Preserving your family history and memories means using the right materials - acid and lignin free scrapbook albums, papers and similar.  But even if you take great care in material selection you also need to consider outside factors that could wreak havoc on your collection.  These include:

Temperature: The higher the thermometer reads the faster your materials will deteriorate.  Temperature speeds up a chemical reaction and the aging of your materials is just that - a chemical reaction.  Over time, paper for example, becomes brittle, but the temperature of the paper affects how fast that happens. 

Moisture: High levels of moisture, whether as relative humidity (dampness) or a leaky basement, can cause mold to form.

Sunlight:  Extended exposure to UV light, such as sunlight shining through a window, can cause fading of inks and dyes found in a photograph or a scrapbook album page, for example.

Pollution: Indoor pollution examples include cleaning sprays (acidic) or cigarette smoke (abrasive).

Cross Contamination: This is just a fancy way of saying that if you put an acid bearing paper, like a newspaper clipping, on an acid free scrapbook paper, the acid from the clipping will contaminate the scrapbook paper causing it to discolor and become brittle just like the newsprint.  As another example, putting a pressed or dried flower in a scrapbook page has the same affect.  The lignin in the plant will become acidic and affect the paper it is on (put the flower in an archival memorabilia pocket, then mount the pocket on your scrapbook paper). 

You: You?  Sure.  People issues include mishandling, such as dropping or spilling, and skin oils.  Ever see fingerprints on a photograph?  Not only are skin oils a potential problem, but whatever you may have touched beforehand could be too.  You may have traces of dirt, acids, salts and so forth on your fingers.  Wash/clean your hands before handling important photos and papers, or better yet, wear gloves.

While each of these factors can affect your family history materials singly, when combined, they can be even more destructive.  A warm, damp basement is much worse than a cool, damp basement.

Take care to minimize the impact of each of these factors and you will give your family history materials a greater chance to survive into the future.

If you would like to learn more about preserving your scrapbook albums, documents, or photos, pleasevisit our eGuide section, or use any of the products shown below.

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