WWI Photo Problem

[CBH]

I have a Unit photo from WWI , the problem is it has been rolled up for the last , almost 100 years . What is the best way to unroll this ? It seems brittle and I wonder if steaming or something like that would help . Any information would be helpful . Thanks for your help .
Cheers Chris

[Wagriff]

Not all that much that you can do for old photographs. You're going to probably end up with some crackling in the emulsion, but do Not apply steam to it, or else the 100 year old paper will disintegrate. About the best you can do is carefully unroll it the best you can and place it between 2 hard flat smooth surfaces and evenly apply weight to it-as much as you can, and leave it stay that way for a Long time-like over a month or more. It'll probably never look perfect, but with any luck it should eventually accept the flattening and stay in that shape again.

[big ned]

Hi Chris,

It's a chancy business, but you need to put the photo in a humid atmosphere for several hours. Monitor it closely, you may have to increase/ decrease the humidity, this is where using your own common sense comes in. Test it by carefully unrolling it, if it starts to show signs of resistance or tearing, stop; and repeat the process described above. When you've eventually unrolled the photo, place it flat between two sheets of blotting paper and either put it in between the pages of a heavy book or put a weight on it, and allow it to dry naturally.

That's about all I can suggest, but it's worked for me before.

Regards, Ned.

[CBH]

Thank you for the quick replies , I'll keep you posted on how it turns out .
cheers Chris