Restoring old photos?

Anyone know anything about restoring an old photo in a beat up frame....the picture is from around World War One.....very faded, beat up frame....wanted to see my options...I have no idea who to bring it to....or where to look....ryan

 

Here's a bad picture. It looks like the actual glasses curved I'm not sure if the picture is curved as well. I'm worried about opening it up and trying to touch it in fear of breaking it

 

Good place to maybe start with is the local museum?

 

Not gonna be much help with the frame (looks like it is brass, and the gilding has come away, leading to that green on the bottom), but I used to work in photographic preservation for a couple of museums. The glass is curved, but the picture will be flat. You will probably want to get it out of the frame (which should not be too hard, depending on how it is sealed) then get the image to someone for a high res scan. They can then use software to enhance the picture, and give you the file on CD, and you can then print it again.

The original should be left alone as much as possible, unless it has anything horrible growing on it. Handle it with cotton gloves. While the frame is open you can clean the inside glass with alcohol if you need to, let it sit for a day if you want to button it all back up, but it would be better to store the print in an acid free paper envelope in the dark outside the frame, and stick the reprint in the frame on the wall.

 

Thank u so much...I really appreciate the reply