When my father passed away, I was blessed to inherit all his image files. Literally several thousands 4x5 and 120 negatives and transparencies from over 50 years as a professional photographer. While much of his commercial work (aerials & architecture) provide a historic glimpse into our region, it is the hundreds of family negatives and transparencies that are treasures to me. Most of these negatives and transparencies have been stored, in some cases for over 60 years, in paper sleeves. I was looking at some of his Anscochrome 6x6 transparencies from 1956 and they look to be in terrific shape. I do notice that most of the transparencies and negatives are "dirty" with tiny flecks of "stuff" that mostly can be brush/blown off, but some will require additional cleaning.
I now have the joyous task of cleaning, cataloging, and storing these negatives and transparencies. My goal is to create a repository of family history on film for future generations to access and print. Accordingly, I very much want to get this right. I'm prepared to invest the time and money to do this correctly, but would like some suggestions and recommendations on how best to achieve my goal. For my own fine art photography, I store my 4x5 and 120 negatives in PrintFile polyethylene pages and then in the PrintFile Safe-T-Binders. This arrangement appears to have worked well for the past few years, but I want to have a level of certainty that I'm good for the long haul.
Your suggestions and recommendations are sincerely appreciated.
Jeff Welker
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