Handling & Care of old photos

[laura&fam]

I'm helping my mom put some old photos in a scrapbook and I'm about having a heart attack. She's cutting them and putting adhesive on the back and all sorts of stuff.
How are we suppose to be handling these? They are anywhere from 70 years old and newer. Any tips? Any suggestions for politely getting my mom to listen to me about not cutting them up? I did convince her to at least scan them first and I considered that a small victory.

 

[JohnsonsLoveDisney]

Scanning is awesome.

See if she will use the clear corners to stick them down. The triangle ones that the pics slip into. I used them for my grandmas old pics. We also scanned them to make copies for everyone else.

My biggest peeve is when my gma would write on the front of the pics! So annoying! A whole blank back and you used an ink pen to write on the front? Erg!

 

[laura&fam]

Writing on the front of photos would be really bad. Some of the photos that were writen on the back you could see the indentation from the pen on the front of the photo, but at least they didn't write on it.

I guess I'm just super paranoid about old photos and when I saw my mom taking scissors to them I freaked out a bit.

 

[fireplug]

Having gone through 3 generations of photos I would cautiously say.......Scan a few of the ones that are of people you know. And then let her scrap the way she want. Your kids wont know who half of those people are and most likely wont care in 25 years. We threw out 1000's of pics we had no idea who the people in them even were. And I really dont need pics of my grandmothers school friends....
Squid

 

[mommy2mrb]

its wonderful you have them! good call on scanning them!

when my grandma died one of my uncles took all of her albums and refused to share with my mom, aunt and other uncle...sadly he wasn't careful with them and put them in a cardboard box in his garage, which was flooded a couple years later....everything was lost! we have very few photos of our family now because of that!

 

[laura&fam]

I am very glad we have them. I'd say we only have maybe 25 photos of my mom before she was 18 and half that of my dad. I love the scanner because I was worried I would mess up when cutting a circle or oval and ruin the picture and we just don't have that many.

I'm trying to let my mom do what she wants with them because it is her life. Also I love the stories she is journaling with them.