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Archival Keys by Todd Ellison
#3: Provenance and original order: the quintessential organizational principles of archives |
DEFINITION:
The following is the official/ standard definition (courtesy of the Society of American Archivists) of provenance:
The following is the official/ standard definition (courtesy of the Society of American Archivists) of provenance:
At this point in this exercise go to the Society of American Archivist’s Glossary of Archival & Records Terminology online and read the explanations by Professors Gilliland-Swetland and Henson. Then read the following definition of one of the related terms that Dr. Gilliland-Swetland raised, original order:
Back at SAA’s Glossary of Archival & Records Terminology online and read the Guercio's explanation of the application of the archival principle of original order. In short, application of the archival concepts of provenance and original order delivers archivists (and their collections) from chaos! This gives us a "track to ride on" as we arrange and describe materials we acquire, and it preserves any context in the records and papers we preserve. Context is super-important in archives.
EXAMPLES OF THIS KEY AT WORK:
A. Look at the application of the principle of provenance (or its disregard in times past!) by noting these examples in some real collections:
(1.) An example of records pertaining to the same topic, which are spread out through various collections: records of the Animas-La Plata Water Project can be found in the following collections:
(3.) Back three decades ago, the first director of the Southwest Studies Center placed all photographs into a single collection, arranged into a topical scheme such as a librarian would do with books. This many decades into the use of that system, it is not feasible to restructure the General Photograph Collection by provenance. Nowadays, when we receive a donation of photographs, we keep those photos together and do not merge them into collection P 001. If it is only a folder-full of photographs, it goes into our collection of small photograph collections, with those particular photos kept together in their own folder that is labeled by the name of that collection. The tab of such a folder would look like this, across the top of that tab:
Small photograph collections Betty Smith photoprints, 2001-2003 Coll. P 015, Box 1, Folder 14
(4.) An interesting application of the principle of provenance is when we are processing the records of various individuals who filled the same office. For example, Durango City Council members, or CEOs of Fort Lewis College. Follow these links to see how we have maintained the provenance of each individual's records.
B. Look at the application of the principle of original order--or a calculated disregard of original order--by reading the arrangement note in the administrative history section of the online inventories of these different types of collections at the Center of Southwest Studies:
(1.) Records of a title abstract company. These arrived at the repository in numbered date-organized files and bound volumes. Actually, it is the common and rather unfortunate experience of archivist that we do not receive records in pristine original order. All too often, we are having to initiate a pattern of organization of the documents, as in the following example.
(2.) Business records that were not in a meaningful or useful order when we received them, which we then reorganized to better suit the needs of researchers: bank records. Read the explanation of why we disregarded the original order for Series 1. Why did we do so in this case?
(3.) Sometimes, archivists face a challenge of artificially reconstructing "original order" after some (always anonymous, it seems!) well-meaning predecessor destroyed all such context and placed all of an organization's documents into one chronological sequence, with all of the "stuff" from 1908 placed into a box marked "1908". This was the case with a portion of the historically significant records of La Plata County government that the Center received. The Center later attempted to place the records of the County Clerk all together, and place all the records of the County Assessor in a separate record group within the County government archives, etc. In doing so, staff took the County's organizational chart and created record groups to reflect that structure. We did the same thing with the Fort Lewis College archives.
A. Look at the application of the principle of provenance (or its disregard in times past!) by noting these examples in some real collections:
(1.) An example of records pertaining to the same topic, which are spread out through various collections: records of the Animas-La Plata Water Project can be found in the following collections:
- Animas-La Plata Project collection (read the Historical Note in the administrative history)
- Four Corners printed materials collection (do a keyword search of the Folder List for Friends of the Animas River)
- Animas La Plata citizens' opposition papers (not yet arranged and described; it was sealed until the year 2010 by request of the donor; the current staff of the Southwest Studies Center has not yet made it accessible online as of 2015)
- The Center also records of regional elected officials who were involved with political decisions about the project (no need for you to look these up, though):
+ Ben Nighthorse Campbell papers (A-LP records are in Series II.C.: Bill/ legislative subject files)
+ Scott McInnis papers (his U.S. Congress papers on A-LP are apparently still not open for use)
(3.) Back three decades ago, the first director of the Southwest Studies Center placed all photographs into a single collection, arranged into a topical scheme such as a librarian would do with books. This many decades into the use of that system, it is not feasible to restructure the General Photograph Collection by provenance. Nowadays, when we receive a donation of photographs, we keep those photos together and do not merge them into collection P 001. If it is only a folder-full of photographs, it goes into our collection of small photograph collections, with those particular photos kept together in their own folder that is labeled by the name of that collection. The tab of such a folder would look like this, across the top of that tab:
Small photograph collections Betty Smith photoprints, 2001-2003 Coll. P 015, Box 1, Folder 14
(4.) An interesting application of the principle of provenance is when we are processing the records of various individuals who filled the same office. For example, Durango City Council members, or CEOs of Fort Lewis College. Follow these links to see how we have maintained the provenance of each individual's records.
B. Look at the application of the principle of original order--or a calculated disregard of original order--by reading the arrangement note in the administrative history section of the online inventories of these different types of collections at the Center of Southwest Studies:
(1.) Records of a title abstract company. These arrived at the repository in numbered date-organized files and bound volumes. Actually, it is the common and rather unfortunate experience of archivist that we do not receive records in pristine original order. All too often, we are having to initiate a pattern of organization of the documents, as in the following example.
(2.) Business records that were not in a meaningful or useful order when we received them, which we then reorganized to better suit the needs of researchers: bank records. Read the explanation of why we disregarded the original order for Series 1. Why did we do so in this case?
(3.) Sometimes, archivists face a challenge of artificially reconstructing "original order" after some (always anonymous, it seems!) well-meaning predecessor destroyed all such context and placed all of an organization's documents into one chronological sequence, with all of the "stuff" from 1908 placed into a box marked "1908". This was the case with a portion of the historically significant records of La Plata County government that the Center received. The Center later attempted to place the records of the County Clerk all together, and place all the records of the County Assessor in a separate record group within the County government archives, etc. In doing so, staff took the County's organizational chart and created record groups to reflect that structure. We did the same thing with the Fort Lewis College archives.
PRACTICAL HOW-TO’S:
To apply the concept of original order (and to understand why it is an important concept), one must know about another concept: evidential value. More on that when we discuss archival appraisal, but suffice it to say that materials in a collection have evidential value when they document how an organization did its work.
To apply the concept of original order (and to understand why it is an important concept), one must know about another concept: evidential value. More on that when we discuss archival appraisal, but suffice it to say that materials in a collection have evidential value when they document how an organization did its work.
RESOURCES
Books:
To do in DACS:
To do in Hunter:
To do in Roe:
To do in Miller:
Books:
- Hunter, Gregory S., Developing and maintaining practical archives: a how-to-do-it manual (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2nd edition, 2003). Call number: CD950.H86 2003
- Roe, Kathleen, Guidelines for arrangement and description of archives and manuscripts: a manual for historical records programs in New York State (Albany, N.Y.: University of the State of New York, the State Education Dept., New York State Archives and Records Administration, 1991). Call number: Z695.2 .R64 1991
- Miller, Fredric, Arranging and describing archives and manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1990). Call number: Z695.2.M55 1990
- Society of American Archivists, Describing archives: a content standard [DACS] (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004). Call number: Z695.2.S625 2004
To do in DACS:
- Read about the importance of provenance and original order, on pages xii-xiii.
To do in Hunter:
- Read his overview of the basic principles of provenance and original order, on pages 113-115.
To do in Roe:
- Read her explanation of the principles of provenance and original order, on pages 9-10.
- While you're in this book, read page 23 to review folder labeling.
To do in Miller:
- Read his description of the concepts of provenance and original order, on pages 25-27.
- Read his explanation of how to arrange records by provenance, on pages 71 (bottom)-72.
YOUR PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
Report to me (or the person who is mentoring you in archives) on the questions in the online inventory examples (item B.2.). (Items for you to respond to are in italics and/or bold font.)
Summative question: Having read these various authors, what is your opinion of Professor Duranti's denigration of the concept of provenance?
Report to me (or the person who is mentoring you in archives) on the questions in the online inventory examples (item B.2.). (Items for you to respond to are in italics and/or bold font.)
Summative question: Having read these various authors, what is your opinion of Professor Duranti's denigration of the concept of provenance?
