How to Digitize and Preserve Old Kirksville Family Photographs

Digitizing an old photograph should create another durable copy.

It should not damage the original or replace it.

The safest workflow treats the physical photograph, the digital master and the edited sharing copy as three different things.

Inspect before scanning

Before putting an old print on a scanner, look for:

• cracks;
• flaking surface;
• curling;
• brittle paper;
• tape;
• adhesive;
• glass;
• album mounting;
• mold or moisture damage.

Do not force a fragile object flat simply because a scanner lid closes.

A photograph stuck to glass, tightly bound in an album or physically unstable may be safer to capture with a camera from above.

Handle originals gently

Library of Congress preservation guidance emphasizes avoiding unnecessary physical intervention.

Useful habits include:

• clean, dry hands or appropriate gloves for the material;
• support fragile items;
• avoid paper clips and rubber bands;
• avoid tape and sticky notes;
• avoid aggressive cleaning;
• use a gentle air bulb for loose dust rather than blasting the surface.

If a photograph needs conservation treatment, digitization is not a substitute for that treatment.

Choose the capture method for the object

Flatbed scanner

Good for stable, loose prints that can safely lie flat.

Camera copy setup

Useful for albums, large items, fragile prints or materials that should not be pressed under glass.

Film scanner or camera setup

Useful for negatives and slides.

The goal is not to force every object through one machine.

Capture a preservation master

Create a high-quality master file that preserves as much useful information as practical.

Do not make the only surviving digital copy a compressed social-media JPEG.

FADGI guidance treats digitization quality as a combination of resolution, tonal/color performance and capture quality rather than one magical DPI number for every object.

The correct settings depend on the original material and intended use.

Scan both sides

The back of a photograph may contain:

• names;
• dates;
• studio stamps;
• addresses;
• handwritten notes;
• identification clues.

Capture front and back as related files.

If the item came from an album, photograph the whole album page too.

Page position and neighboring captions can be part of the historical evidence.

Keep masters separate from edits

Preservation masters should remain minimally altered.

Create derivative copies for:

• cropping;
• rotation;
• dust cleanup;
• contrast adjustment;
• restoration;
• web sharing.

Do not overwrite the only master with a heavily retouched version.

Use stable identifiers

A durable filename can combine a unique ID with a short descriptor.

For example:

KIRK-FAM-PH-000123_front.tif

and

KIRK-FAM-PH-000123_back.tif

The ID is more important than trying to fit the full family story into the filename.

Descriptive information belongs in metadata.

Record what you know

Useful metadata can include:

• item ID;
• people;
• place;
• date or date range;
• photographer;
• source;
• who identified the image;
• front/back notes;
• rights;
• confidence.

If identification is uncertain, record that uncertainty.

Use “possibly,” “circa,” or a date range instead of turning a guess into a precise fact.

Check the first batch before scanning hundreds

After a few images, zoom in and verify:

• focus;
• full edges captured;
• readable writing;
• correct orientation;
• no scanner streaks;
• file opens;
• color/tonality looks reasonable.

Fix the workflow before repeating the problem across an entire collection.

Preserve the physical originals

Digitization does not make the physical item disposable.

Store originals in a cool, dry and stable environment.

Avoid attics, damp basements and extreme temperature swings.

Use appropriate archival-quality enclosures when practical.

Back up the digital masters

Keep the masters on more than one storage device or location.

The scanning project is not complete if a single failed drive can erase all the work.

For organizing the files into something searchable, see How to Build a Searchable Digital Archive of Your Kirksville Family History.

For eventual institutional donation, see How to Prepare a Digital Kirksville Local-History Collection for Donation to an Archive.