tape residue removal
 

Does anyone know the best way to remove old tape residue off the border of old photos?

Try using WD40. But first, experiment on a worthless photo, to see if it leaves any residue or surface dullness.

It has worked great for me, getting those irritating (and very stubborn) store price stickers off of Blu Ray slip covers. But be sure to try it on a worthless photo first... not one you care about.

Is the tape adhesive pliable/gummy, or 50+ years old and set up/hard/crusted?

Its hard/crusty and brownish in color. You can see it on the burke gehrig photo I bought from yee's auction. Im scared to mess with it because I dont want to risk ruining it but I just want to get it off the white border area

Perhaps GooGone, but test first of course.

Oh man, that's going to be tough on a couple of levels. First, the hard crusty tape that has solidified over the 70+ years since it was applied will not react the same as tape that was applied yesterday. Think of it like a freshly cracked egg that you could wipe most of it off with relative ease vs. one that has set up and baked onto the surface so that it is now much harder to remove.

Secondly, Burke prints of that sort generally have a "silk" finish that is closer to raw paper than your typical photo paper with the gelatin layer on top. Meaning you have no gelatin layer to act as a buffer between whatever you're doing to the surface and the image itself.

I wish I had an easy answer for you. I'm sure it's something that a paper conservator could tackle, and maybe others here will have some advice as well. As suggested though, I would definitely test out whatever you use on another print of a similar nature first, and I'm not sure how the image will react to various chemicals being applied without that protective emulsion layer. I don't think it's going to be as easy as getting a price sticker off a new action figure package though.

On a Gehrig photo? Don't mess with it...let an expert do it if you can't stand to look at it.

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