Saving Wet or Smoky Photos, Papers and Keepsakes

The 48 Hour Clock

Wet paper and photos have two enemies. Mold can start growing in 48 to 72 hours in warm, damp conditions. Photos stuck together start to bond permanently as they dry. That gives you roughly two days to either dry things or freeze them.

You will not be able to air dry everything in time after a big leak or flood. That is fine. Sort quickly into three groups.

1. Priority items you cannot replace, such as family photos, letters, children’s artwork, legal papers and heirloom books.
2. Items you can dry now, as many as you have space and time for.
3. Items to freeze until you are ready to deal with them.

Start with photos, because they suffer the fastest. Then do documents, then books. Keep a simple list of what you have, which helps with an insurance claim. Photograph damaged items before you clean or discard them.

Move everything out of the damaged area to a cool, dry room with good air flow. Heat and humidity speed up mold, so air conditioning helps.

Wet Photographs

Most modern prints from the last several decades can survive being wet for a day or two if you act carefully. Handle photos by the edges, and never touch or rub the image side. Wet emulsion is soft and scratches or lifts easily.

1. If photos are dirty or muddy, rinse them gently in a tray of clean cold water. Do not rub.
2. If photos are stuck together, soak them in cold water and try to ease them apart. If they will not separate easily, do not force them. Freeze them and let a conservator try.
3. Take photos out of albums and frames while wet. Plastic sleeves and magnetic pages trap water.
4. Lay photos face up on clean paper towels, or hang them by the corner with plastic clothespins on a line.
5. Change the paper towels underneath when they get wet.
6. Keep air moving with a fan pointed away from the photos, not directly at them.

Photos may curl as they dry. Once fully dry, you can press them flat between sheets of clean paper under a stack of books for a few days. Negatives and slides can be rinsed the same way and hung to dry by the edges.

Papers and Documents

Wet paper tears easily, so support it from underneath when you lift it.

• For single sheets, lay them flat on paper towels in a single layer. Replace the towels as they soak through.
• For small stacks, interleave paper towels or wax paper every few sheets and let them dry flat. Do not try to peel wet sheets apart if they resist.
• If ink is running, dry those pages face up and do not rinse them.
• For thick stacks, bound documents and anything you cannot deal with in 48 hours, freeze them.

For papers that you can replace, focus your time on the originals that matter. Many vital documents can be reissued, including birth certificates from your state’s vital records office, passports from the State Department, Social Security cards from the Social Security Administration, vehicle titles from the motor vehicle department and past tax returns as transcripts from the IRS. Once dry, scan or photograph everything important so you have a backup.

Books

Books hold a surprising amount of water, and the paper swells as it dries.

Do not open a soaked book fully flat or try to separate wet pages that are stuck. Once a book is mostly dry, close it and press it gently under weight to reduce warping. Some wrinkling is normal and does not mean the book is ruined. Check dried books over the next few weeks for musty smells or fuzzy spots, which mean mold.

Freezing to Buy Time

Freezing does not dry items, but it stops mold and stops photos from sticking together, and wet items can stay frozen for weeks or months until you or a pro can deal with them.

1. Put a sheet of wax paper between photos, documents or small stacks so they do not freeze together.
2. Place them in zip-top freezer bags, press out the air and seal.
3. Wrap books individually in wax paper or freezer paper before bagging.
4. Label each bag with what is inside and the date.
5. Freeze as cold as your freezer goes, ideally 0 degrees Fahrenheit or colder.

To thaw, take out a few items at a time and let them thaw slowly in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then air dry as described above. Professional services can vacuum freeze dry frozen items, which pulls the water out as vapor without the paper ever getting wet again. It is the gold standard for books and large collections.

Do not freeze glass plate negatives, tintypes, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes or other old photos on glass or metal. Freezing can crack or ruin them. Dry these face up and call a conservator.

Smoke and Soot Damaged Keepsakes

Smoke and soot need a different approach from water. Soot is oily and acidic, and water or a damp cloth smears it into paper and photos.

• Handle with clean cotton or nitrile gloves.
• Brush loose soot off gently with a soft, clean brush, working away from the center.
• For papers and book edges, a dry chemical soot sponge used with light strokes can lift soot. Test it on the edge first.
• Do not wipe the image side of a photo with anything. A conservator can often remove soot from photos safely.
• Store smoky items in open boxes in a well ventilated room, away from clean items, until the odor fades. A sealed box traps the smell.
• Placing items in a closed bin with an open container of activated charcoal or baking soda, without touching the items, can help reduce odor over several weeks.

Items that were near heat may be brittle, warped or blistered. Handle them as little as possible and support them from underneath.

What Never to Do and When to Call a Conservator

A few common moves ruin keepsakes that could have been saved.

• Do not use a hair dryer, heater, oven, microwave, iron or direct sun to dry photos or papers. Heat warps, curls, cracks and yellows them.
• Do not pull apart stuck photos after they have dried.
• Do not use bleach or cleaners on photos or papers.
• Do not stack wet items or seal them in plastic without freezing them. That is how mold starts.

Call a professional conservator or document recovery service for irreplaceable historic photos, oil paintings, fine art on paper, rare books, and items soaked in sewage or floodwater that you want to keep. The American Institute for Conservation keeps a public directory of conservators by specialty and location. For flood soaked items that are not irreplaceable, it is often safer to scan or photograph them and then let them go. Wear gloves and a mask while handling any keepsake that touched floodwater or grew mold.

Step by Step

1. Move Items to a Cool Dry Room

   Get photos, papers and books out of the damaged area into a cool, dry, well ventilated room. Wear gloves if water was dirty.

2. Sort by Priority

   Separate irreplaceable items, items you can dry now, and items to freeze. Photograph damaged items for your records.

3. Rinse Dirty Photos

   Gently rinse muddy photos in a tray of clean cold water, handling them only by the edges. Do not rub the image.

4. Separate While Wet

   Take photos out of albums and frames and ease stuck photos apart in cold water. If they resist, freeze them instead.

5. Air Dry Face Up

   Lay photos and single sheets face up on paper towels, or hang photos by a corner. Keep a fan moving air in the room, not blowing on them.

6. Interleave Books

   Place paper towels every 20 pages or so in partly wet books and lay them flat. Stand damp books upright with pages slightly fanned.

7. Freeze the Rest

   Separate items with wax paper, seal in labeled freezer bags and freeze at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or colder within 48 hours.

8. Brush Off Soot Dry

   For smoky items, brush loose soot away with a soft dry brush. Never wipe with water or a damp cloth.

9. Check for Mold

   Watch dried items for musty smells and fuzzy spots over the next few weeks, and keep them apart from your clean collection.

10. Scan and Back Up

    Once dry, scan or photograph every important photo and document and store copies in two places.

Mistakes That Make It Worse

• Drying photos with a hair dryer or in the sun. Heat curls, cracks and fades them for good.
• Leaving wet photos stuck together. As they dry, they bond permanently.
• Stacking wet papers in a box to deal with later. Mold starts within days unless you freeze them.
• Wiping soot off photos with a damp cloth. It smears soot into the image.
• Freezing tintypes or glass plate negatives. Freezing can crack or destroy them.