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| Sayles House on Sayles Boulevard- Abilene, Texas Courtesy of the Rupert Richardson Center for the Southwest Hardin-Simmons University |
In
my opinion, one of the most important collections at the Richardson Center at
Hardin-Simmons University is the Sayles Papers. This collection is the largest in their holdings (60 linear
feet, 89 boxes and folders - As a side note, archives measure collections in
linear feet – that is the amount of linear shelf space that the collection will
require. Important to know when
determining if there is enough storage space.) At any rate, the Sayles family arrived in Abilene in 1886 (Abilene
was founded by the T and P Railroad in 1881.) and immediately opened the Sayles
and Sayles law firm. But this was
not simply a family of lawyers they were also land speculators, entrepreneurs,
and businessmen. Members of the
family were involved in almost every economic venture that drove the West Texas
economy – ranching, farming, oil and gas, land development, water rights, you
name it. The personal papers of
family members, business relationships and activities, as well as legal
dealings, are all in this collection.
The one major problem with the papers is that they had been in a
fire. They were rescued from the
house where they were stored and many were just thrown into open boxes. All were dirty, some covered in mud
with clear footprints. Specks of
charcoal and burnt wood had also drifted into the open boxes. Most papers are brittle both from the
poor quality of paper used as well as the drying effect of the fire. These papers are a preservationist’s
nightmare. That’s probably why
they had stayed in the boxes mostly untouched for years.
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| Very damaged papers |
I
am not trained as a conservator. That
requires special knowledge and expertise.
I was taught to do no harm and that’s the approach we used in dealing
with these papers. Some previous sorting by history graduate students
complicated our problems. They had
separated correspondence by made up topics, had not attempted any type of cleaning
(that was probably good), and filed the papers in open accordion file
folders. That’s where we started
after doing an initial appraisal of the collection and developing a processing
plan. That initial appraisal
provided clear series divisions for the collection and gave us an understanding
of the preservation problems we would be facing. It took us the better part of a year to get the collection
processed. We lightly dusted the
front and back of every page with microfiber cloths and brushes. (Most
conservators recommend using soft brushes for cleaning paper. The dirt we faced
required a bit more dusting power unfortunately.) Any papers that were too damaged to save (like the ones pictured here) we photocopied to
preserve the information. The very
acidic papers, which were mostly copies of an original letter or document, were
separated from the other papers in a particular file by archival bond paper to
at least slow down the acid migration.
At some point many of these documents will be scanned and available on
line. At present they are open for
research at the Center. The
finding aid with complete inventory is also available on line. (By the way a finding aid is like a
catalog record. It includes an
inventory, a sketch about the collection and the creator, and other important
information to introduce the researcher to the collection.)
This
is a great collection to study early railroads in the area, land dealings, and
early ranching. Anyone interested?
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