Foxing on photographs

    **** Moderator's comments:
    This query comes from a person who is not on the DistList and
    will not see any responses that are posted here.  Please respond
    directly to sender and if of general interest post it here as well

I recently purchased two albums of albumen photographs from the
1890s of Egypt and North Africa.  There is foxing throughout with
one album being worse than the other.  I have a friend who is a
professional photographer (but not a restorer) who might be willing
to attempt to stabilize the photographs (and hopefully remove them
from the album paper) if I can locate information on the proper
technique for doing so. Fortunately there are a lot of plates that
are in such bad condition (fading etc.) that there will be plenty
for him to experiment with and get his technique down so as to
proceed with removing (or at least stopping) the further foxing of
the good images.  I realize that it would be best to use a
professional photo restorer but the costs are just too prohibitive
as it would probably cost $100 or more per photo and there are close
to 100 photos in the album (with over half being of superior
quality).

Have you any suggestions as to where I might find instructions for
dealing with foxing on photographs?

    **** Moderator's comments:
    This message was forwarded by Peter Verheyen, who (wisely) told
    Mr. Laurila the following:

        From my experience with paper however there is nothing you
        can do about it. Foxing is exacerbated by poor storage
        especially high humidity. It is also likely that the prints
        are albumen. Those are very sensitive. I would suggest you
        find a professional photo conservator. AIC (can be linked to
        via CoOL) has a referral service.

Norman Laurla

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:23
                  Distributed: Friday, August 30, 1996
                       Message Id: cdl-10-23-010
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