

Final print of that batch.<div></div>

I do not know how to preserve them, but I have to say that's a great find!

considering they survived 90-some years already, I'd have to say they're already pretty preserved.

Special find. I've unearthed quite a few old negatives of my family as well, and there's nothing like watching ghosts from the past appear in the developer!

 

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to clean glass slides.

They were almost certainly taken with an Autographic Vest Pocket Kodak. A very popular camera. From how good they look, probably one of the models with a quality lens. (The cheapest version was pretty nasty.)

 

Here's the remains of a wonderful website on them (at the Internet Archives):

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20041213134202/www.shef.ac.uk/personal/v/vpk/index.html

 

The key to preserving nitrate negatives is good ventilation. The decomposition products (nitric acid, in particular) cause rapid acceleration of decomposition if not ventilated. Don't store them in tight plastic protectors, they'll self-destruct. (Those ClearFile pages you have them in are not a good place.) Unbuffered paper sleeves, available from Light Impressions, are good.

 

Controlled temperature and humidity help as well. If your house is air conditioned, put them in an air conditioned room.

They're beautiful. The best thing you can do is to scan the negatives on a common Epson flatbed scanner. Don't subject them to more darkroom risk (moisture, heat).

 

The film base will self-destruct eventually, no matter what you do.

 

It's smart to make scans and fine inkjet prints (sets in sleeves for key members of your family, as well perhaps as duplicate CDs), not realistic to imagine the negs will last far into the future: You've caught yours at the last minute.

 

I've scanned Autographics with an old Epson 3200 (using a black paper negative mask), printing handsomely (as yours certainly would) to 11X17 using "black only" setting on Epson 2200 on Moab Kayenta paper and on letter-sized Epson Enhanced Matte. Today, I'd use Moab Entrada Natural, which has no whiteners and would be more stable than archivally processed silver paper.

What a great find, and it was obviously a great camera that was used. Do they seem cut

from 120 or are they sheets of 2 1/4 3 1/4? Measure them each on two sides and it will

narrow that down. Could even be 6X9cm proper.

There were far more models out there than the vest pocket. If the camera survived, that's

the real icing on the cake. Could as well have been a recomar 18. We'll agree probably a

kodak.

I use a file sized fire safe. I never store in a basement or garage, and I too use clear-file

(the best).

I would encourage real prints be made as soon as possible, with y'know, enlargers and

stuff.

Good luck!

I guess I have to agree that scanning is the best way to save them but I've had a ball printing old negs. I put them in glassine envelopes, not even thinking about them being nitrate negs. I'm not sure of the dates but some where easily turn of the century. Some were also glass, it was surprising how well they came out. I printed around 500 for a client who inherited them and he eventualy made a book out of them. I've never heard any complaints about the glassines. I love the great-grandfather and brother. Let me know if you need help printing them.

Many thanks for all the answers. I'll locate a source for paper sleeves locally and move the negs there.

 

The box/container where they'll be stored also needs ventilation? I first thought in a plastic container with some silica gel packets thrown in, but the air inside would be trapped. A carboard/shoe box? I'm worried about fungus moving in.

 

Yet it seems that they can't be preserved :\. I'll have to scan them; that will take a while, until I source a suitable scanner; I live in Uruguay, and things like that are hard to come by, and very expensive when they do (waited two years to find a 35mm scanner). I'll keep your tips in mind, when the time comes.

 

Right now, I'll finish printing the negs - I hope one pass in the darkroom is not enough to affect them, and at the very least I'll have easily scannable prints, which can be copied to family. The scanned negs would not be limited by my abilities at the enlarger, tough.

 

The negs are remarkably easy to print - if you have variable paper-. Contrast is perfect for the indoor shots. The sunny shots need 0 and 00 grades - they would have been hell to print in the day.

 

Alex, the exposed area in the negs are 63x40mm. They are cut from a roll 43mm wide (too small for 6x9 and 120), and have no other markings in them.<div></div>

if you can find them where you live--buffered/acid & lignin free paper envelopes are best. you want to try to keep the offgassing from reaching other materials. glasseine might be okay in a non-archival sense, especially acid-free glasseine. i've used regular 100% cotton envelopes before as well, and just changed them every couple of years. the important thing is to keep them cool & dry and not sealed up, and away from everything else as well. those ones that are turning the amber color and the example that's sorta bubbly in a way--those are farther along in deterioration than the others. you could sort out the negs that way, based on condition and work with those first. hope this helps. my opinions only.

I use the PrintFile clear sleeve sheets. They are advertised as "archival". Now you are saying these are not good? How disappointing! Those sheets cost me ...

 

And where can I buy this unbufferred paper sleeves?

Jade, they are not archival for very old negs (nitrite base), like these. They should be fine for modern negs - or so I think.

That film will detereorate sooner or later first (I'm amazed that something really bad hasn't happened yet). Scan them at a decent resolution before you do anything else. The negatives are showing serious signs of "sulfiding" (that is the brownish look). What is taking place is the metalic silver is being converted to silver sulfide which will disappear before long (Kodak call this "fugitive").

 

Lynn

I cannot give you advice, but I want to congratulate you on your find!

 

Hope you manage to scan and print the negs before they are lost forever. But be careful, I don't think your great great grandson wil be able to resurrect a CD or harddisk 90 years from now...

 

The negs and prints look very very good, It would thrill me no end to find something like that and to scan them (no darkroom here, I only develop so far).

Are nitrate- based negatives hazardous in any way? I've heard they can start burning but never heard of anyone who has had a problem.

the motion picture film is more hazardous than the still, because of the amount of base

material, and it's usually stored rolled up in cans as well. afik, there is no recorded

incident of a spontaneous combustion with smaller cut films and amateur roll films. kodak

did a study where they basically cooked a negative in an enclosed case and it took a

couple of days for it to self combust. the problem with nitrate is that it can't be

extinguished easily though, and burns very readily. it's also somewhat of an irritant in

certain quantities if you handle it much. treated as a hazardous material in an archival

sense. you can't ship it easily. you can't get rid of it easily either. probably the immediate

concern would be to isolate it from other photo materials--the offgassing can harm them.

old acetate negs deteriorate as well, just not the same way or with the same precautions.

good luck. lots of info is available--check with local archives or libraries etc. my opinions

only/not my employers.