Preserving Family Photos & Heirlooms, with Kate Jacus

The January 9th 2025 meeting of the Honeoye Falls – Town of Mendon Historical Society featured Kate Jacus, whose topic was “Preserving Family Photos & Heirlooms.”

Not sure where to start organizing and preserving your photos and family heirlooms? In this presentation, Kate discusses a framework for your preservation project that can help break it into manageable sections. You’ll also learn about the science behind archival storage materials and explore options for storing photographs, negatives, slides, family documents, and common family heirlooms.

Kate is the Preservation Specialist for Documentary Heritage & Preservation Services for New York, conducting preservation needs assessments and educational programs for libraries and archival repositories in New York State. She also provides photo organizing and collections management services to families through her business, The Photo Curator. Previously, she was the Marketing Coordinator for Archival Methods, a supplier of archival storage and presentation supplies. Her past museum work includes Collections Manager at The Strong in Rochester, NY and Membership Assistant at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Kate lives in Brighton with her family.

*Resources for photo preservation info:*

*Two options for paid, private cloud storage - no data mining/advertising:*

*Already have photos stored online?*

*Collecting family stories:*

*Online backup service:*

*A/V digitization:*

*Archival storage supplies:*