> Suddenly in the 1950's square color photos appear in the collection and the quality is actually some of the worst of all the family photos.

Could part of the problem be that color photos, especially early ones, did not age as well as B&W?

That's a good point. I do digitally correct the scans — which often does pull up the more faded colors getting the color balance often very close to something that looks neutral or normal.

Detail though never appears.