Week 2 - Categorical Oddities and Historical Context

This week, Lisa and I continued to consider the organizational tactics we wanted to use to tackle the Frank Laumer collection - we decided to collect a handful of the documents, with Patrick's permission, and take them to the UCF Library and Archive next week to continue cataloging them and maybe even begin digitizing some of the important documents we have come across. These files would finish the top drawer of the first filing cabinet, and will hopefully provide us a good idea of what approach we will take for the rest of the drawers.

Bin of collected documents and example of soldier-specific folder. 

While we have already established some topics we want to use in reorganizing the files for future research, I've been intrigued at some of the files that contain specific references to certain soldiers from the Dade massacre. There are several folders that trace the genealogies and contain the life and death records of these soldiers; all of which would be extremely beneficial for super specific research about Seminole War soldiers, while also being beneficial as a tracing method for the bigger themes of the war - just as Laumer appeared to do with these records. Question is: should these soldiers have their own categories and/or subsets? Should this apply to every applicable person mentioned in the files?

Other interesting files contain correspondence between Laumer and his fellow researchers, Laumer's requests for certain documents, his approval or denial for these documents, and the documents, if he was able to get them. This also throws a different categorical situation: is it best to keep all of these documents together, so that the sequential order and other minute details make sense, or should we separate the documents in terms of "correspondence" and say, "genealogical records" like we had decided before? Would keeping these papers together provide a researcher a thorough look at the question or topic at hand, or would it create a categorical mess?

Just as helpful as the abundance of records are, they can be daunting. Along with the specific questions presented above, there are several characters, events, and dates skewed about these documents, and it has been a bit overwhelming for me to properly categorize these papers without always knowing the historical context behind them. As such, I've been researching the Dade massacre myself to better understand the names, events, and dates of these papers - conveniently using Laumer's own notes and research to help in my quest for knowledge.

Knowing how wealthy this information is for fellow researchers makes it all the more important to have a cohesive method of organization and cataloging: and in processing the documents, I think cultivating my own thorough understanding of the Dade massacre and the general context of these documents will make this integral task much easier and much more detailed. Looking at it from the standpoint of a researcher will help me solve the categorical oddities.

Week 1 - Brainstorming and Introduction

Hello! My name is Olivia Aldrich and I will be working with Lisa Lapenna and the Seminole Wars Foundation to help organize their collection of Frank Laumer's personal research.

During my undergraduate time at UCF, I was unable to take on any internships due to my commute and hectic work schedule. Now, in my graduate journey at UCF, I was determined to get into some archival work - I really hope to learn basic archival practices in organization, as well as the digitization of important materials and what goes into proper source handling: ultimately to get archival experience in general. Dr. French pointed me towards the Seminole Wars Foundation because of the archive's closeness to my house as well as the Foundation's need for organizational help.

Frank Laumer was a dedicated lay historian who embarked on a 57 year journey to investigate and educate on the true happenings of the Dade massacre. During this research-heavy adventure, Laumer accumulated a lot of important Seminole War information, especially pertaining to General Dade and the military defeat at Dade Battlefield - this includes a multitude of books, nonfiction and fiction, as well as a slough of popular resources that contain references to the Seminole War. Genealogical records, extensive correspondence, maps, and other materials also saturate the collection. 

Library of Frank Laumer's collection - where the archive is located.

Upon our initial visit to the site and archive, our director, Patrick, pointed out that there was a whole room full of archival material that had not been sorted or organized, and discussed the need for a cataloging and organizational system to better house the important materials of this collection; a way for people researching Dade's massacre to be able to utilize the wealth of information that Laumer had accumulated. 

With our second visit to the archive, Lisa and I focused on tackling the documents and materials that had not yet been sorted and brainstorming ways to organize these sources. We began by taking file folders full of information and making notes of the content of these files, how many pages there were, if they contained a copy or an original, and other important information that we could use later to catalogue with. We decided that sorting the papers in these files based on the topic at hand, such as genealogical records or correspondence about a certain topic of the war or of General Dade's life, would be the best way to kind of systemize this information before we digitize what is important. 

Example of information in file folders.

With our next visit, we plan to relabel some of the files with these general categories and any other specificities and continue sorting through the documents and sources to begin cataloging them. We also had the idea to use plastic sheets for original documents to keep them safe. Once we get through this system of organizing and notating originals versus copies, we plan to bring some of the more important research to UCF to digitize them. These early ventures to the archive prove that we will get a hands-on experience, and will get to kind of lead our own way into learning archival organization and digitization.

There is a lot of resource material to get through; but it has been fascinating to see Frank Laumer's own correspondence with other historians and collectors and how they came to conclusions about the truth of the Dade massacre - which is all mixed in with Dade's own letters. It truly is a unique collection in the sense that it shows a firsthand view into the process of research and the process of fleshing out a book, while showing a firsthand view of the Dade massacre and the historic presence of the event.