Today I opened up another box I hadn’t been in yet. Part of me wanted to cry and the other part of me was excited, because my work was laid out for me for the day.
The box contained the various reports and correspondence of rabbis who’d served shorter terms at the temple and I very quickly discovered that they were a disorganized, unprocessed mess, and that there were a lot of things in there that belonged elsewhere. In the work room the box went with me, where I began sorting through and processing everything. Thankfully, it’s a half-size box.
The most unfortunate thing about this box? I found the first page of this letter from 1935, written to one of the rabbis at this Temple. Page 2? Nowhere to be found. This is killing the historian in me.
Additionally, the methodology that we’ve currently established in there clearly hasn’t been applied to older boxes, which is frustrating as there are many boxes I still haven’t gotten into at all. I suspect, also, that the finding aid doesn’t necessarily reflect the content of these boxes, as I’ve found a lot of inconsistencies there. Whenever I get into a box for the first time, I check it against the finding aid and update it as necessary. It looks vastly different than the one I was provided with and is now 30 pages long and growing.
On top of that, boxes are disappearing and reappearing at will. When they return, they’re put in any blank shelf space available. Today, I found another one of these. It has two items in it and was placed in an archival box that doesn’t match any of the others (this annoys me, as I’m a person who likes consistency).
No one will admit to doing this and I’m losing my mind (or maybe no one is doing this and I’m losing my mind).
Since I’ve so far been unable to determine a consistent logic in here, however, I’ve decided to cement one and have started creating a methodology document to leave behind as part of my legacy here, which includes the following:
- A list of archival materials I’ve used and their Gaylord catalog numbers, since the website is really challenging to navigate and one box very much looks like another. You’re screwed if you order the wrong ones (ask me how I know) because they cost as much to return as they cost to purchase. Many Gaylord items already have their catalog numbers printed or stickered on, but some don’t.
- Methodology: when to file alphabetically (personal histories, for example) when to file chronologically; what to do with multiple copies of something and/or items that can be filed in multiple places, and special cases, such as photos that accompany a letter.
- Practical methods: how to store different items – papers, photographs, framed images, etc. so that there is consistency throughout the collection.
- How to update the finding aid. This document was originally sent to me as a PDF and apparently hadn’t been updated in years, and during that time (again, apparently), someone(s) had periodically added or removed things.
- The processes for donating, accessioning, and deaccessioning items from the archives.
- Processes for using the archives, in a hopeful attempt at keeping things where they should be.
This could all be pointless, and will probably be ignored, but it might make me feel better.
Leave a comment