Safes

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I have been researching long-term storage for protecting a small
collection of color & b&w photos/negatives, circa 1970-present, from
the unforeseen but always possible fire.  Sentry
<URL:http://www.sentry-grp.com> makes special fire safes for photos,
negatives, computer disks & CD's, called their media safe
collection.

In the event of a fire, they are rated to keep the humidity below
80%, and temp. below 125 degrees.  However by design the fire safes
contain an inner layer in the walls that emits humidity and would
thus have a grave long-term effect on photographic contents within.
Unfortunately they don't have any ratings on the RH, but recommend
opening the safes twice a month to release the moisture.

It seems reasonable that after properly storing the photos/negs. in
archival envelopes, that you could then double bag them in Glad
freezer bags (which are made out of polyethylene), inserting some
packages of silica-gel between the bags.  You could then stick a
temp/RH meter inside the bags to monitor the situation.  Has anyone
tried this method or know of any drawbacks?  Are their any other
good ways of protecting photo/neg. collections from fire?  Thanks in
advance,

Holly Snyder
Computer Programmer
Tampa FL
813-855-0263
Fax: 813-891-1475

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:40
                 Distributed: Tuesday, October 28, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-40-017
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