International Conference on the History of Records and Archives,
Austin, Texas, August 2-4, 2012
Erik Nordberg, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Social Sciences Department, Michigan Technological
University
Collecting the Records of American Business and
Industry: Museums and Libraries as Midwives to
Significant Manuscript Collections
How have the major archival repositories for American business and industrial history gathered material?
What contexts have informed their specific appraisal and selection of this material?
Is a useful and comprehensive amount of historical material being retained which will provide adequate evidence to historians and other researchers?
Research Questions
Case study approach: Institutions, corporations, collectionsHistorical research using institutional
records, published material, and other documentary resources.
Interviews with archivists, librarians and curators about appraisal and selection activities.
Methodologies
Document historical practice at case study institutions, corporations, collections.
Assess the affect of these contexts on the materials actually collected, as well as any gaps in documentation.
Inform current and future practice.
Goals
Baker Library, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration
A New Kind of School - A New Approach
CollectingManuscriptMaterial
“Rationalizing” the Collection
Arthur Cole and Donald Clark
The “Library” Context
Classifying Business
Refocusing Manuscript Collecting“[T]he volume of extant business records was really stupendous [and] our library’s initial notion of taking over all records for the country was downright idiotic.”Arthur Cole, “Some Details on the Determination of
The Proper Areas for Collecting Activity at Baker Library,”
January 16, 1961
“We learned that the manuscript materials surviving in the hands of enterprises, even just those of modest age, were quite too bulky for storage in a single repository; we learned that such materials were but infrequently called for by students, we discovered that the cost of putting such materials into usable conditions was costly – and we came to the conclusion that [the work] while undoubtedly of high value to the advanced scholar, was pretty much of a luxury for the Baker Library.”
Arthur Cole, “Notes on my Early Experiences with the Library of the
Harvard Business School,” Nov. 12, 1960.
“I was always willing to regard the Manuscript Division as a marginal portion of the Library’s domain.”Arthur Cole, “Some Details on the Determination of
The Proper Areas for Collecting Activity at Baker Library,”
January 16, 1961
Hagley Museum and Library Wilmington, Delaware
Hagley Museum and Library Wilmington, Delaware
Hagley Museum and Library Wilmington, Delaware
National Museum of American HistorySmithsonian InstitutionWashington, DC
National Museum of American HistorySmithsonian InstitutionWashington, DC
No Formal Archival Policy
I think it's fair to say that our archival collecting efforts before 1980 were conducted largely without plan or with any good notion of what we were going to do with the material once we got it. Our experience with objects led us to believe a) that we had a well-founded sense of what was important, b) that if we didn't take it when we found it there might not be a second chance, and c) that space would be created in response to the collecting effort. At the same time--more so than with objects--we were generally quite willing to have the material go to other appropriate institutions; our main concern was preservation and we knew there were limitations on what we could do.
-Barney Finn, e-mail communication, February 15, 2010
National Museum of American HistorySmithsonian InstitutionWashington, DC
Despite its importance in man’s adaptation to his surroundings, the field of civil engineering has, until the recent past, received hardly more than token treatment in technical museums anywhere. This deficiency is plainly a result of the size of the objects created by civil engineering. A bridge or dam does not respond to the format of conventional museum exhibit with the same facility as a collection of rare coins, or an early surveying instrument, or even, for that matter, a locomotive.
Robert M. Vogel, “Assembling a New Hall of Civil Engineering,” Technology and Culture Vol. 6, no. 1 (Winter 1965): 59.
Baker Library Hagley Library Smithsonian
Year Founded 1908 / 1927 1953 / 1961 1954 / 1964
Models
Huntington and Folger Libraries Industrial Site
Museums
National Museums of Science and
Industry
StaffBusiness and
Economic Historians
LibrariansIndustrial
Historians and Practitioners
Partners / Networks
Business Hist. Society
Harvard Alumni
Library & Museum
Professional Assns.
Industrial Corps
Univ. Eng. Depts.
Founding Purpose of Manuscript Collecting
To support graduate and
faculty research of the Harvard School
of Business
Preserve du Pont Family and
Industrial Legacy
To support museum
exhibits and curators' research
Emerging Archival Theory
T.R. Schellenberg, 1960Kansas Memory Item Number: 211724 Call Number: B Schellenberg, Theodore R. *3 KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 211724
Margaret Cross NortonIllinois State Archives
“Business records really were another category altogether with which we didn’t do anything. That wasn’t our role, at least as I saw our role. Our role was to record the history of engineering. Not business. It’s a separate field, really. And it is. I mean, I would still say the same. And Baker School is known as probably the best repository in the country for business records. There are others, of course, but in my limited experience, they are the best.” -- Robert Vogel, May 30, 2009
Archival collecting is idiosyncratic and highly dependent on timing, budget, personnel, and space.
Late 19th and early 20th Century business and industrial records are voluminous and often include special formats (photographs, dimensioned drawings, etc.) whose special preservation and storage needs affect appraisal and selection decisions.
There are many different users and uses for these records, often with conflicting ideas of what should be preserved for research.
Initial Project Conclusions
Additional case study institutions.Detailed review of the collections of the case
study institutions to more closely understand the appraisal and selection decisions applied during acquisition.
Examine literature of the history of science, industry, and technology to characterize the types of archival materials utilized as evidence.
Oral interviews with archivists, curators, and researchers about these topics.
Further Research
Questions?
Erik NordbergDoctoral Student, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Program, Social Sciences Department University Archivist, Michigan Tech Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections, Van Pelt and Opie LibraryMichigan Technological University1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931906-487-2505 / [email protected]
