I recently purchased several dozen scrapbooks that contain candid photos of now deceased celebrities, and I want to know about editorial use.

There are several issues raised by your question. First, you need to find out if the photographs are protected by copyright. This can be complicated because the term of copyright depends on a lot of factors, particularly for anything that was created before 1978. If the photographs are protected by copyright, then you need the permission of the copyright owner to use them. This can be difficult but you should start with the son. Even if you can use the photographs without a copyright problem, the next issue is the right of publicity of the celebrities shown in the photographs. There is a right of publicity under the laws of most states and many of those laws extend to deceased persons. The deceased persons' estates may control those rights so you would have to find out who controls the estate of the deceased celebrities. Just purchasing a scrapbook doesn't give you the right to use the contents commercially.