Scan them. They're not getting any younger. Recently I invaded a long neglected drawer of old photos and papers. The old newspaper clippings were disintegrating. The photos were in some cases bent and in all cases faded. The arid climate here probably contributed but time does no favors to old paper anywhere. Zeroes and ones will hold up better.

I must be getting old. My parents in 1945:

I've been doing that recently of some of the old photos I have of my grandparents when they were children and great-grandparents.