Anne,

I would personally stay away from solvents (including water). Teflon
spatulas can work wonders in some of these situations.

There are some excellent paper and photo conservators in North Carolina and
nearby. I would advise that you hire one of them for a single day to come
and go through the albums with you to work out a safe method for you to
accomplish this.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Senior Conservator and Museum Consultant
Los Angeles, CA
MindingTheMuseum.com

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 12:02 PM, Anne Lane <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

>  I have been asked to remove a collection of photographs from their mats
> in order to scan them and to replace old acidic matboard and backing with
> archival materials. I find that the photos have been adhered to the backs of
> the mats with adhesive transfer tape, and can’t be removed mechanically
> without tearing them. Does anyone have a recommendation for a method to
> dissolve or at least soften this stuff so I can remove the photos safely?
> They are standard black and white photographs.
>
>
>
> Many thanks, and apologies for egregious cross-posting.
>
>
>
> Anne
>
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