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Re: A Description Dilemma



Perchance is Dr. William P. Lowry aware of this collection?  He wrote a
highly regarded work on the subject of sex and the Civil War ("The Story
the Soldier's Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War," Stackpole Books,
1994).

Regards,

Mark D. Jaeger
Purdue University Libraries
Special Collections

On Fri, 22 Sep 2000, Tom Anderson wrote:

> Are you planning on publishing the results of your work?  It would be
> fascinating to see such an undertaking bear fruit.  The sexually explicit
> material in those three letters give your collection a fullness that most
> documents don't have, even diaries that are found and published rarely
> contain this type of material yet as our own society shows it far from
> scarce.  Moral or not, it is a large, and therefore important, portion of
> our cultural history.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Tom Anderson; Collections
> American Museum of Science and Energy
> 300 S. Tulane
> Oak Ridge, TN 37830
> (865) 576-3228 (Voice), (865) 576-6024 (Fax)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elayne Goyette <YEGoyette@AOL.COM>
> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
> Date: Thursday, September 21, 2000 8:47 PM
> Subject: [ARCHIVES] A Description Dilemma
>
>
> >Dear Colleagues,
> >
> >I've been processing a large and, at times, quite personal family
> collection
> >at The National Civil War Museum, made up of 26 binders containing between
> >75-99 documents each.  The date range is 1826-1891 and covers the letters
> and
> >documents written by three generations.  Family members have been, for lack
> >of a better term, housewives, elected officials, lawyers and merchants.
> >
> >Until now the documents contained in the first 18 binders have given me,
> and
> >will give our researchers, a fairly complete picture of life in rural
> >Virginia before, during and after the Civil War.  Describing them has been
> >pretty straight forward...until now.
> >
> >Binder 19 contains three documents that I would describe as filthy, and
> none
> >of them are signed.  I'm not just talking about the kind of filth that can
> be
> >removed by dry cleaning.  Portions of the letters are sexually explicit and
> >not too kindly phrased.  I don't know why the family has kept them for well
> >over 100 years!
> >
> >I've never come across stuff like this before and wonder whether any of you
> >have, and if you have, I'd really like to know how you've described them,
> for
> >describe them I must.
> >
> >All replies and advice would be gratefully accepted.
> >
> >Thank you.
> >
> >Elayne Goyette
> >YEGoyette@aol.com
> >
> >A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
> >
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> >
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> >
> >Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>       In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
>                     *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
> To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>
> Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
>      http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>