12/6/2023 0 Comments Types of old manuscript foldersPaperTIGER, anyone? NeatReceipts? The similarities in the problems and solutions are striking–what do we do with all this paper and digital detritus? We are constantly updating, revising, and improving the way we store and arrange information, and it was no different 400 years ago. I’m not the first or last person to point out that we are still struggling with finding the ideal filing system today, as various websites and advertisements in magazines attest. While this seems shocking and sad to us now, it is not at all surprising. Nearly invisible clues, such as holes (see below), have often been repaired because the reason for the holes was not known or understood. Sometimes intact collections have made it through the door only to be separated once they arrived because they contain mixed materials (a practice we now resist): the printed items go to the book collection, the manuscript items go to the manuscript collection, the graphic material goes to the art collection, everything re-connectable via the accession number alone. The original boxes, chests, drawers, pouches, pins, spikes, thongs, and cords that helped keep material organized and safe have long since (largely) disappeared, or have been chewed apart by rodents. If they were at one time part of a family’s archives, those archives have since been dispersed, processed, and conserved. This is a difficult question to answer if you are looking for the answers in special collections libraries, since by the time manuscripts and other “fileable” documents like printed blank forms make it through the front door, they are usually “defiled,” far removed from the context of their creation and immediate afterlife.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |