Preservation in the archives: the Sayles Papers

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. 

 

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?

The Houston Papers – Richardson Center for the Southwest

            One of the first collections that I processed at the Richardson Center was the transcription of letters and materials either signed by Sam Houston or sent to him.  The letters date from 1826 to 1860 spanning the time when Houston served as a United States Senator from Tennessee, through his tenure as president of the Republic of Texas, and later official documents during his time as governor of Texas.  Some of the letters written during his second term as president of the Republic of Texas deal with the printing of currency to fund the republic.  Other letters focus on personal matters.  Transcription was necessary because the ink is fading on many of the documents.  In addition, handwritten materials are difficult or impossible to word search.  So far OCR (Optical Recognition) software to accurately perform that task is just not all that good.  Apparently schools are no longer teaching cursive writing so future generations will have to rely on transcriptions to read these types of letters.  Seems like a loss to me, but no one asked my opinion.

            For archivists or at least this archivist the history or provenance of these letters and papers is particularly interesting.  They point to problems facing archivists dealing with old papers and highlight the need to maintain the integrity of a collection.  Remember one of my first posts in which I listed the two most important principles of archival processing: provenance and original order.  Both concepts are missing in the Houston papers.  In all likelihood the Houston papers were originally part of the R. C. Crane collection at the Center.  Crane was a Sweetwater, Texas, attorney with a long term interest in Texas history.  He was one of the founders of the West Texas Historical Association and served as president for many years.  He was also a paper collector.  At one time all of his personal papers were at Hardin-Simmons, but these papers were transferred to the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University several years ago.  Some of the antique papers amassed by Crane were kept at Hardin-Simmons.  These papers include Civil War documents among other things.  None of these antique documents have been processed.  The Houston papers have handwritten prices in one corner indicating that they were sold.  In all likelihood they were separated from the Crane documents because of the importance of the Houston signature.  (Although I have been told that Houston was a prolific writer and his signature is on many, many documents decreasing their value I suppose.  Still it is Sam Houston.)  Any other information regarding the origin of the papers may be in the Crane personal papers at the Southwest Collection.  To my knowledge these have not yet been processed.

            The moral of this story is that collections should be kept together.  Knowing where papers are from, their history or provenance not only authenticates the document, but also provides a complete story more interesting than just a famous signature.

Richardson Research Center for the Southwest

                        This photograph is of the front cover of a brochure describing the collections of the Rupert Richardson Research Center for the Southwest at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas.  The brochure highlights some of the material housed at the center and also lists the complete collections that can be found there.  I mention all of this because many of these are collections that I either processed or supervised the processing.  Some of the collections are on line at wtda.alc.org, others soon will be, and some are available for study at the Center.  By the way the Center is in the Rupert Richardson Library at the university (second floor). Rupert Richardson was a prominent Texas historian, the author of numerous seminal books with a focus on Texas and Comanche history.  Dr. Richardson taught at the university for years and also served as university president from 1943 to 1953.  His papers are housed at the Center and include teaching materials, manuscript drafts, and old family photographs.

                        The Center was founded in 1975 through the efforts  of Dr. Richardson and other prominent West Texans.  Dr. Richardson became the first director in 1983.  It was continued by history professor Dr. B. W. Aston with the help of graduate students and now is under the library direction. Members of the historical community, particularly members of the West Texas Historical Association, donated material. Several attempts were made over the years to gain intellectual control of the material, but it wasn’t until the creation of the West Texas Digital archives through the funding of the Dodge Jones Foundation and the Dian Graves Owens Foundation that resources could be directed towards in-depth processing of the collections followed by digitization.  Devhra Bennett-Jones headed the digitization project for the Abilene Library Consortium and as I said I did much of the processing and organization.  Through the increased focus on the collections, the Center now has a full time librarian who has had archival training.  With the increased exposure from digitization of the material, the Center has expanded service to researchers and genealogists from all over Texas if not beyond.  Check it out.  The Abilene photograph collection and the Jesse Wallace Williams Map Collection are particularly fun to peruse.

                        More on what can be learned from the Center’s collections next time.

Conference thoughts on accessibility

           Many of the papers and discussions at the “Digital Frontiers” conference at the University of North Texas dealt with increasing archive visibility on the web. Build it and they will come might work for a movie baseball field, but may not be as successful for an archive or at least not successful enough. I mentioned schema.org last time as a website that provided terms used by web crawlers.  A web sharing site where some of the archives have experienced success is pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/). Exposure on twitter and facebook are obvious choices visibility.  Blogs are also commonly used to increase interest in an archival website or a particular collection.  The key, of course, to enhance access to your material is appropriate search terms through detailed metadata.

            The definition of metadata is “data about data.” Ridiculous I know.  There must be a better way to describe metadata.  Let’s see how I do.  It is really simple.  A metadata record is a catalogue record describing a digital object.  If you are old enough to remember library card catalogue records then you understand metadata. If you don’t remember card catalogues then consider that metadata provide the explanatory information about the digital object. - who wrote it if it is an article, the photographer for a photograph, a description of the photograph, people in the photograph and so on including information about the scan that created the digital object.  In other words, metadata are the summaries (data) behind the digital object that you are viewing, i..e. data (catalog record) about data (the digital object) if you will.   Anyway these summaries or records describing a digital object among other things enable search engines to find the object.   The more detailed and specific the metadata, the more likely that you can find the exact digital object that you want through a search engine.  An example of detailed metadata would be the listing of all the individuals in a photograph, a date, the place where the photograph was taken and so forth. Standardization of terms helps.  Archivists are working on that.  One important consideration is determination of who your audience will be.  Genealogists are interested in searching using names while a historian might be interested in a time period or subject.  Although understanding metadata as a concept is not difficult creating comprehensive metadata can be.  That will be archivists continuing challenge. 

More conference reports - the digital story

           Just got back from a three-day conference at the University of North Texas in Denton (near Ft. Worth for non-Texans.) The conference title was “Digital Frontiers” and it dealt with the most up-to-date digital projects at mostly university archives and libraries.  (http://disco.unt.edu/df13).  I think this is the second year that they have hosted this conference.  About 100 people were in attendance.  Most were from Texas, but there were presentations from universities and entities in other states.  The Portal to Texas History and the Digital Scholarship Cooperative at UNT as well as the UNT University Libraries sponsored the conference.

Goodies from the conference

            One of the most interesting presentations was by the Collin County (Texas) Historical Commission.  They have developed an interactive map of historic sites in Collin County.  They used national register standards to identify sites, mapped, photographed, and wrote up a description of the site and its place in history.  It was quite impressive. (http://gismaps.collincountytx.gov/historical.html).  You simply click on a circle and get a pop-up with links to directions to the site and to the description of the site and its historical significance.  Most of these sites are disappearing or have disappeared as the county grows so this is important historical preservation tool.  Hopefully other counties will consider this as an option to preserve their history as well.  It’s a great model.   

            In the same session which was by the way entitled “Communities and Societies: Preserving Local History for Future Access,”  the presenter was/is the web designer from the Dallas Genealogical Society and he talked about web design tricks to help web crawlers find your site. One site he mentions is schema.org/, which provides a controlled vocabulary that can be added to your metadata.  These words are machine-readable enabling crawlers to find you.  Build it and they will come does work, but a little help from a standardized vocabulary is most helpful. I think I’ll check it out.

            More on helpful websites next time.

Keys to Preservation - Steps to control temperature and humidity

          One of the facilities where I work has a mold problem every summer (actually two have mold problems and a third has a leaky roof.)  When you have older buildings you will have problems.  I once lived in a house built in 1790 with a rock wall basement.  The cement flooring in the basement has been poured with a drainage trough in the middle so that the water would flow out when it rained.  Mold in the summer was a nightmare.  All you could do was use a dehumidifier in the upstairs throughout the summer months, keep the outside cellar door open, and not use the cellar for storage of anything that would mold.  One part of it did work great as a root cellar for onions and such, but the mold was tough on the furniture.  I still have one chair that smells like mildew and it’s been re-covered twice.  Enough of happy reminiscences. 

            First step, which I mentioned several times in the last post, is to figure out if you have a problem and when.  If your heating and air-conditioning system draws air from outside as many do, chances are you will have to work at keeping your temperature and humidity stable. Why should you care? Well, high heat will dry paper and make it brittle, furniture too as well as other objects.  Moisture causes swelling and quite often mold.  Something you definitely want to avoid. 

            What can you do to fix the problem? Well, museums and archives need to call in experts who can address any problems with the HVAC system.  One of my libraries has taken a two-step approach.  The first was to install special devices on the HVAC system to keep the humidity at the target range.  The second was to bring in industrial de-humidifiers to pull moisture from the air when the HVAC system is not being effective.  The conditions in the archive have to be carefully monitored to prevent the de-humidifiers from removing too much water vapor or causing a rise in temperature from the heat they generate. Another step that helps is to change filters often, especially if you drawing in outside air.  Clean filters will help control the mold spores and other particles in the air.  The same is true at home.  Change filters often.  Cleaner air is better for you, your possessions, and the heating and air conditioning systems that you use.

Other dos and don’t for individuals and for museums and archives.  

1. As my story above suggests, don’t store things in a basement.  No paper for

sure.  Attics are terrible too because they can get too hot in the summer and

cold in winter with abrupt fluctuations in most places. Basements tend to

flood on occasion. Mine, the one I told you about always did since I lived at

the bottom of a hill although the worst flood I was in was in Lubbock, Texas

 where it rarely rains. Everything on the floor of my apartment experienced

 water damage.  I still have books with wrinkled pages.  I guess the moral of

that story is never store anything on the floor.  Always have it up one or two

shelves if you must store things in the basement or in my case on the first

floor of my apartment.  (Who knew semi-arid deserts would flood? It

shouldn’t have, but the city pumped water from one playa lake to save some

expensive homes to another lake near me.) One of my libraries has just

moved their archives to the basement. It hasn’t flooded but I have seen mold

on rugs and the coffee shop upstairs has had leaky pipes on occasion. 

Hopefully nothing bad will happen and they will remember to keep things off

the floor.  Of course, one of my other libraries has their archives on the

second floor.  In that case, the roof has been known to leak.  So far it has

leaked to the first floor with no damage to the second. In that instance no

 papers should be on the top shelf.  Be aware of the limitations of your facility

is the best advice I can give and be prepared for disasters.

2. Check your insulation to see if it is adequate and fix any leaky doors and

windows.   That will help stabilize the inside environment and take some of

the stress from the HVAC system.  Having insulated curtains can help.  Of course, archival storage should be in a room without windows anyway. Remember light is damaging.

3. Keeping objects impacted by temperature and humidity away from outside walls and windows is another suggestion.  A piano tuner told me that pianos should be on inside walls to protect them from the impacts of the outside environment. The same is true of other materials that are likely to swell if the humidity is high or get brittle and crack when it is cold and dry. 

Lots have been written about temperature and humidity.  Here are a few of the links that I have used as resources.

Northeast Document Conservation Centers  -

http://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/2.-the-environment/2.2-monitoring-temperature-and-relative-humidity

National Park Service –

            http://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/MHI/CHAPTER4.pdf

            (available if the Republican shutdown of government ever ends)

Canada Conservation Institute –

            http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/caringfor-prendresoindes/articles/enviro/index-eng.aspx

Smithsonian (technical article) - http://www.si.edu/mci/downloads/reports/mecklenburg-part1-RH.pdf

Northern States Document Center –

http://www.collectioncare.org/cci/ccier.html

Keys to Preservation: Temperature and Humidity and Paper

            This morning it was 46 degrees here in Texas.  Less than 36 hours ago it was 98 degrees.  Now that’s a change that gets your attention and that kind of rapid change is bad for objects like paper and photographs.  If you remember nothing else about temperature and humidity remember that that abrupt fluctuations are bad.  Even if you or your archives have an HVAC system, the outside world can still negatively affect your collections if the fluctuations are not well controlled.

            Temperature: What is important to know is that paper likes it cooler than people.  Most objects are happier with the temperature at or below 68 degrees.  The International Museum Association states that 70 degrees is acceptable for museum objects including paper.  That temperature represents a balance between the comfort of people and promoting preservation of collections. The rule of thumb is not to let temperature fluctuate more than 2 degrees in a 24-hour period.  (Tough in West Texas even with an HVAC system.)  By the way, HVAC is the acronym for heating, ventilation and air conditioning.  These systems are designed to control the internal environment of a building.  Some work well at that task while others do not.  To tell if your system is working you need to monitor the temperature and relative humidity (RH) for a year to see if you have a fluctuation problem.  Numerous devices are designed to monitor buildings.  Simple and inexpensive ones, like the one pictured here, require the manual recording and graphing of the information at set times each day

Digital Hygrometer
Grainger Industrial Supply (http://www.grainger.com)
Cost around $14.00

The more old fashioned, but fancier ones graph the data throughout the day.  Graphs are collected and studied at set intervals.  Sometimes you will see these in the corner of a museum exhibit.  

Other computer compatible measuring devices known as data loggers save the information for download to a computer through a USB port. The data can be collected monthly or as needed.  There are million types (well probably not quite that many) pictured on line.  Data logger Hobo by Onset is the only one I know.  They cost $100 and up and consist of a small device that attaches to a shelf or whatever and a collector like a thumbdrive.  Whatever type you choose will monitor your environment and indicate when and if you have temperature and humidity problems.  Once you determine that you have problems and when those problems are occurring your archive can get the appropriate help to adjust your HVAC system or take other measures.

            Relative humidity: The other ingredient in all of this is humidity, relative humidity to be exact.  Relative humidity is the percent of water vapor in the air at a certain temperature.  To express this mathematically, relative humidity equals actual vapor density over the saturation vapor density times 100.  Saturation density is the dewpoint when the air has enough moisture to cause condensation.  The relationship between temperature and relative humidity is an inverse one.  In other words, the hotter it is the more water molecules it will take to saturate the air. Another way of saying that is that in a closed system when the temperature rises, the relative humidity goes down because the air can "hold" more water.  In winter when the temperature goes down, it takes less water molecules in the air to cause dew or condensation.   RH is different from absolute humidity, which is the actual amount of water vapor in a set amount of air regardless of temperature. Since that is all probably clear as mud, all you really need to know is that the relative humidity should be kept between 40-60% with a fluctuation of no more than 6% in a 24-hour period.

            What you need to take away from all of the above is what I said in the beginning – The goal is to keep your environment as stable as is possible.  More on how to achieve that next time.