How Do You Store Your Photo Collection?

[EKman]

Greetings all,

Like most of you, I love collecting photos. However, unlike medals, helmets, or other Third Reich items, photos can be a bit tricky to store. If they are stored securely, it can also make it difficult to easily access your collection.

So, I'm wondering how others have approached this issue of storage.

Here is my system.

I had a friend of mine who is a cabinet maker build these solid oak open cabinets.

At Wal-Mart I was able to fine the hinge-lid storage boxes that you see in the photo. I've treated my collection like an archive and seperated the images into many different categories that are each assigned to a storage box. These cabinets are deep and there are multiple rows of storage boxes.

The large boxes contain either documents or in most cases hoto albums or album pages indvidually wrapped in acid-free paper.

[EKman]

Here is what the inside of one of the boxes looks like.

Each of the photos in my archive are scanned into my computer for easy access and then the picture itself is placed in one of these archive sleeves. This is one of the boxes from the "Panzer" section.

[EKman]

I order 3x4 and 5x7 sleeves in 1,000 unit cases and have found that with those two sizes, I can accomodate nearly every image that enters my colection.

Here are a couple of randomly seected panzer images to show how they display in the tw sizes I mentioned.

[EKman]

Here's a closer image of that Tiger photo, someone might want a better look at it.

Anyway, I hope that this thread had been informative. Comments and suggestions for how to improve the system are always welcomed and I'd love to see how other's archive their collections.

Thanks,

Chris

[PZIV]

Thank you for this "guide" to storage! Out of curiosity what are the sleeves on the right side of the box? (Can we see them, I mean).

How much were the boxes at Wal-Mart?

[EKman]

Thank you for this "guide" to storage! Out of curiosity what are the sleeves on the right side of the box? (Can we see them, I mean).

How much were the boxes at Wal-Mart?

Thanks,

The boxes were around $5 each for the small ones and $7 for the large ones on the right in the photo--I think that was what I paid.

I'm not sure what sleeves you are talking about on the "right side of the box." If you mean the sleeves in the photo of the inside of the box, those are just the two different size sleeves. One size is 3x4 and the other size is 5x7. I'm just not clear on what you want to see, but I'm happy to take photos and share whatever you like, so let me know what you'd like to see.

Regards,

Chris

[Jareth]

can you recomend a distributer/seller of the sleeves ? website? Thanks

[PZIV]

I was speaking about the sleeves, but perhaps I was just initially confused due to the size of the case itself. And I don't know the size of the photos...

Anyway, makes more sense now! Very nice! Mind sharing some of your categories for archiving? (Just to keep things going)

Right now I don't have the space to archive my photos. I just have them in photo albums at the moment. (I do believe they are acid-free albums)

[EKman]

When I need more sleeves, I search for them on Ebay. There are a couple of sellers out there who deal in them. Search for baseball card holders or topload sleeves. That usually brings up a good selection. Of course, it is cheaper to buy them 1,000 at a time. I ran out recently and ordered 2 cases from the same seller because they were offering free shipping. Here is a link to the ebay auction. It may provide a place to start for those who want to acquire some of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

As for the categories that I have my archive broken down into, they are as follows:

KIA--within this category, I sub-divide by nationality.

Notable Third Reich Figures--these are individuals who, though they may have held military rank, are more notable for their civilian posts such as Albert Speer.

Generals

Knights Cross Winners--these include any candid photos of Knights Cross winners wearing their decoration, excluding Generals as they fall into their own category.

SS

FJ

Panzer--These photos are sub-divided by nationality and then the German Panzer category is further sub-divided by which Panzer Mark is picture, Tigers have their own section, Panthers their own, Mark IVs, and so on.

POW--Again sub-divided by nationality.

Luftwaffe--All things Luft related whether aircraft or individuals.

Heer--same idea as the Luft category.

Hitler--though certainly a "Notable Third Reich Figure" he gets his own category since I seek out candid Hitler photos.

Artillery and Soft-Skinned Vehicles

Holocaust--This category has many sub-divisions. Some represent photo groupings that are named to the Veteran who took the images upon liberating certain camps. Some categories represent the various Camps and individual photos not linked to a larger grouping are researched, identified and placed in their location such as Dachau, Buchenwald, Belsen, and so on. There is also a category for pre-war Jewish Persecution, Field Execution of Jewish Persons, and a General Poland Category that contains many images of Jewish persons being mistreated, forced labor photos, and Ghetto photos.

Graves

Scenery--This category depicts civilian life during the war. Included with pure scenery photos are images of factory workers, bomb-proofed buildings, and so on.

Destruction--Photos that show the destruction of war on cities or landscape but do not fall into another category by depicting soldiers or military hardware.

And then there are some lots that came together and are archived together such as:

Grossdeutchland Grouping
Gerbisjager Narvik Grouping
Bismark Grouping
Tirpitz Grouping
Japanese Surrender Ceremony Grouping
Ost Front Cavalry Officer Grouping
Berlin 1945 Grouping

[portraithunter]

Hello

Nice theme, I hope I can learn more here.
For 6x9 cm photos, I can recommend the collection covers for Poke Mon cards.
They have 3 rows and 3 columns, and be bound to folders.

[MLW]

To me, storage is but half the matter. What about recording the information you know about each photo? I find that the plastic sleeves do not lend themselves to that. I mount my photos on acid free paper and store them "catalog style" in PVC plastic binders.

[Mil-Archive]

It looks like a nice solution. Making digital copies and then putting the originals away is the best approach.

[EKman]

To me, storage is but half the matter. What about recording the information you know about each photo? I find that the plastic sleeves do not lend themselves to that. I mount my photos on acid free paper and store them "catalog style" in PVC plastic binders.

I agree very much with this. It is true that when stored in individual sleeves, you can't record any information about the photos. However, by backing up the collection digitally, this can be done. When I have a photo that has a caption on the back, I scan both the photo image and the corresponding caption. When there is more information about a photo grouping--such as veteran acquisition information, or stuff like that--I attach a digital notation to the image file.

This way I can scan and put away the original images and almost never have to bring them out into damaging light again or handle them in any way. Yet I can still quickly access all of the information about the images in my archive. Another plus of keeping a digital archive is that when I want to look at a specific photo, I can pull it up on the computer and zoom in, change the lighting, contrast, and any number of other things to help view the image and its details that I could not do if I were holding the actual photo.

[PZIV]

Chris,

I agree, electronic versions are a must. It might be an idea to put them in albums WITH a printed catalogue. That way it is easy to display to friends and family (it is a bit less fun to do it electronically). Nonetheless, electronic copies before archiving are a must.

Unfortunately I lost all of my electronic versions so...back them up...many times!!

[EKman]

Chris,

I agree, electronic versions are a must. It might be an idea to put them in albums WITH a printed catalogue. That way it is easy to display to friends and family (it is a bit less fun to do it electronically). Nonetheless, electronic copies before archiving are a must.

Unfortunately I lost all of my electronic versions so...back them up...many times!!

Yes, you certainly need to back everything up. I have a stand alone Maxtor hard drive. I can't recall how large it is, but my brother--who knows way more about computers than I ever will--told me that I would probbly never be able to fill the thing up. So, I always back up any additions to my computer onto that external tower drive.