Disaster planning and what happens when disaster strikes

Being prepared for a disaster is crucial for the survival of a physical photography collection. Photographs, like most archival material, are delicate and sensitive to the elements. Should they become exposed to floods, fires, or other emergencies, a repository should be prepared to deal with this emergency and recover the materials. Having a Disaster Plan is important for each repository so the staff might be prepared in the event an emergency does occur. Though Disaster Plans vary from repository to repository, most of the important factors remain consistent.

A Disaster Plan should have the contact information of the staff, fire department, security, and other relevant numbers. It would also be helpful to contain information about the building such as the location of the main water shut-off valve, the sprinkler system, fire extinguishers, alarm kits, and so on. There should also be step-by-step instructions of how to evacuate the building and prepare in the case of advanced warning of a disaster.

And then of course, there should be a process of recovery after the disaster. Different processes exist for different types of materials, but all materials should undergo a form of triage to determine what the damage to them is and what should be done with them. If outside help is needed to repair the damage, those people should be contacted and payment for the services should be arranged. Detailed records should be kept of everything done to the photographs such as the areas and items affected, location of items, and methods used to salvage them.

Hendriks and Lesser developed some recommendations to follow if photographs got wet: “a. air dry b. freeze, thaw, air dry c. freeze, dry in vacuum chamber” though this last step is not recommended for photographs (Ritzenthaler, 269). Wet collodion glass plate negatives should never be immersed in water and should never be freeze dried. Freezing the photographs slows the deterioration process and allows the prints to be salvaged.

Drying is also an important method of salvaging photographs. This can include line drying, flat drying, or drying with fans. Line drying involves setting up a clothesline and hanging the photographs from it. Flat drying has several layers of flat surfaces where photographs are lain face up to dry. Fans and dehumidifiers can be used to keep the air moving and dry while the photographs dry out.

Not all repositories are equipped with the capabilities to take care of materials such as daguerreotypes or nitrate film. Those materials should be sent out to be taken care of professionally to minimize the damage to them.

When Hurricane Sandy hit, many places both professional and personal were flooded with water. As a result, many photograph collections were damaged and in need of repair. Randy Taylor was among those photographers who lost their entire archive of material, nearly forty years worth of famous work that had been in a storage unit. By the time the storage facility was accessible, Taylor’s photographs (mostly modern prints) had undergone extensive water and mold damage. Less than .1% of his material was able to be salvaged. The photographs he could remove from the storage unit were dipped in rubbing alcohol in an effort to clean off the mold and prevent further deterioration. This method created unique cracking, discoloration, and blurring which Taylor turned into a unique photographic art form. Several things Taylor said he would have done different were to have digital copies saved at other locations (though he admits that would have been costly), and to not store the photographs themselves in one single location.

A soldier stands guard on Wall Street shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City.

Layers of photographic emulsion have peeled away to reveal the primary colors that make up this image of fireworks at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom in Florida.

The 2011 Japan Tsunami also destroyed many personal collections of photographs were caught in the resulting floods and destroyed. The photographs that survived were taken by volunteers who spent many hours painstakingly cleaning and drying these personal collection. The photographs (mostly modern prints) were washed and hung on clotheslines or placed flat on tables to dry. Many of these photos were able to be saved, but most of them have damage to them including cracking and discoloration. 

Volunteers clean baby photos that were washed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami at a volunteer center in Ofunato

Family photos that were washed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, are hanged to dry after cleaning at a volunteer center in Ofunato

The Corning Museum of Glass flood in 1972 provided a terrific example of what not to do with water-damaged photographs. When the nearby Chemung River flooded, it put the museum under five feet of water. Though most of its glass collection went undamaged and merely needed meticulous cleaning, the library and archives suffered irreparable damage. In an effort to keep the soaked photographs from deteriorating futher, mounted prints were immersed into a swimming pool. This allowed the photographs to be pulled apart from each other but “Unfortunately, the chemicals in the pool adversely affected the emulsion and they (photographs) had to be destroyed” (Martin 24). Over 11,000 items had to be destroyed because the museum wasn’t prepared on the proper methods of salvaging photographs. The museum’s recollection of the restoration of their photograph collection, however, briefly mentions this unfortunate occurrence before moving onto more professional means of salvaging, such as washing the photographs with clean water and freezing them. 

Restored photographic prints dried on a drum dryer.

Having a thorough understanding of the materials a repository has, their needs, and what to do with them is crucial. Being prepared for unknown disaster is equally as important as knowing the collection, otherwise mistakes might be made and the materials lost. Photographs are delicate materials, subject to all sorts of destruction and deterioration, and it is important to understand how to deal with them if and when disaster does strike.

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