Week 4 - Organizing, Weeding, and Trucking Along

This week, Lisa and I kept trucking along in our efforts to categorize and catalog the file folders from the first drawer of the first file cabinet. Instead of meeting at the library or the archive, we decided to just separately finish the folders we currently have and get them put into our tentative excel workbook so that we can seamlessly move into other aspects of the archive next week. 

Going through these files, I have noticed a lot of copies of specific information, ranging from simple correspondence between Frank Laumer and his research assistant to copies of genealogical information that was sent to the author. We will of course keep some of the copies, but needless ones will be weeded and filed separately so as not to take up too much room amongst the important documents themselves.  We have also assessed quite a bit of what appears to be water damage to the file folders, as well as the papers in the files. Metal paperclips have indented materials, while also causing rust to rub off on the paper. With this damage in mind, we have established a list of materials we would like the archive to acquire so that we can better maintain these documents for future use.

Pictures of some of the damage to the papers

Some of these materials include: 

• Acid-free folders
• Archive boxes (Durashield document cases)
• Plastic paperclips
• Staple removers
• Label maker and labels (to assign ascension numbers that match our excel sheet)

As we go along in organizing, sorting, and cataloging materials, I am sure we will assess more needs. Luckily, our director at the archive, Patrick Swan, has been extremely forthcoming and encouraging when it comes to acquiring the resources we need to get the archive into shape! 

On another note, reading through the files so far has been very interesting, especially from a researcher's standpoint. There are, fortunately, and unfortunately, countless papers of correspondence between Frank Laumer, his research assistant JoAnne Herzog, and various universities, county clerks, libraries, and genealogical societies that mostly indicate fruitless results and rejections for information. Fortunate - because it provides further evidence, if not also comfort, that the research process is always thorough, usually difficult, and time-consuming for everyone - unfortunate because this correspondence makes up a bulk of the files we have gone through. Even so, this devotion to research and maintaining good, if not excessively detailed notes is what makes Laumer's collection so interesting. 

While we do not feasibly have time to read through every piece of correspondence or through every primary document, I catch myself reading completely through these letters and notes often - maybe because I can relate with the sheer desire to learn more about history - but more truthfully, these letters are, for a lack of a better term, intimate. Frank affectionately discusses his gratitude with his research assistant, referring to inside jokes between the two that we will probably never understand. There are post-it notes scattered between the documents with Frank's notes and JoAnne's notes (and her often pushy directions to Frank to reach out more) that show much more of the picture than the documents themselves could.  Correspondence between JoAnne and the researchers she reaches out to show frustration at the lack of information out there, and also elation at the discovery of minute details. 

Frank's affectionate letter to Joni

Nuances like this are rare in most archival collections, especially collections geared towards the facts of a subject. It is this uniqueness that pushes me to continue organizing as best I can - regardless of how daunting this first foray into archival work has been.