Thanks for the advice.  I recieved numerous responses, many of them with
some odd solutions; I understand the danger goes far beyond
unpleasantness, and would never consider opening puffy cans by myself! The
first thing I plan to do is isolate the questionable cans before bringing
them into our building, and perhaps let Heinz deal with them.  The glass
bottles with pickles seem lessthreatening, and as long as we can keep them
stable, I'd like to exhibit them someday, and perhaps have a lab do an
analysis of the contents for ingredients, additives, "freshness" - the
100-year old pickles actually look like pickles still.
thanks again,
Gregory S.