How to safely unroll brittle old photos, demonstrated with Hong Kong panoramas taken in 1909

Old photo paper often becomes hard and brittle, and I recently received a pair of 1909 panorama photos with exactly that problem. As they’d been kept tightly rolled, if I tried to unroll them I’d likely crack the paper. In this video I’ll show how I first softened the photos’ paper and restored its flexibility, then was able to safely unroll the photos. The whole process took several days, but the results are worth it.

(Please click here to watch the video on Youtube if it isn't shown above.)

Thanks to Jo for sending these photos to me. She got in touch after seeing one of the recent videos, and explained the photos’ background: “I have an old photograph my father must have acquired in Hong Kong, it's a long panorama of 'the city from the harbour' with handwritten notes on the back identifying the different buildings etc. The photo is dated November 4th 1909.  It is not in great shape, the paper is stiff and fragile, torn and cracked and tightly rolled in four separate pieces.”

Additional information:

• How to uncurl your old photos - Advice from an Archivist
• How To Flatten Folded Or Rolled Paper Documents