ASSESSMENT OF GROWTH REQUIREMENTS OF BIOLOGICAL DEGRADATION ON THE COATING GELATIN LAYER ON HERITAGE PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographic archives in museums, libraries, and private collections are exposed to many environmental factors that are threatening their sustainability. Microorganisms are considered one of the most threatening factors of the extinction of gelatin photograph prints, due to the nature of the components of the photographs. This paper presents the identification of microentities growing on gelatin photograph prints as a first step to study the effect of using Nanomaterials to treat microbiological damage on gelatin photographs, which will be explained in part II. UV photography was used to identify the extent of biological damage on the image and where the spores were present. USB microscope 60X with UV-LED 400nm was used to study the appearance of biological damage on the surface of the coating gelatin layer and paper. Samples were grown in a suitable nutrient medium. Czapek's medium was used to isolate and grow fungal isolates. The resulting organisms were grown in specialized environments, which are cellulose agar and gelatin environment agar. Microorganisms were defined. Growth requirements were determined. It was recommended to control the temperature and humidity in the conservation environment to be between 15 - 20 degrees C and 30% 50% humidity. The potential daily change is 3 degrees C for temperature and 10% for humidity. By identifying the growth requirements of these organisms, the surrounding environment was controlled to stop the growth of these organisms, in preparation for treating those using Nanomaterials in the second part of the study.

Automated summary

This paper presents the identification of microentities growing on gelatin photograph prints and discusses the study of using Nanomaterials to treat microbiological damage on gelatin photographs. UV photography and USB microscope were used to study the distribution and appearance of biological damage on the image surface. Additionally, the growth requirements of these microorganisms were determined and recommendations were made to control temperature and humidity to prevent their growth.