Turn of the century photo preservation help

[huttjos]

Hi everyone, I need your photography knowledge help, and really have no idea how to go about this.

About two years ago, after my grandfather passed (living in the philadelphia area), I was given the duty of cleaning out his house. Even though he was a pack rat, he sure did have some interesting finds.

When I was cleaning out his basement workshop, I stumbled upon a collection of old photo albums above his work bench; all my life, never noticing they were even there. There were about 40 albums strong on that shelf. Turns out, these are some pretty old photo albums. Bound in the old black cardboard type albums, it appears they are a collection of the city of Philadelphia's Transportation Department survey photos: from about 100 years ago. Each album (it seems) is of a different street or block of philadelphia-being built. I would imagine as some of the blocks specify, of south and west philly. Each photo is dated and numbered, the years ranging from 1890s-1930s. Many of the photos appear to be construction type, with people working all about (very, very cool). There are others way greater though ,showing elevated shots of downtown Philadelphia back in the day, like when Market street was made of wooden planks and trolleys were all about and people dressed like they were from a western, lol! There are also a few albums that concentrate on indoor stations, it seems. But there are even a few other select albums that actually have original blueprints for the El system.

These photos are still in pretty good condition for the most part, with only a handful being a little messed up. (And by little, I mean little). I showed an album to a photo savy friend of mine and even though I knew it, he confirmed they were original. He told me what type of photo they were (chemically) and said that I really need to preserve these right, or else they will fade or disintegrate or something. I forget what he said they were though at this moment.

So all that being said, these are quite a find in my book, but I really dont know what/how to preserve them properly. I was hoping you guys would know a company or something I could go to, or maybe just methods I could do my own, just to keep them safe. They're still all good and dandy, and in much better care then they were prior to me finding them.

Any other questions you guys have feel free to ask

Thanks for your help!

[SmartWombat]

If they're lasted this long without major damage, then I'd store them like they were. Out of the light, out of major changes in temperature/humidity.
I would suggest a local museum or art gallery might be able to help, or point you to someone who can advise on preservation of the photos.
I know that our local library in the UK has a photographic section which has a large number of photos, you may have a local collection who would like copies of the images.

The Fotolibra agency that I use are looking specifically for old photos. If you get these scanned (carefully!) there may be a market for them.