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The Novice Archivist

Thank you!

But are they helpful?
So far, I have been exposed to about 5 databases or systems, granted 2 security codes and need 3 logins for the computers. The idea of Web 2.0 is starting to sound fantastic. Today alone, I needed to use 3 different systems to do what I needed to do.

NARA uses ARC (Archival Research Catalog) as the end-user search interface. Processed collections are entered here to be searched remotely or in-house. Each series of the collection (from my understanding thus far) receives an individual ARC number.

Next one.

For assessing records that need the most care, the PMRS--Performance Measurement Reporting System--database "helps" to determine which records are in the worst shape and need proper care. Whether that care is rehousing, conservation or cold storage, the system will rank them as to need. I have a few issues with this database, to be expounded on in a bit.

Last one.

The Location Register is an Access database, created in-house. Although it isn't "pretty" like PMRS, it is fantastically functional. It contains the basic information we need to find collections. Record group, accession number, Job number, location (Row, Section, Shelf), state it was from, agency it was from, series names, etc, etc.

My job today was this process of At-Risk Assessment:
1. Get printout of record group from Location Register and ARC number.
2. Go to location of records.
3. Find the following:
-->A) Series mentioned.
-->B) How many boxes?
-->C) Cubic footage of series (which may or may not be shared with other series amongst multiple boxes)
-->D) Determine condition of the housing (appropriate folders, acid-free boxes)
-->E) Determine the condition of the records (do some still need sleeving? other special care needed? are they in good condition as is?)
4. Back to the computer, enter the data into PMRS. Get PMRS number.
5. Go back to Location Register, enter cubic footage and box counts (same data which also had to be entered into PMRS)
6. Wash, rinse and repeat. Wash, rinse and repeat.

This was my first day doing this mostly on my own and there were a lot of light bulb moments. Those moments where I go, "OH! I get it!" I also hope to understand the mindset of the creators of the PMRS.

Currently, I am a student worker at NARA in the Boston regional archives in Waltham, MA. One of my first (and on-going) tasks is to index the USCG Vessel Documentation. The files I've worked with are from different ports in the Massachusetts area. So far I have completed Boston, Salem and Plymouth, MA. They are dated from 1945-1980. These files contain vessels that claimed the respective port as their home port, but either changed ports or the ships were put out of service. These documents are of ships that no longer claim that city as their home port.

The files are arranged alphabetically by vessel name. Most common and helpful documents in the files include:
Admeasurements: In order for vessels to be documented with the USCG, they need to weigh at least 5 tons. This document certifies the dry weight of the vessel.
Application for Offical Number of an Undocumented Vessel: The form to fill out to receive an official number, documenting the vessel with the USCG.
Bill of Sale Either from person-to-person or from a builder to person. Often to/from mortgage or debt collector companies.
Vessel Documentation: A short history of the vessel ownership, its official number, type of vessel and other important information.

The database I enter information into only requires 3 unique part of information from each file. The name of the vessel, the official number, and the type of vessel, as well as any notes. The other fields that are derived on a series level, include port of operation, state of port location and the years the series covers. The administrative information in the database includes the accession number and the job number.

While searching for some of the vessel-specific information, I came across a document that seemed to reflect a little bit of the life of some of the records:

US Coast Guard Vessel Documentation files.
Salem, MA
Record Group 26

"March 20, 1963
Dear Sir:

Herewith please find our complete file on the gas screw ERSKINE B., dug out of the musty old file here.

You will note that there are other papers mixed in with the file pertaining to the gas screw PHYLLIS LYOD, which was brought in along with the ERSKINE B. Please ignore these as they of course have no bearing on the ERSKINE B. Glad to loan you this file for what ever assistance it may provide to you.

You will note also that the boat was admeasured by the Boston admeasurers and to go under the five net tons

When it has served its purpose please return the file to us, so that we may return it to its musty abode here.

Very truly yours,
R. B. Low
Deputy Collector in Charge, MARINE WORK"

On the weekend of June 20-21, 2008, Chuck and I went to Long Island to retrieve his grandfather's papers. John D. Ekhart had died approximately 14 years ago. As I understand it, the house in Long Island was left to Chuck's step-grandmother, Peggy, until she died or no longer wished to live there. Chuck's uncle, from the grandfather's first marriage, was the executor of these wishes. Recently, it had been discovered that Peggy was mentally ill and deemed not fit to take care of herself and was moved to an assisted living center. The brothers and sisters, as well as the grandchildren went to the house, at separate times, to see if there was anything that they wanted to keep.

Chuck and I were most likely the last people to visit the house. Some of the materials we were hoping to gather included his grandfather's research on relatives who were in the Civil War, documents from when he helped to form the Conservative Party in New York, and anything of interest from his business as a clammer.

The responsibility of executor of the estate had been transferred to Chuck's mom, the uncle had said that he didn't want to deal with the "hassle" of all of it. She had visited the property the week before we did and warned about the smell that was there. His mom did not yet have a key to the property, but a neighbor a few miles down the road had one, after Peggy had been unable to take care of things herself. When Chuck contacted the neighbor, we were told to watch out for traps. A dead raccoon had been found in the house, so they hired a trapper. We brought a BB pistol with us.

We reached the property about 2pm on Saturday. Before we left the car, Chuck had said, "I really don't want to see my grandfather's place trashed." And also said something about the driveway, which I didn't catch. He had spent weeks during the summers of his childhood before his grandparents divorced clamming and boating and spending time there. He hadn't been to the property since the funeral.

We entered through the back door which led into the dining area and kitchen. The place was a disaster. There was newspaper all over the floor, the table was piled with stuff and there were flies in the windows, which started buzzing as we walked in. The small kitchen was filthy. The stove had been pulled away from the wall and there were matchbooks that had fallen behind it. Dishes piled in the sink, multiple bags of garbage that no one had bothered to put outside and black stuff baked and crusted on the range top with pans still sitting on top, with the same black crusted stuff inside.

The china cabinet was untouched.

We moved on into the hallway. Chuck was ahead of me, since he knew how the house was laid out. I heard him say, "Oh my geezus." and he closed a door. I later learned that it was the bathroom. The hallway was covered with random papers. The office looked like drawers had been dumped on the floor. To the right was the stairs up and the living room. As Chuck looked as the living room, he was on his knees, crying.

He couldn't believe what had happened, what had been allowed to happen. I stood behind him, hand on his shoulder, feeling slightly lost and at a loss for action. We heard skritching and cheeping from somewhere. He took out his BB gun and loaded it. We went upstairs and the sound was louder. I took the right two rooms while he took the left ones. The noise stopped as we went along the hallway.

I have finally gotten over the hump of the worst of my end-of-semester assignments to do. I can venture from the cave for a short while.

The mostly-polished but still a little rough draft of our finding aid was due on Tuesday. I feel OK, but not great about it. I will have many people look over my final draft. After all, as Ciaran says to us, "This will be a public document." I do not wish to ever turn in unpolished products, this is probably my most beloved assignment yet. Second is our research for Information Use and Users on the information gathering and use of World of WarCraft Players.

Working at the Historical Society has not been as exciting lately. Learning how to make labels and use the software. The free software which has bad help menus and then I write over the database of 113 labels I just created with the information for the 40 labels. Of course it couldn't have been the other way around, but we make mistakes to learn, right?

I've also started a new audio book,



I've never been one to read much historical fiction, but Larson is doing a fantastic job of making me want to do more research, visit Chicago, take photos and get involved with the spaces around me. It has prompted me to see how many World's Fairs have been in Chicago. There have been at least three. The one the book is based off of, 1893, one in 1918 and again in 1933. I was most interested in finding out about 1933 because the one where the Keck & Keck brothers presented their Crystal House and House of Tomorrow.

Journal entries have been optional from the last time until now :)

1. What are your thoughts about the similarities and differences between archival processing at the WHS and other American archival repositories?
Comparing the WHS practices to those of Moravian College, I notice that there are many similarities, I especially noted the photographic section and other visual materials are pretty much in sync. However, I found it interesting that Moravian uses ISAD(G) instead of DACS to describe their holdings.

2. Why do you think it is important to understand the historical, present and future developments in archival arrangement and description in a larger American context?
Even though the staff at the WHS is awesome, we, as students aren't going to be able to stay with them and work there forever. Knowing information such as "not all institutions in the US use DACS for a descriptive standard" will aid us in being more prepared to go job searching. Applying for a position at Moravian with no prior research into their techniques would result in (loss of pride and) diminished chances at an offering for the job.

3. What are your thoughts about the similarities and differences between archival processing in the US and abroad?
I found it interesting that the Bureau of Canadian Archives was so receptive to feedback. "As each chapter was completed, it was circulated to the archival community for comment...the development of RAD took 7 years to complete." And in the US it was seems like the creation of descriptive standards was more of an individual's project and it moved a lot faster. "Written by Steven Hensen, APPM was published in 1983 and quickly became the recognized standard...[it] was updated and revised in 1989 and, in the same year, the Society of American Archivists endorsed it..."
The US standard was produced and updated quicker, but does that make it better? I would think that collaborative work by many minds would result in a more thorough and refined set of standards.

4. Why do you think it is important to understand the historical, present and future developments in archival arrangement and description in an international context?
Knowing that other standards exist is a first step to improving one's own. It can be a source of inspiration or a platform for collaboration. Even though CUSTARD didn't produce a unified USA/Canadian archives manual, archivists have more ideas for improvement. It may be fruitful to look at MAD's multilevel description standards for visual materials or learn the nuances of Canada's use of the nuances of "author, creator, collector" titles for origin of the collection. I think that this could result in more accurately described holdings.

Next Entry: My experience and observations during the WHS Finding Aid User Study.

This article Writing Tribal Histories helps me to understand the importance of my collection, knowing that it will be used and knowing that I need to create an informative and accurate register.

Today I got to start working on a collection I haven't seen before, the Lindner photographs. The extent of the collection is only one folder, but there are some fantastic photographs.




Adams County Courthouse, circa 1907



This one got my attention as soon as I saw it. I asked some of my co-workers if it was the Wisconsin Historical Society. The consensus was, No, it wasn't. This building wasn't long enough and after some further inspection, I saw that there were no lions.


Entrance to the Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI


I do wish that I had taken better photographs of the building when I was on a picture taking spree last fall. I will get another chance once I get a new camera (my current one, for most purposes, is defunct). But I digress. This is the entrance to the Historical Society that have remained unchanged since it was opened to the public in 1900. I have heard through a colleague that the architects who designed the WHS were from the Milwaukee area, where Lindner is also from, and build many buildings, even as far away as California (and in the early 1900s, that was an impressive feat). They have similar styles and designs, which is why, at first glance, I thought the Adams Co. Courthouse was the WHS. But it is not.

More of Lindner's photographs can be seen at the Wisconsin Historical Images portal here.

A lot of what I'm hearing in my library classes, and especially in archives, is the issues with migrating old technology to newer forms, as well as figuring out how each form works. I have experienced a bit of this firsthand with the journal here. A while back, I asked the WHS's EAD specialist, Jacqui, for a URL code that would link to the finding aids of the collections I was working with to use on this site. She did give me a code, but I was hoping that it would link directly to the finding aid, rather than to a search.

The links on the top row under the "Notes from a Grad Student" link to the search results from the string she sent me, and then you just have to click on it again. Any finding aids linked in the text of entries will yield a "Cannot find" or "Search Timed Out" from the WHS website. Once I get the corrected search string, I will fix all the entries at the same time and post a notice.

About a month ago, while working on the Gaylord Nelson collection, I came across this photo and was quite excited.



I was a member of the Kilties Drum and Bugle Corps. for the 2007 season and my question was: Is this a Kiltie? The following is the email and response from John "JC" Caspers, the official unofficial historian of the Kilties.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rachel Pieper" <xxxxxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com>
To: <xxxxxxxxx@wi.rr.com>
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 12:54 AM
Subject: Testing your Kilties History Knowledge.

Hardcore version.
I guess the best way to ask the question is to show you the picture and ask:
Is this a Kiltie?
The scenario is this:
It is 1968 and Gaylord Nelson is doing a Whistle Stop campaign tour through
the state of WI with young La Follette. Another photo on the same roll of
film has the name of the station they may be at; Fairchild.
SO...my question remains-is this a Kiltie or some other Scottish/Irish group?
This is the only picture like this in the collection. If you find it is:
who is it and where are they?

Note: I am a grad student at UW Madison in Library Science and specializing
in Archives. My current job is to help with the Gaylord Nelson Papers
1916-2005 and as the assistant to the Visual Materials Archivist, my job is
to match prints with negatives, which is how I found this photo. Until
further notice, this cannot be processed or distributed in any way. Please
do not share it with the corps or put it on any website. When I know more
about who the copyright really belongs to and proper avenues of sharing,
I'll let you know.

The man other than the dressed up guy is Gaylord Nelson.

I look forward to hearing back from you!
Rachel Pieper
(Colorguard 07)


Re: Testing your Kilties History Knowledge.‏
From: John Caspers (xxxxxxxxx@wi.rr.com)
Sent: Fri 3/07/08 3:33 PM
To: Rachel Pieper (xxxxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com)

Hi Rachel,
Sorry for the delay in my return email. I just returned from a vacation in
Montana skiing.

The person in the picture is not a Kiltie. I can say this for certain
because even though the picture is in black and white,
the tartan worn by the person in the picture is neither McLeod nor Steward
which were the 2 tartans worn from 1960-1975.
Also, the only person in the corps that would have had a wrap around plaid
and a feather bonnet would have been the
drum major, and in 1968, the drum major was Scotty Paulson. That is not
Scotty in the picture.

Hope this helps, and hope all is well!

WWBD,
JC

I've been trying to think of ways to improve me Administrative History for my MTN collection. Reading through DACS, I'm feeling a bit torn and frustrated.

I must confess, I have not had much experience with research, but I am trying to go about it the correct way. The first question I ask myself (after taking a deep breath) is: Who or what organization would create the records that would be useful to me? My first answer made me laugh at myself a bit. A newspaper!

DACS says you need to use "reliable sources." Of course you do. One of the encyclopedias I found online with helpful information was the Catholic Encyclopedia (Menominee Indian entry). One may be wondering how that could be useful in research on the Menominee Tribal newspaper. It has provided the most--yes, more than Wikipedia--information on the history of the Menominee Indians. My question: Is it reliable? Probably. I think I may create my own "Works Consulted" bibliography to keep myself in check, practice writing bibs, and to keep tabs on where I go for my information/what my personal sources are.

Back to what originally sparked this entry: Perhaps I have had it wrong so far; instead of encyclopedias, I should look to the source--the first issue of MTN. (At this point I feel like that should have been obvious) I had considered it, but some part of me wonders if self-referential referencing is really "reliable." I can think of some hypothetical reasons they wouldn't be, but it is likely that they could be exaggerated. If records are truly created in an organic fashion, through everyday events, there is no reason to suspect that they were altered or worded in such a fashion so that someone, at some point in time, would look back and see of different picture of the organization that wasn't true.

Also, I guess I need to think of other collections, smaller collections, where the only information you have for a bio or administrative history is from the records themselves. The entire Bancroft Camp No. 16 project was based on information found only in the records.

MTN, issue 1, here I come.

We got our Accession Reports and Processing Plans back on Tues. I was a bit shocked at what I had forgotten.
*An organization doesn't have a "biography," it has an "administrative history."
*I need more information in my "Administrative History"
*I didn't appraise my series individually. I did the collection overall, but I was supposed to do each series as well. I thought I was forgetting something there.
*I didn't proofread well. I had started the ARPP at one time, and then added to it later, but didn't go back and make sure everything made sense.
*I need to get T. R. Schellenberg's "informational value" and "evidential value" straightened out.
*I had written that there was no original order to the collection, when in a previous journal entry I had noted there was (and there is, I don't know why I said there wasn't).
*My proposed order was not accepted, but they only suggested that something be switched, so it isn't a big deal.
I got a B on it, but there are corrections I obviously need to make. I can move stuff in my collection, thankfully.
Along with the ARPP, I need to start adding dates to my folders and looking through all the pictures.

On Monday the 25th, I was working on my collection and had questions about how I was going to deal with my Red Scrapbook full of newspaper clippings. I asked David about it, but he said that newspaper clippings fell under "documents" not "visual materials." That meant I was to find Kyle and have a chat with him!

It was a very nice chat. We talked about the scrapbook and then about the whole collection in general. I think he had really wanted to see what the MTN collection was all about. I haven't had much contact with him, as I don't have very many documents in my collection, so it was a great way for us to meet one-on-one for the first time. I would say that I had fun, showing off my collection to someone new. It also helps me learn more when others ask me questions; the questions might lead me in a way of thinking that I wouldn't have considered without the question.

Today was my work day. David was at a meeting when I arrived, but he had left me a note as to what to do. I finished what he asked me to work on in 2 hours. I was then to help Jen with her project. Jen is working on a 1000 cu.ft. collection of Senator Gaylord Nelson's papers. My job with her collection is to match prints with negatives and label the photos. It can be tedious, especially if I'm not comfortable. Someone made the comment that I must be special because I was allowed to use a lightbox. Inside, I was thinking, "Ummm...how would I do this for 3 and a half hours without one?" The possibilities made me cringe a little and grateful that I didn't have to resort to sorting on my back :P.

And it is done :). It was done by 3:30pm this afternoon. Of course, I have a lot of other assignments to do as well. Cover letters to write, resumes to tweak, etc. Once I can figure out how to "hide" some of the entry behind blue words, I'll post the first draft of the paper that will eventually be my register in this area, but for now, there are only BLUE WORDS THAT LEAD NOWHERE

**UPDATE**
I found out how to use the blue text. Except it's not blue with this design layout.  Whatever. ::sigh::
( Appraisal Report and Processing Plan, Draft 1 ).
I have not posted in the past week because I was very sick when I returned from a weekend trip out to Boston. Delusionally sick with some East coast strain of the flu, I'm sure of it. I even went to the doctor. It's amazing how much stuff you don't get done in a week when you're sleeping, sneezing and coughing the whole time. I bring this up because I have 2 weeks worth of journal entries to do tonight!
.
Week 5: February 19th
Identifying and and Addressing Preservation Issues
1. What preservation issues have you identified in your collection?
There are very minimal preservation issues in my collection. There are rusted objects such as staples, paper clips and the rings on 3-ring binders and those are my biggest concerns. There are a few sheet of contact prints that are mildewy/moldy, but the contact print itself is worthless and will be weeded. Some of the negatives are sleeved in glycine (wax paper-looking sleeves) which is yellowing, which I do not know if it is harmful or not.
.
2. Who have you talked to at the WHS about the preservation issues you have identified?
I have spoken with David Benjamin about the glycine and he says we will re-sleeve those negatives in polyurethane, mostly because you can't see through the paper to view the negs. The rusty objects will be removed as per the Practicum Guidebook and the items will be foldered instead of housed in a binder.
.
3. How will you address these issues?
I will remove the objects causing the issue and re-house the materials.
.
.
Week 6: February 26
Dealing with Visual Material
.
1. What visual materials have you identified in your collection?
I have approximately 3 cu. ft. of negatives and photographs in various levels of organization.
.
2. Who have you talked to at the WHS about dealing with the visual materials in your collection?
I have had many informal chats with David Benjamin about how we will deal with the load of photos that I have.
.
3. How will you process these materials as part of the larger collection? What are the issues involved?
These materials are the larger part of my collection. Because of the various types of record-keeping that is evidenced through the collection, we will be sorting the Vis Mat into two main groups. "Dated Files" is where anything with a date will go. There are 25 rolls of labeled and dated negatives as well as folders with a Month/Year date, indicating when the photos appeared in an issue of the Menominee Tribal News. For the materials that do not have dates, there is are binders that are arranged by subject. The loose photos will be sorted manually by David and myself to determine which subject they best fall into. The subjects provided by the blue 3 ring binders are: MTE & the Mill, Hide Tanning, MRC, Pow-wows, and Sports. Subjects that will be artificially added include School and Miscellaneous.
.
We are not allowed to move anything until our ARPP is approved by our professor (Ciaran) and the archivists (Kyle K and David B and perhaps others). The difficulty in the arranging of my collection lies in the sorting of the photographs. I'm not too keen on disturbing the original order, but there really isn't going to be much of another way to do it. As Ciaran was telling me in our meeting, "The records will tell you how they want to be arranged, and you will have a difficult time doing it any other way. They will tell you." While I understand what she was saying and I took it to heart, there was a part of my brain that pictured papers flying around my head like elusive ghosts, whispering things to me that I couldn't quite understand. Like in the movie The Pagemaster when the disembodied voice in the library tells the scared boy to "Look to the books!"   I'm supposed to look to the records for guidance.
.
Ciaran and David have said that my collection is a mess and they even told Greg that I had things worse than he did. Which worries me, because I see this as mostly straight-forward and self-explanatory. The reason I'm worried is because I'm wondering what they are seeing and I'm not. I see a mess of things to organize, but I have a very simple and basic outline proposed. This is my outline as follows (Vis Mat Part only):
.
Visual Material
-->Dated Files
-->Subject Files
-->-->Hide Tanning
-->-->(*)Misc.
-->-->MRC
-->-->MTE and Mill
-->-->(*)School
-->-->Sports
-->-->Pow-wows

(*)=Subjects not in original collection, added by arrangers

Three cubic feet will be sorted into this outline. I wonder if I'm over-simplifying?
I also think that I will need more than 5 cu ft of boxes. The materials fit in record center cartons NOW, but they are photos; they will slide to the bottom of the folder (we are not sleeving the individual photos, it is not that important of a collection) and bulk up the bottom. I may end up with 7 cu ft of organized material when I'm done.
.
That's enough for now. I do have more to say about my collection, but it is late and I am finally tired at a decent(-ish) hour. There will be more archives discussion later!

Wisconsin Historical Society
Although I intended to post just about my archive practicum, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to separate what I'm doing for the practicum and what I do as David's work-study student. Working as his "minion," I'm learning a lot more by viewing and handling multiple photo collections--with instructions-- that I would with just staring at my MTN. (And I should really starting writing that Appraisal and Processing Report. . .) While working on these other collections, I find that I have questions that I would never have thought of:
Will I be re-sleeving all my negatives? (Still in the "it depends" stage.)
Will I be matching picture to negative? (I've found the answer to this question is NO, thank God, my collection is not projected to have a heavy usage. They can be matched and numbered later, if necessary.)
Will they be housed in text archival sized boxes or photo boxes? (I haven't asked this yet, but its one that I've been thinking about. My guess is that they will be foldered in 8.5x11 folders and put into 0.4 cu. ft. archival boxes.)

When I first started and he named off some of the collections we'd be working on, I was doing my best to keep quiet. But I was totally geeking out. As a photo minor, hearing about H. H. Bennett's ahead-of-his-time techniques and being familiar with his Midwest iconic images, I never dreamed that I'd actually be handling the original stereographs one day. Its like meeting a celebrity. Object. A celebrity object. Yes. When I came across the Rafting series, I knew what images I wanted to (and did!) find. The rafter throwing the rope. The flat cook's raft. They were both there, along with 20 or 30 others. Not to mention, the most famous, the person jumping from rock to rock.

I'm not an avid fan of many music bands or singers--the fandom attitude I don't get. But there are a few times where I feel I can understand it. Seriously, I am a nerd. I got the same swoon-y feeling when I went to see Lois Lowry speak about her book The Giver and was standing near her to have her sign my book. ::rolls eyes at nerdy self::

Anyways, since I've been David's minion, these are the collections that I have had the privilege of helping him work on:
H. H. Bennett Inventoried, point-numbered, and created container list for 2 boxes of stereographs.
Keck & Keck Foldered, labeled, alphabetized, created container list, and rehoused approximately 300 mounted photos and architectural drawings. This includes photos of The Crystal House and The House of Tomorrow, projects for the Chicago's World Fair. NOTE: The links were found via Google Images and do not to any justice to the originals. The photographers for Keck & Keck were phenomenal, there were multiple photographers, and all were very high quality.
Greendale photos Matching photos with negatives, determining what is missing, correcting container list.(Current project)

More on archives later. It is time for bed.

9am.
From the way it sounds, I am going to have a lot of work to do. We have decided to split the Visual Materials into two basic groups:
Dated Material
Subjects
If there wasn't the small set of dated folders(from Dec 1976-Oct 1978), it would probably all be by subject. WHICH MEANS that the unlabeled binders of negatives and the loose photos will have to be manually sorted at the item level. >< It's a good thing that David and I will be working on this together.

My job for now is to get to know the Blue Subject Binders very well. Some of the Blue Subject Binders, especially the ones with the negatives, will be moved to the Dated Material, because they are organized and labeled as such. I'd really like to start moving stuff, but I can't until my appraisal report and processing plan has been approved. Which means I need to write it first.

Also, I need to look at the microfilm of the newspapers that the WHS has. The Newspaper Negs that are in the collection may get weeded if we find that there is already a copy of them in the holdings. Mr. DB said that he may want to keep the neg of a poster and make it into a positive. I have a few oversized prints that will be incorporated into the Subjects category.

I really should bring my laptop to the Processing Room when I go, it is too tedious to take notes manually and then type them when I get home. Unfortunately, my laptop is from 1998 and runs like it. ...Dude, my lappy is over 10 years old. That is nuts. Being a poor student is kind of hindering the methods of being efficient.
Ciaran gave me the option of redoing my journal entry. Here it is:

Journal entry to be submitted in week 4: February 12th
Understanding the Creator and the Order to Your Collection
• 1. In the course of what functions and activities were the records in your collection created?
• 2. What recordkeeping practices are evident in the records?
• 3. How will research about the creator help you to understand the order/record keeping practices inherent in your collection?
• 4. Is there an original order or arrangement to your collection? How do you know?
• 5. List the subgroups, series and sub-series in your collection. (Remember subgroups denote the context of records creation, series represent the records themselves. Series relate to sequences of records and may be discernible as a filing system or simply the creators groupings of recordings on the basis of a similar function, content or format)
• 6. If there is no original order to your collection how will you decide how to arrange it? In this case, what type of imposed arrangement might be suitable for your collection?

1. It seems that the documents in the MTN collection were created to serve multiple functions (the Menominee Historical Society, The Menominee Restoration Committee, research on Fed. Bills/acts/laws, and letters to the editor of the MTN) and either had multiple creators, the same office, or this was one involved person on multiple committees. I strongly believe that this is a compilation of records from a small office where they dealt with many aspects of “outside” intervention and how it affected Menominee life.
The photographs in the collection seem to be documenting the events on the reservation (as one would expect). There are pow-wows, awards ceremonies, building of structures, graduations and other reservation happenings.
The scrapbook contains clippings of events that affect the Menominee and Menominee people who were involved in the “outside” (non-reservation) world. Most of the clippings are from the Green Bay Gazette, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Capitol Times.
2. The documents are organized in a way that does make sense, but not easily describable. Looking through them, there is an intellectual flow of information.
The photographs have a few different arrangement schemes. At this point, each box is a different level of organization.
Box 3 is Unlabelled Negatives and Contact Sheets (in 3 ring binders).
Box 4 is half full of files labeled Month/Year, other half is the BoxOPics (loose, some markings on back, probably ones that were published).
Box 5 is blue 3 ring binder-folders that are labeled by Subject. To me, this says that there were a few people in charge, at different times, of running the paper.
The scrapbook is organized by date, as the articles appeared in the paper.

3. My creator…while doing research on the Menominee Tribal News, I found information on people who were movers and shakers in the Menominee fight for tribal status and for rights as Native Americans overall. I also found information on the other organizations mentioned previously. I am not sure that helped with understanding the recordkeeping process. It helps me to understand the interrelatedness.

4. There is an original order to the collection, it is disjointed and parts had different creators, though. There are parts that are arranged chronologically and other areas that are by subject.

5. GROUPINGS
Subgroup: Documented Activities of Menominee Organizations 1969-197/8?
Series 1: There is only 1.5 archival boxes of materials and it is arranged well enough as is. Folders will be arranged alphabetically per WHS preferences
Series 2: Records pertaining to the business of the MTN
Series 3: Scrapbook; Menominee Tribe in WI News. I will put this with the “manuscripts” because it is not material created by MTN, but material collected.

Subgroup: Visual Materials
Series 1: Dated files. **This will include file folders that are dated Month/Year, as well as negatives that are labeled and other material that has discernable dates.
Series 2: Subjects. Labeled subjects include (but will not be limited to):
Subseries 1: MTE and Mill
Subseries 2: Sports
Subseries 3: Hide Tanning
Subseries 4: MRC
Subseries 5: Pow-Wows
Other subseries will be added as needed.
6. The BoxOPics may have some inherent order in which they are stacked. When arranging them, I will need to go to the microfilmed papers and determine what Month/Year they are from and mimic the organization structure of other photos in the collection.
The inherent order seems to be a mixture of subject and date. We will attempt to place photos into the subject categories designed by the creator. We will be making note of this breaking of original order in the final finding aid.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
In other news, I was reading Roe's Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts on the bus this morning and I came upon this sentence that made me wonder:
p.55 "Some oversight of researchers using undescribed papers is necessary both for security reasons and to ensure that they do not disturb provenance." [italics added for emphasis]
Unless I'm horribly misunderstanding the definition of "provenance," this does not make sense. Provenance, they way I understand it, is basically where the records come from. Who created them and for what purpose. A researcher cannot disturb provenance unless they have multiple collections at the same time and are switching documents from one to the other. I propose that the word "provenance" be replaced with "original order."

I should hope by now I'm not THIS wrong...Ha! I don't think I am...Roe has it stated earlier in the book, on page 15, "The principle of provenance states that records should be maintained according to their origin and not 'intermingled' with those of another provenance, that is those created by another person or agency."

I have not worked in or used collections in a Reading/Research/Reference Room before...are there rules about how many collections a patron can be using at a time? Are collections with improper/incorrect provenance statements allowed to be accessed by researchers?

I haven't had much of anything exciting happen with the collection in the past week, but here is my journal entry.
I have my meeting with Ciaran and David, the Visual Materials archivist tomorrow morning. I am a little nervous because I'm not sure how prepared, how close to a "final outline" I'm supposed to have done yet. I still need to type and print up my box lists. I may just scan my notes because retyping them may take too long. I'm going to print a copy of this journal entry for each of them.
Maybe I will get around to the box list, I should have looked at my notes more carefully, though. There are some items that I don't have years for. I know there are dates on the stuff in the boxes, I'm a bit irked at myself for not having recorded that. Makes working on the project at home on a Sunday slightly more aggravating.


Journal entry to be submitted in week 4: February 12th
Understanding the Creator and the Order to Your Collection
• 1. In the course of what functions and activities were the records in your collection created?
• 2. What recordkeeping practices are evident in the records?
• 3. How will research about the creator help you to understand the order/record keeping practices inherent in your collection?
• 4. Is there an original order or arrangement to your collection? How do you know?
• 5. List the subgroups, series and sub-series in your collection. (Remember subgroups denote the context of records creation, series represent the records themselves. Series relate to sequences of records and may be discernible as a filing system or simply the creators groupings of recordings on the basis of a similar function, content or format)
• 6. If there is no original order to your collection how will you decide how to arrange it? In this case, what type of imposed arrangement might be suitable for your collection?

1. It seems that the documents in the MTN collection were created to serve multiple functions (the Menominee Historical Society, The Menominee Restoration Committee, research on Fed. Bills/acts/laws, and letters to the editor of the MTN) and either had multiple creators, the same office, or this was one involved person on multiple committees. I strongly believe that this is a compilation of records from a small office where they dealt with many aspects of “outside” intervention and how it affected Menominee life.
The photographs in the collection seem to be documenting the events on the reservation (as one would expect). There are pow-wows, awards ceremonies, building of structures, graduations and other reservation happenings.
The scrapbook contains clippings of events that affect the Menominee and Menominee people who were involved in the “outside” (non-reservation) world. Most of the clippings are from the Green Bay Gazette.
2. The documents are organized in a way that does make sense, but not easily describable. Looking through them, there is an intellectual flow of information.
The photographs have a few different arrangement schemes. At this point, each box is a different level of organization. Box 3 is Unlabelled Negatives and Contact Sheets (in 3 rgin binders). Box 4 is half full of files labeled Month/Year, other half is the BoxOPics (loose, some markings on back, probably ones that were published). Box 5 is blue 3 ring binder-folders that are labeled by Subject. To me, this says that there were a few people in charge, at different times, of running the paper.
The scrapbook is organized by date, as the articles appeared in the paper.
3. My creator…while doing research on the Menominee Tribal News, I found information on people who were movers and shakers in the Menominee fight for tribal status and for rights as Native Americans overall. I also found information on the other organizations mentioned previously. I am not sure that helped with understanding the recordkeeping process. It helped me to understand the interrelatedness.
4. There is an original order to the collection, it is disjointed and parts had different creators, though.
5. GROUPINGS
Subgroup: Documents 1969-197?
Series 1: There is only 1.5 archival boxes of materials and it is arranged well enough as is.
Series 2: Scrapbook: I will put this with the “documents” because it is not material created by MTN, but material collected.
Subgroup: Photographs
Series 1: need to research dates. The envelopes say “in June (or August) issue” I think the photos were published.
Temporary Subseries 1: **I believe the first group of materials and negatives in black binders is the earliest set that I have. Will arrange to match the month/year format as Subseries 2.
Subseries 2: 1971-1976
**Arranged by month and year, will leave arranged as it.
Subseries 3: Subjects
**Arranged by subjects. Negatives will be put in order together. Labeled subjects include: MTE and Mill, Sports, Hide Tanning, Negatives Book 2, Negatives book 3, MRC, Pow-Wows, and more labeled negatives.
6. The BoxOPics may have some inherent order in which they are stacked. When arranging them, I will need to go to the microfilmed papers and determine what Month/Year they are from and mimic the organization structure of other photos in the collection.

It's like how writer's get writer's block. I'm not sure what the next step is. I looked through my collection on Thursday after class and began to look at the pictures in there thoroughly. I began a list, from top down, of the pictures in Box 4 in what I call "Box O Pics." About 4 pages and 2 hours later, I decided to stop, mostly because I'm pretty sure that now, if ever, is not the time in the processing of my collection to be describing photos individually.

So I feel a bit blocked.

Tomorrow I am going to write up the journal questions, which I believe deal with preservation issues, and start on the appraisal report. Hopefully that will give me some insight as to what else I would like to do. We are not allowed to move items yet.

My meeting with Ciaran and David should be sometime next week, after that I should have more solid ideas. Until then, I will be typing up my current and proposed box/series lists.

My first waking thought was, "I wonder if the Dakota Co. Historical Society has an archives?"

One may wonder, "What in the world prompted that thought?!" If you are wondering that, just know that I am, too.



My sequence of thoughts following went something like this:
It seems like the kind of place where they would keep their archives in the basement. But, I've been in the basement and that's where they keep the artifacts for the museum. What about the second floor? There was a lot of space that had files and papers and stuff. No, no, there wasn't enough room on the second floor. Do county-level historical societies have archives? They have to. Where else would Dakota Co. keep theirs? Probably somewhere in Hastings or Farmington. Hastings is the county seat, and Farmington is where the county fair is hosted. But doesn't DCHS have tower-like structures? You could house archives there. Oh, but those were kind of small. If you were to renovate that to fit shelves, there would only be room for 1 person just to turn in circles. It would have to be access by elevator only. But that wouldn't work with fire code. You could have fire escape-like stairs along the outside of the building, but then there'd have to be a door at every level. Well, what if the archives were only on one wall? There'd be more space for people to move, but still not space for stairs. And speaking of fire code, there's have to be sprinklers on every level, as well as alarms.

After looking at a picture of the building, it is not as I remember it, so the entire internal conversation is pretty moot. But it was some fun thoughts to entertain, and intellectual exercise in spatial creativity.

DCHS does have a library/research center. DCHS Research Library

My alarm is going to go off in 10 minutes. >:(

Arrived at the WHS around 9am today to sort through some more of my collection. It was a roller-coaster of frustration, despondency, and finally, near the end, relief and a little bit of peace. I took a look at the 2 packages that I hadn't noticed before. One of them is a red leather scrapbook with clippings from other newspapers, mostly from the Green Bay Gazette on Menominee activities that made news in a larger press. The other package contained a flat blue box, a poster, and some larger prints. The blue box contained items I had never seen before, but were nonetheless very cool. They were newspaper film. Huge sheets of negative that had holes for copy negs of pictures and the typewritten parts were part of the film. These sheets were the size of the open newspaper (which is about the size of The Onion's paper, not the size of the Star Tribune or WI State Journal.) David walked by and looked at them and said that we'd probably toss them. "If its already been printed, distributed and microfilmed, what use do we have for it?" Good point.

I also sorted through some of the month/year dated folders and I feel better about their organizational system. When I remove the photos from the photo corners (yay, corners!) that hold them in, I find that they are LABELED on the back. What luck! Organized by month and year, placed on a page using photo corners and protective plastic covering and labeled on the backside. There was my moments of relief for the day. I figured I should probably leave the collection on a high note.

Also interesting in my collection (Picture of the Day): A picture of a kid (like maybe 10 years old) next to a truck with his hunting prize. A deer? No, it was a black bear.

Greg was in the processing room sorting through his collection while I was there. He has the personal papers of the Uhrenholdt family. Along with ephemera, such as locks of hair, he had a lot of artefactual items in his boxes. I was more interested in the "stuff" of his archive collection than he was. Some of the "stuff" of his collection (which will not remain in the archives) include:
2 pairs of reading glasses (probably from the mid- to late-1800s)in a box with letters
2 black (armbands?) pieces of cloth with a gold star embroidered on them
A container with a lock of hair
A jewelery box with an American Red Cross pin, a medal-type pin, and a wedding band.
Why one wouldn't be interested in that, I don't know. He seemed to be dead set on getting the appraisal done. Personally, I would use those items and the other stuff near it in the box to figure out what was going on. To each, his own.

I swear I've seen that armband star, before, though.