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How to Store Old Family Negatives

This post focuses on storing and preserving individual medium format negatives from the early and mid-20th century roll film cameras. Many family collections have these types of negatives that were returned to the customer cut into single frames. For the in-depth, comprehensive article on how to store negatives please visit How to Store and Preserve Negatives. It covers different formats (35mm strips, medium and large formats), film bases (glass, nitrate, acetate, and polyester), storage environment, and more.

Stack of vintage medium format negatives in a bad storage environment – in a plastic sandwich bag with acidic index cards

Above is an example of how one might inherit the early family negatives. Yes, it’s a mess and not archival, but with some time and effort you can sort, label, and store these properly. Even doing a little work would help – removing the negs from the baggie, removing the orange paper dividers, and placing the pile into an archival box.

Here’s a short, fun video about the rise of snapshot photography via Kodak cameras and roll films. In the first several decades of the 20th century most amateur photographers were shooting roll film (similar to modern medium format film – so called because it is larger than 35mm and smaller than large format – 4 x 5 and up). There were different sizes of roll film so your collection might have negatives of varying dimensions.

An example of four different sizes of early medium format roll film negatives. Three of these are from the collection in the sandwich bag seen above.

Storing and Preserving Negatives

If you have these types of negatives in your collection we encourage you to preserve them, because nothing compares to the original format. We recommend that you make hi-res scans as back-ups and to share with family members. You can also make prints and enlargements directly from your negatives or from your digital files.

When dealing with early 20th century negatives there’s a fair chance they are cellulose nitrate film, which is extremely flammable, so take precautions. Introduced around 1920, cellulose acetate gradually replaced nitrate over the next thirty years until nitrate was completely phased out. If you see the word “safety” on your film that indicates that it is acetate. But a lot of acetate isn’t labeled and it’s very hard to tell the difference. If it smells like vinegar then it is acetate (and it is breaking down and should be separated, if possible).

Both nitrate and acetate are autocatalytic which means that once the material (plastic) begins to break down (initiated by heat and humidity), it releases gasses that increase its own deterioration.

Example of a badly deteriorated negative from the early or mid 20th century.

Environment

Store you negatives at or below 70 F / 21 C (the colder the better) and between 20 to 50% humidity (the closer to 20% the better but not below 20%). No attics or basements. Store out of direct light.

Getting Started

I will use that pile of negatives in the plastic baggie as a sample project. First, get some powder-free nitrile gloves to protect both the negatives and yourself. If mold is a concern or you are are sensitive to it, wear an N95 mask. Set up a clean work area away from food, beverages, and pets.

You can use Pec-12 and Pec Pads to clean both negatives and printed photos.

Inspect your negatives. After taking a quick look at some of these negatives I see that there is dead or inactive mold or mildew (it’s not wet or slimy) on them. I used the Pec-12 Film and Photo Cleaner and Pec Pads to clean the negatives. Pec-12 should be used in a well-ventilated area.

Here’s the negative that was second from the right in the previous image, after cleaning. That red mark was already there. The Pec-12 definitely helped remove the mold.

It might be helpful to keep the negatives in order if you can, as someone at some point might have organized them. While a light box would come in handy during sorting, if you don’t have one you can just hold the negatives up to a bright light.

While this may look like a boring landscape that could be tossed, it might have value to your family as a document of the family farm and the equipment they used (in the right foreground).
Whereas this one is naturally a keeper! So good I reversed it for you. I love their outfits, mirrored poses, and the winter setting with the house in the background. In a perfect world you would be able to determine who these young ladies were and approximately when and where this was taken. I’m guessing the 1920s.

This stack has a variety of negative sizes. Next I will go over how to store them with archival preservation supplies.

Storage Materials

You will need an archival box and envelopes to store your negatives. We recommend acid-free, lignin-free supplies for long-term storage of negatives and other family archival materials like documents and photographs. Buffered board and paper add acid-scavenging properties to these supplies. All of our boxes and most of our envelopes are buffered with calcium carbonate.

Three Main Components

  • Archival Paper Folder (optional)
  • Archival Envelope
  • Archival Box

Some people use plastic enclosures or sleeves for storing negatives but based on information from several experts I would avoid plastic enclosures for negatives pre-dating 1960. Again, for more info on this see the comprehensive negative storage blog post mentioned earlier.

Simple Option

A simple option would be to order 4 x 5 Open End Envelopes #20-001 and Hinged Lid Box #02-503. These items are acid-free, lignin-free, and buffered. You would write identifying information about each negative on the envelope first. Then you would carefully insert one negative per envelope, taking care not to scratch the negative. Next put the envelopes into the archival box. If the box isn’t full, use a Photo Box Spacer to keep the negatives upright.

Hinged Lid Box 02-503 with 4 x 5 Open End Envelopes 20-001

If you don’t have a lot of negatives you could opt for the Hinged Lid Box 02-506. It’s an unusual hinged lid box because it’s the only one that has a drop front panel and it is fairly small (5-1/8 x 5-7/8 x 3” H). Our 4 x 5 open end envelopes can be stored flat inside of this box.

Hinged Lid Box 02-506 with 4 x 5 Open End Envelopes 20-001

Option with DIY Folders

Bigger sizes of medium format roll film in 4 x 5″ DIY paper folders made with 4 x 10 Permalife Bond Paper (132-410)
The DIY paper folders act as interleaving to prevent negatives from rubbing together and scratching. It also gives you space to write notes about each negative.

For the larger negatives in the bunch I used 4 x 10″ Permalife Bond Paper folded in half to create 4 x 5″ paper folders. I could label each folder (when empty) using pencil and then store about four negatives inside one 4 x 5 Open End Envelope. So if you have a large collection this is one way to save some money.

I used these supplies to create a good storage solution for the small sized old negatives.

Folders for Smaller Sizes

You could put the smaller sizes into the 4 x 5 folders or you could opt for the following. I folded 4 x 6 Permalife in half to create 3 x 4 folders for the smaller negatives. When folding paper a bone folder isn’t necessary but it does make it easier and creates a nice sharp fold.

Archivists recommend using pencil in an archive. Pens and archives don’t mix. You can erase pencil if you make a mistake. But if you do want to use a pen to label your boxes or outer envelopes, make sure you use an archival pen that passed the PAT.

Since the 3 x 4 folders are fairly small I made another envelope to hold them together inside the 4 x 5 Open End Envelope. For the inner envelope I used 5 x 7″ White Card Stock (79-57) folded in half to be 3-1/2 x 5. I used about 2 inches of Filmoplast P 90 to tape one edge closed which created an L-shaped folder. It could hold about seven negatives in folders.

I used white card stock and Filmoplast tape to make a 3-1/2 x 5 folder to hold multiple negatives.
Inserting card stock folder into the open end envelope. It is now ready to go into an archival box for safekeeping. An interior closet shelf or bookshelf out of direct light in a climate controlled room is a good home archive option.

We hope you have found this blog to be helpful. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about archival storage.