SummaryDiscoveryTechnical detailsPreservationIdentificationAlbumen prints are very sensitive to moisture, and treatment with water increases the print cracking and so is generally inadvisable.
 
Further deterioration of albumen prints can be minimised by storage at low relative humidity and low temperature. Since alkali increases the degradation of albumen, buffered storage materials should not be used.
 
O'Reilly (http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/c20/reilly1982b.html) recommends:

• relative humidity: 30 to 40 percent
• temperature: less than 18° C.
• provisionally, the use of neutral, high alpha-cellulose paper without carbonate buffering or uncoated polyester and cellulose triacetate for storage.

More recent research has explored the effect of treating albumen prints with water/alcohol mixtures, which are less damaging than water alone.
 
This section is courtesy of Peter Marshall