What is the best way to preserve a foreskin? 
I am a pediatrician who has recently circumcised a baby, and his
parents want to keep the foreskin in a family album.  What do you
recommend is the best way to keep it from decaying over the years?

Yuck. My guess is that the best preservation method involves a camera.

Sorry, no information on how it was done... but this might be of interest to you:

http://backgroundnoise.typepad.com/background_noise/2005/11/i_spent_saturda.html

"My mother kept my brother's foreskin from his circumcision. I
honestly don't know what happened to it because I refused to touch
it...but last time we did a major cleaning, it was still here.
I've been scrapbooking, myself for the last couple years. Mostly
family and wedding stuff...I think no matter how detailed I get when
the kids come along, I'm letting the flesh go."

Last night I watched a long documentary on the National Geographic
Channel about tattoos.  One of the subjects discussed was about a
project in Russia where two scientists were preserving portions of
tattoed skin of dead prisoners to identify markings used by gangs.
They showed several framed pieces of tattooed skin they had preserved
for the police.

So, it can be done.  How?  Don't know!

There is a procedure sometimes used in taxidermy in which
freeze-drying is used. That might be worth investigating.

What about tanning?

http://oror.essortment.com/leathertanning_rdcu.htm

tutuzdad-ga

Tanning would change the molecular structure of the tissue, so it's
appearnace would also change if you went that route. In order to
preserve it's present texture and appearance I think your best bbet is
to consider having the tissue encased in a clear lucite or acrylic
block. This would also do away with any foul odor or biohazard that
aging and decomposing invariably presents.

If you want to know a bit more about this option as an answer let me know.

tutuzdad-ga

After the "ick" factor was disposed with... wait, one more... 
*shudder* ... okay, done... my recommendation is put it in a small
biopsy container. It will certainly not be too big (if it is you've
got a real conversation piece on your hands!). I have the testicles of
the first neuter I did though almost nobody ever wants to see 'em, for
some reason.

This question puts me in mind of the punchline to a joke-- "So what,
exactly, would YOU put in the window?"

Markvmd - a jar of formalin was my first thought too, but it would not
fit in an album!

Crabcakes

I can't help remembering the album of pressed flowers that I made when
I was a Girl Scout. It was easy. You just use an iron on low heat (no
steam) and sandwich the flower between two sheets of waxed paper.
Preserved forever, or at least till your mom throws it away.

Good point, Crabcakes, I missed that part. They could set the little
jar on the shelf near the bronzed baby shoes. Or the collection of
baby teeth. Or the container of Baby's First Upchuck.

Okay, after the foreskin is fixed with formalin it can be mounted on a
slide or Lucite panel, or between panels. I don't know how lucite and
fixed tissue would interact but formalin is pretty strong stuff. Glass
is rather non-reactive but fragile. Oooh, how about fixed between
glass slides and then in Lucite?

Hey, can it be bronzed? Now don't laugh; I mean, this is a foreskin
we're talking about here so by the time you get to bronzing as an idea
all the laughing really should be exhausted.

Real suggestion time! Contact the nearest rabbi, ask for the name of a
mohel (ritual circumcisionist) and ask him. I am confident it won't be
the first time he's been asked.

Good idea, Tutuz', the block of lucite, with an imbedded paper giving the details.

And then one day he can leave his paperweight somewhere for his
girlfriend to discover.  "Hey, Ricky, what's this?  ...  OOOh!"