Archives Found

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 seller driving around with the letters in the back of his SUV), but to whom were bulk of the Lee letters (and other correspondence) addressed? Was this a treasure trove of documents entrusted to someone and passed down through the family as such, or an artificially assembled collection by a souvenir hunter? The article mentioned that the letters were in the family, but nothing else.

-A lawsuit is mentioned, but no citation. I wonder if South Carolina attempted to reclaim the documents by the use of replevin on the premise that these documents belonged to the Confederacy, and what the grounds were for dismissal?

-What repositories might have been interested in these records? Washington and Lee University seems like an obvious choice to me (and from the information online it appears that they have a gap in their Lee Papers between 1859-1962), perhaps the University of South Carolina or other institutions might have been interested as well. Was there any action on the part of these institutions or others to try to get these papers? Whether forming a consortium to share the costs and the documents, finding an interested patron to purchase and donate them, or negotiating some sort of deal with the holder of the documents, it seems (from my decidedly limited view after reading this article) that maybe something could have been done to keep the documents publicly available. [I’m not faulting either of the named institutions; not only am I aware of the costs of this type of thing, but I have no idea whether they were even approached in this matter.]

It’s a shame that the papers will now be dispersed and perhaps lost to history forever. In this type of situation, I hope that some transparency and media attention will bring focus on the private acquisition of presumably public documents, though I wish that the article had mentioned this a little more bluntly. What can we do as archivists, as historians, as citizens to advocate for less private holding of significant records?

I’m going to try to track down more information about this particular case.

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 things, anyway– hopefully those that fit the scope of the collection and contribute to a more complete historical record. Records managers, on the other hand, love to throw things away– in general, records that no longer have informational or historical value in accordance with retention schedules and institutional needs. These are definite oversimplifications to be sure, but when explaining my job function to a harried departmental secretary (as I was recently), I’ve found that it helps to be concise. In fact, when I’m meeting with departments to discuss their records, I almost always get a question along the lings of “why would you want to go into this field anyway?”

Picture the attic, or perhaps the hallway or storage room in your workplace. Over time it has transformed from being a file room to holding other discarded things– banners, an old typewriter, old cube walls, coffee cups from two presidential terms ago, an adding machine, and other junk. Piled high with the detrius of daily life, the room is a place where old office stuff goes to die, and that includes old files. Old files that may document the progression and daily life of your office– and which may be of high interest to your neighborhood archivist. Or, possibly, old files that have confidential information and should have been destroyed long ago, according to your institutional record schedule. In either situation, the files are taking up space– lots of it– and people say we “should” keep it, but cannot name the reason why.

In almost all cases, people hold onto things way longer than they should. Sometimes this is a benefit to the archives, because there are hidden gems squirreled away by overzealous secretaries within departmental files, and we discover them years or even decades after the boxes have been accessioned. From a records management and legal standpoint, this is a problem because records slated by destruction according to records schedules and state laws are sitting around in virtually every department on probably every campus in the US. It becomes an even more interesting dance when student records are added to the mix (as they almost inevitably are) because FERPA guidelines restrict the access and use of almost anything academically related to specific students.

More on this later.

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 in the header looks a bit like my life– bustling, hectic, and on some days, a lot of fun.

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. The men who drafted the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights borrowed from it.

It is Magna Carta, agreed to by King John of England in 1215 and revised and reaffirmed through the 13th century. The tail dangling off the page is a royal seal.

And it is about to go on sale.

This is the only copy of the Magna Carta currently in the United States, and until last week it was on display in Washington DC at the National Archives, right next to the Declaration of Independence. I hope that the buyer realizes that this document was in excellent hands at NARA, and that they will hopefully lend it to NARA or a similar institution again so that it can be cared for properly and made visible to the public.

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 colleagues doing a reference interview with a patron. The archivist was giving the patron several resources, including the contact information for a professor on campus who is in the process of publishing research related to that particular topic*–and the patron broke in, impatiently. “Where can I find the book? I don’t want to go through all of these papers. I just need the information.”

I’ve been curious recently to find out more about the research policies at other institutions. We have a set limit of 30 minutes of help for questions that are sent via email or phone; this is to discourage people from calling and saying “Just send me everything you’ve got on the history of the university.” After the 30 minute limit expires, patrons are required to either come in and do the research themselves, or to hire a researcher to do it for them. Staff members and graduate students here are permitted to hire themselves out as paid researchers as long as the work is done off the clock, but there are very few people that are willing to do it, primarily because it’s a hassle, and getting paid by the patron has been a problem in the past.

One of the problems for a lot of patrons is that they are not accustomed to using original documents. They are confused and unsure when they are putting their belongings in a locker, signing the research agreement, and being issued pencils and paper. They don’t know how to behave in a research room, and they are uneasy about using various things– microfilm, finding aids, gloves (for photo and negative collections). Perhaps because they are ill at ease, sometimes patrons are less than forthcoming about their research topics and reasons, which can make a reference interview frustrating on both sides of the desk.

I’ve worked at the reference desk in a variety of places and environments, and there are some staff members that truly have a gift for working with the public. These staffers tend to have a love for the documents and subject matter, as well as a stubborn desire to help people find whatever they might be seeking– enlightenment, a dissertation topic, an elusive photograph, or their grandparents’ citizenship papers. There’s usually at least one such staffer at every archive, and there is generally a queue for their services. However, is there a way that we can make the reference experience better for patrons? What are some of the ways that we can help every patron in the same vein as the “gold star” staffer or archivist? Where is the line between helping, and good service? How can we provide everything that the patron needs without doing their homework for them?

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 my “inner editor” in check, but hopefully any readers (and I don’t think there are many) will forgive some rough posts. My life- related journal has been bearing the brunt of the postings lately, and I’m going to attempt to create and maintain more of a balance between the two.

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 the contest closes!

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 summer. In talking to colleagues, there has been some interest in a virtual “study group” to work together and discuss some of the articles and books. I’m in the process of setting that up for folks that I’ve already spoken with, but I’m certainly willing to open it to wider discussion if interest warrants. I’m hoping to get that tied down this week.

I’ve also been reading a lot of narratives that are somewhat related to archives and more closely, historical memory. I’m looking forward to digging into Remembering War: the Great War between memory and history in the twentieth century tonight after reading Richard Cox’s recent blog post. Another book that has intrigued me this week is Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley; after reading the NYT travel article that referenced the book, I now also want to read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s No Ordinary Time. It has been years since I visited the FDR Presidential Library, and I think that I may be up for a revisit… or perhaps a trip to Top Cottage. Something has always intrigued me about FDR.