>>The gelatin that remains on carbon prints has been very effectively hardened
>>as a part of the process which probably makes it less friendly to mould.
>>I've
>>not seen it on carbons (yet)
>Now that is very interesting. Did you make the carbon prints yourself? Did
>you use a hardening bath towards the end of the process? What type?
I only meant the image containing gelatin is hardened (the basis of the
process)- and this is on top of the unhardened gelatine on the paper. I
haven't hardened separately. I've used commercial carbon tissue and made my
own and haven't seen mould growth, although these prints are stored in the
same poor conditions as my silver gelatin work. I've not noticed it in museum
etc specimens either - where again it is noticeable in some silver prints, but
perhaps I've just not looked at enough.
For the silver prints, did you use a fixer with hardener? >>
One of the things I was told to give up when I learnt about archival
processing! However I don't know what the current advice on this is.
Obviously there are problems in any processing of valuable historical
photographs. However the example you gave is perhaps a little different. If it
were _my_ family album I'd be inclined to make some very good copies and then
try and remove both the stains and the excess iron if expert opinion were that
this was possible.
So far as I can see all of the photos in my own family album are silver and
all are in at least fairly good condition.
Peter Marshall
On Fixing Shadows and elsewhere:
http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~ds8s/
Family Pictures, German Indications, London demonstrations &
The Buildings of London etc: http://www.spelthorne.ac.uk/pm/