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Re: A Description Dilemma



        I know I am a little late on this bandwagon, but I was way from my
desk for the last two day (Thursday and Friday).  However, these letters hit
home for me.  A few years ago my husband, a biologist, was working in
Alaska.  He was away from our  2 year old daughter and myself for six
months.  During this time we were unable to communicate sometimes for over a
month.  So we wrote letters almost daily and mailed the letter twice a
month.  And yes some of these were of a personal nature, (maybe they are not
a graphic as the letters your have) but they expressed our feeling for each
other and the events of our daily life, like potty training our daughter.
Those letters I still cherish even to this day.  I know why those letter
were made and why someone kept them all these years.  My daughter or even my
grandchildren may see those letter one day, but at lease they know that
there mother and father were human and to censor or hide these letters would
be a disservice to us, as adults who's papers may on day be the stuff of
interest.  Yet, if I decide I do not want world to see these letters, I
alone, the author of the papers have the right to do with them as I see fit.

O.K. I am now stepping off my soapbox.

Thanks for letting me express my opinion.

Yours truly,
Sheri Kiaukaras
Reference Archivist

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Elayne Goyette [SMTP:YEGoyette@AOL.COM]
        Sent:   Thursday, September 21, 2000 8:33 PM
        To:     ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
        Subject:        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

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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>