Selling some pieces of Robert E. Lee

A quick article on CNN caught my eye:the auction of documents relating to South Carolina between 1861-1863,including letters written by Robert E. Lee.

However,I found myself with more questions than answers. Here are a few:

-What is the provenance of these documents? Obviously there’s a somewhat shaky trail leading to Thomas Wilcox [...]

The Culture of Keeper

Why do people keep everything? There are lots of reasons,but the one that I hear most often is:“I might need it again someday.”

On days when I’m frantically switching between two hats (archivist and records manager),that answer both makes sense and makes me tired. Archivists love to keep things. Well,some [...]

Lively and Miltonesque

I’ve been fighting with this WordPress template for days now,and I still haven’t managed to get the header changed yet–there have been a few technical stumbles along the way. For now,imagine that there’s a lovely banner that transports you to a,well,more contemplative and archival place. For now,the busy streetscene [...]

“What is he selling,the Magna Carta?”

If you have a spare $20-30 million dollars in your pocket this fall,the Ross Perot Foundation is selling its copy of the Magna Carta.

It is the document that laid the foundation for fundamental principles of English law. Angry colonists complained long before the Boston Tea Party that King George III had violated it. [...]

Doing their homework

Sometimes,working with a patron on a reference question seems a lot like being a teacher:many times the student/patron wants you to do their homework for them. Just a few weeks ago,I was up at the reference desk,working on an unrelated question about the football program,when I heard one of my [...]

Reframing the question

I haven’t been around here as much as I’d meant to be,and that’s partly because I’ve been trying too hard. I’ve been struggling to try to keep life and other non-related things outside of the blog,and it’s not really working for me all that well. Additionally,I’ve been having a hard time keeping [...]

What is an archivist?

While some (Maureen Dowd) contend that archivists are “the macho heroes of Washington,”(Times Select membership required),others have no idea. That has spawned an SAA-sponsored contest to come up with an “elevator speech”that eloquently addresses the question:what is an archivist,anyway? Good luck folks,and I’ll be posting my ideas here after [...]

Catching up,gradually

Entirely well-meaning,I started a long-ish post about perspective for this blog that has grown to be a bit longer than intended. Hopefully as I continue to polish it,I will post it here.

In the meantime,I’ve been doing a lot of reading and compiling of sources in preparation for the ACA exam next [...]