What to do with old photographs(WWI era)

[Dblarrow]

My wife recently came across some very old photos today when cleaning out her grandmothers house. These photos are of her great grandfather in WWI. There are photos of explosions, buildings, trenches, equipment, soldiers at dances, etc. There are letters with this stuff too describing what was going on and such. I find it very exciting.

What I want to know is, how do you suggest preserving these? I don't want them to deteriorate. They have been been in a box in her closet for who knows how long.

Is is something we can do ourselves or is it necessary to take to a professional and let them handle it. And how do you trust the person won't make a copy and give you that instead of your original. We dont know anyone so we would like to have some ideas to kind of do this ourselves. Otherwise we will just leave them alone and back in the original box but inside a good fireproof safe with my rifles and such.

I want to make sure we keep the originals and no copies are made without our permission. I have been told that with the age of them copyright law says they are now public domain??? That may be, but I want to make sure we have the orginals. I'm not up on all the law and not a lawyer but hopefully someone on here that is a professional knows what they are talking about and can give some advice. If we give them to anyone, it would be a museum or something like that. Some of these photos are pretty clear and in great condition I think.

[danchez]

Just a thought, and I am sure others will know more than me, but I would check with some local museums and let them know of your find and see if they would be interested in displaying it and helping you to preserve them.

[tc95]

You may also want to contact your local college...they may want them as a donation in your Grandomthers/Grandfathers name....

You may also want to contact the National Museum to see if they may be interested in them...

I would love to see you scan them in and share them with us...if you have the time...

Thanks...

[Hogleg 44]

My thought!!!!
Take them to a professional copying lab and have them digitized and put on DVD's. They are probably more interesting in their original state of age than if they were 'restored'.
Then you can work on them yourself with your own software.
A web search would probably turn up a number of WWI sites that would love to display those treasures. Especially with authentic descriptions of the events surrounding the pictures.

[Dblarrow]

Thanks all, but I just got in contact with some old friends of mine that I think can help me out on this.

Thanks!