Ok. Let’s talk about the word “archival”. It basically means the material it is made out of won’t harm or damage your photographs, but there really are no universal standards for what is or is not archival. It is basically left to the manufacturer to determine if they feel their product is archival. And I can tell you, I see a lot of products that DEFINITELY don’t meet my standards!
Be on the look out for anything that includes glue and plastics. The sticky back adhesive style photo albums are a great example of something that is not good for your pictures. I have to admit, for this reason I’m not a huge fan of scrap booking and never have been. However, if you are putting together those neat albums make sure you aren’t using the only copy of a photograph. There is a strong possibility that in 20 years those pictures will have taken on some new colors!
For albums I’m definitely going to pick a photo book with the pocket style pages. Look for albums that say they are acid free and PVC free. This style of album should not react with your photographs and cause any discoloration.
When it comes to storing photos in boxes, I’ll never be a fan. After Hurricane Ian it was those stacks of photographs that were in boxes that were stuck together and couldn’t be saved. I had volunteered to save thousands of pictures, but those were the ones that rarely made it. However some things just need to live in a photo storage box. I have had one photo box going back to when I was in college. It’s all of the work from my photography classes. I graduated in 1997 and those photographs still look like new. If you have a group of pictures that are also meant to be in a box, avoid the plastic boxes. Look for a museum quality box. Like this one:
Yes, in theory a plastic box would keep water out, but in my experience, they don’t. I saw first hand how those boxes filled with flood water. They then locked the moisture in. In the case of a flood I don’t believe there is any benefit to plastic boxes. So definitely look into the museum quality box to store your photographs!
How are you storing your photographs? Have you had photographs that were discolored or damaged because of how they were stored? Share your thoughts in the comments!