Archival Keys

#3: Provenance and original order: the key organizational principles of archives

DEFINITIONS

The following is the official/ standard definition* of provenance:

At this point in this exercise go to http://www.archivists.org/glossary/term_details.asp?DefinitionKey=196 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:

 
(*Credits: Fort Lewis College has SAA's permission to insert web page snapshots (like the one above) into these Archival Keys for training student workers, interns and volunteers, so long as the SAA url is pictured.  9/6/2006)

Now go to http://www.archivists.org/glossary/term_details.asp?DefinitionKey=69 to 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 collections at the Center of Southwest Studies:

(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 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 is sealed until the year 2010 by request of the donor)
• 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 not yet open for use)

(2.)  Records of a company that inherited numerous preexisting companies: various electricity generation businesses that were absorbed into the Western Colorado Power Company.  Note that we kept each original business's records separate from the records of other businesses.

(3.)  The first director of the 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:

(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 CEO's 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 our calculated disregard of original order -- by reading the arrangement note in the administrative history section of these online inventories of different types of collections at the Center of Southwest Studies:

(1.)  Records of a title abstract company.  These came to us 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: http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/inventory/FirstNationalBankInv.htm#AdminInfo   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.  We are currently attempting to place the records of the County Clerk all together, place all the records of the County Assessor in a separate record group within the County government archives, etc.  In doing so, we 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

Resources

Books in the Professional Section of the Delaney Library:

• 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  (2 copies at the Delaney Library; one is available for checkout)

• 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:

1. Read her explanation of the principles of provenance and original order, on pages 9-10. 

2. While you're in this book, read page 23 to review folder labeling.

To do in Miller:

1. Read his description of the concepts of provenance and original order, on pages 25-27.

2. Read his explanation of how to arrange records by provenance, on pages 71 (bottom)-72.

your practical application

Report to me 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?

feedback (please send me an email -- including your responses to the two assignments in the previous section )

What was most helpful about this exercise?

What was unclear?

How could this Key be improved?