Archiving Local Photographs and Documents: Standards and Storage

Physical Storage: The Basics

Archival preservation standards in Canada follow two main frameworks: the Canadian Conservation Institute guidelines (published by the federal government and freely available) and the ISO 11799 standard for document storage conditions. Neither requires expensive equipment for a small collection; both require discipline about environment and materials.

Temperature and Relative Humidity

The target range for mixed paper and photographic collections is 15–18°C and 30–50% relative humidity. The most important factor is stability: a steady 17°C is far less damaging than a room that swings between 12°C in winter and 28°C in summer. Attics and uninsulated garages are the worst possible locations regardless of what containers the materials are stored in. A climate-controlled interior room — a finished basement away from exterior walls, an interior office — is preferable to any uninsulated space.

Inexpensive digital hygrometers (under $30 at most hardware stores) allow you to monitor conditions over time. Take readings weekly for two months before committing to a storage location.

Acid-Free Materials

Ordinary cardboard boxes, manila envelopes, and most commercially available folders are acidic. Over time they transfer acid to the materials stored inside them, causing yellowing, brittleness, and chemical breakdown. Acid-free (also labelled alkaline-buffered or pH-neutral) containers and enclosures are required for anything intended to last beyond twenty years.

Sources in Canada for archival-quality materials include:

• Archivart (Montreal) — boxes, folders, tissue, polyester sleeves
• Gaylord Archival (ships to Canada) — broad range of enclosures
• University surplus sales — institutions periodically sell archival-quality materials when collections are reorganized

Polyester (Mylar) sleeves, not polypropylene, are the correct enclosure for photographs. Polypropylene is acceptable for documents but should be avoided for photographic materials because of off-gassing concerns.

Organizing Physical Collections

The standard arrangement is by provenance (who donated or created the material), then by date within each provenance group. Mixing materials from different donors or creators in a single folder destroys the contextual information that makes the collection useful.

Each folder and box should carry a basic label: donor name or collection identifier, date range of contents, and a folder number within the box. A corresponding finding aid — even a simple spreadsheet — records what is in each location and where specific items can be found.

Photographs: Special Considerations

Photographs present archival challenges that paper documents do not. The emulsion layer is chemically distinct from the paper base, and different photographic processes require different storage conditions and enclosures.

Identifying the Process

Most photographs encountered in Canadian local archives fall into a few categories:

• Albumen prints (1860s–1910s): cream or yellow-toned paper prints, prone to fading and yellowing. Store individually in polyester sleeves.
• Gelatin silver prints (1880s–present): the most common black-and-white print type. Generally stable if stored cool and dry.
• Colour photographs (1940s–present): dye-based processes that fade significantly faster than black-and-white in poor conditions. Cold storage (below 10°C) dramatically extends life expectancy for colour photographs.
• Glass-based images (ambrotypes, tintypes, glass plate negatives): extremely fragile. Store vertically in individual padded enclosures. Never stack horizontally.

The Canadian Conservation Institute publishes free care and handling notes for each photographic type, including illustrated identification guides.

Handling Protocols

Cotton gloves are appropriate for glass-based images. For paper prints, clean dry hands are generally preferable to cotton gloves, which reduce tactile sensitivity and increase the risk of mechanical damage. Never write on the back of a photograph with ballpoint pen; if marking is necessary, use a soft pencil on the back edge.

Photographs should never be stored face-to-face without an interleaving sheet. Rubber bands, paper clips, and staples are all damaging and should be removed from any incoming donations before materials are integrated into the collection.

Digital Scanning: Resolution and File Formats

Digitization does not replace physical preservation. A high-quality digital scan of a deteriorating photograph does not stop the original from deteriorating further. Both the physical original and the digital copy need proper management.

Recommended Scanning Parameters

The following specifications are consistent with recommendations from the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) and adapted for small community archive workflows:

• Photographic prints (up to 8×10 inches): 600 ppi minimum for preservation masters; 300 ppi acceptable for access copies
• Negatives and slides: 2400–4000 ppi depending on format size (35mm requires higher ppi than 4×5 inch negatives)
• Text documents (standard letter size): 400 ppi minimum; 600 ppi if the document contains fine print or handwriting
• Oversize documents (maps, architectural drawings): 300–400 ppi; requires a flatbed scanner with a large bed or a overhead copy stand

File format for preservation masters: uncompressed TIFF. JPEG is acceptable for access copies but should never be used as the sole copy of a unique original. PDF/A is appropriate for multi-page documents intended for long-term preservation.

File Naming and Folder Structure

Consistent, meaningful file names are the difference between a usable digital collection and an unmanageable folder of files named "scan001.tif." A workable convention for small archives:

[CollectionCode]_[FolderNumber]_[ItemNumber]_[Date].[ext]

Example: SMITH_B03_F12_19280615.tif — from the Smith donation, box 3, folder 12, photographed June 15, 1928.

The naming convention should be documented and applied consistently from the beginning; renaming thousands of files after the fact is a significant undertaking.

Metadata: What to Record for Each Item

Metadata is the information about an item that allows someone to find it, understand it, and cite it. At minimum, each digitized photograph or document should have:

• A unique identifier matching the file name
• Date (or estimated date range if unknown)
• Location depicted or created
• Names of people or places shown (if known)
• Source/donor and accession date
• Physical format and condition notes
• Copyright status and any known restrictions on use

The Dublin Core metadata standard is widely used by Canadian cultural institutions and is compatible with most collection management software. CollectiveAccess is a free, open-source collection management system used by several Canadian community archives.

Copyright and Access Considerations

In Canada, the copyright term for most works is life of the creator plus 70 years (amended from 50 years in 2022 following the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement implementation). Photographs taken before 1949 by creators who died before 1955 are generally in the public domain. For photographs where the creator is unknown, the term is 75 years from the date of creation.

Photographs taken by employees of a Canadian government body are Crown copyright, which expires 50 years after the end of the calendar year of publication.

When accepting donations, it is best practice to have donors sign an agreement that transfers copyright to the archive or explicitly grants a broad license for non-commercial use, educational reproduction, and online access. Without this, the archive holds physical custody but cannot legally reproduce or publish the images.

Disaster Preparedness

A small community archive that has not identified its most irreplaceable materials — and made at least one offsite backup copy — is one burst pipe away from an unrecoverable loss. Basic steps:

1. Identify the ten to twenty most significant items in the collection (unique originals with no other known copies).
2. Digitize those items first, at preservation-quality resolution.
3. Store digital copies in at least two physically separate locations, including one off-premises (a cloud backup service, a university partner, or another community archive).
4. Photograph the storage room and document where major collections are located — this information is needed for emergency responders.

The Canadian Museums Association and provincial museum networks offer emergency preparedness resources specific to small institutions.