Photo album

I've been asked to assist with a small project and I would like to
get some ideas on how to proceed.  The National Agricultural Library
was recently given a photo album that documents in part the work of
a particular plant scientist at the turn of the century.  We would
like to keep the album as intact as possible.  However, the covers
are not salvageable.  The leaves of the album are the standard black
paper and I assume it is highly acidic.  Both sides of each leaf are
used.  A number of the photos appear to be gelatin developing-out
paper (a guess) because of pretty substantial silver mirroring.  The
captions are in a white ink and written directly on the black paper.
And there is a little mildew on a few of the leaves.

Initially I thought I would remove the covers, clean the leaves, and
put each leaf into a mylar sleeve--the kind that can be used with an
archival three ring album.  However, I have since read that the
gelatin photos may adhere to the mylar.  Is this true?

Would inserting buffered paper between the leaves be a better
choice--and if so how would I solve the problem of the hinge--that
is, how would I be able to still use this as a photo album?  Or
would loose-leaf storage be better overall? Thanks for all
suggestions,

Kurt Kuss
National Agricultural Library

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:41
                Distributed: Saturday, November 11, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-9-41-018
                                  ***