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John Davison papers at Haverford

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

John Davison (1930-1999) was an accomplished musical composer and professor at Haverford College for forty years. His collection in the Haverford Archives spans from 1943 to 1999 and includes almost all of his musical scores, as well as several dozen recordings of his pieces. Approaching this collection was admittedly a little scary at first, as Davison’s correspondence was only loosely organized in boxes. It was also our first time dealing with reel-to-reel audio recordings in a collection. However after some planning, we were able to organize his correspondence by year, and placed the reel-to-reels in special storage units.

One of the strengths of the Davison collection is the musical scores, many of which include his annotations in the margins. He produced over 140 pieces, including choral works, symphonies, quintets, and religious songs. Blending a variety of styles, his music is described by Dram as “rooted in the great Western classic-romantic tradition with Baroque, Renaissance, jazz, modernist, and folk elements mixing in at times.” In addition to his accomplishments as a composer, his love for teaching was evident. He kept musical pieces produced by his students at Haverford, many of which are also included in the collection.

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Douglas and Dorothy Steere at Haverford

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

After two and a half weeks of processing the Douglas and Dorothy Steere collection, we are finally about to start Archivists’ Toolkit. The collection, which began at about 60 linear feet, initially appeared fairly organized, with many of the boxes arranged chronologically or alphabetically, as well as placed a loose arrangement. This made processing at the start very easy, however we later encountered many boxes containing loose material, random correspondence, as well as the “box of despair” (not our label). Dealing with these materials slowed down our minimal processing considerably. Yet after spending two-three days processing loose material and correspondence, we were ready to begin the arrangement and, finally, Archivists’ Toolkit today.

Over the past two and a half weeks, we’ve learned quite a bit about minimal processing and archival methods, including how to select appropriate series and subseries titles for intellectual arrangement in archives. We’ve also developed a better feel for what type of collection works well for minimal processing. The Douglas and Dorothy Steele collection is an appropriate choice considering how much of it was already organized chronologically and alphabetically. While the loose material has presented a challenge, we’ve remained on track to complete processing significantly quicker than traditional processing. We’ve taken advantage of the great resources surrounding us here at Haverford College, particularly Diana Peterson, Head Archivist of Special Collections and Manuscripts. Diana has been a wealth of knowledge and a great help to us on multiple occasions. We hope to be finishing this collection up by the end of next week and will continue to share our thoughts on our first official collection processing.

By Forrest Wright and Leslie O’Neill


									
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The Rhoads family papers: An archivist’s dream or nightmare?

Friday, October 30th, 2009

The Rhoads family papers collection is an archivist’s dream! It was donated to Haverford College in an old metal trunk with bundles of letters all tied up with pretty ribbons. The anticipation each time I untied a ribbon … Was it a dream for an archivist minimally processing the collection? Well, yes, it was, but the dream included a fair bit of angst!

To be completely honest from the start, I did not process this collection in 2 hours per linear foot. Just discovering the family members contributing to the collection and determining a rough understanding of what was in the collection was daunting, not to mention time consuming. The biggest disappointment for me is that the content of the collection has not been revealed to any great extent … at least to the extent that the collection deserves.

So, does that really matter if we have made the collection AVAILABLE for researchers who will then discover the content and hopefully share it with a wider audience? As a lover of history, I wish that we could provide tons of content information on all the collections, primarily because I want to know all about the history. However, on a more rational level, I know that the researchers of these papers almost always know more about the historical significance and relevance of materials than some archivists and certainly more than project staff who can hardly be experts on a majority of the diverse set of topics included in the collections of this project.

The Rhoads family papers is arranged and it is usable–researchers can identify the types of materials, the time frame, and the roles of the family. This family wrote letters and letters and letters, spanning generations. I don’t know a lot of what they wrote ABOUT, but I know that the letters provide a treasure trove for researchers interested in Quaker families and Philadelphia history. And the letter writing … it is a lost art. But that is another blog post!

In the end, this collection was processed at 5.5 hours per linear foot–still less than standard processing (usually 8 hours per linear foot). I am not sure I could have processed the collection any faster and I know that I could not have processed it in 5.5 hours per linear foot without the survey records and the processing plan.

I suppose in the end the really big question is: Is this collection a minimal processing success? I say, YES! It is available: now that researchers have access to the collection, we can begin to document its use and perhaps justify further processing. Moreover, a researcher looking for a Quaker family papers collection may find just what they are looking for in this previously “hidden collection.” You never know …