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Private archives



As long as we're on the subject of private archives...there is a fantastic
collection of railroad records related to the New Haven Railroad (the
railroad for which we have the corporate records and other related
collections here at UConn) in private hands.  The man who owns the
collection is a retired New Haven Railroad employee.  When the railroad went
under in 1968 the management discarded many of their records or let the
workers take what they want, so many of the records scattered to the four
winds or were lost.

The private collection is housed in the basement of the man's house.  It
consists of dozens of linear feet of photographs, maps, historical
documents, memorabilia, you name it.  The man allows researchers access to
the collection, or provides reference service to those searching for
specific information.  He has allowed me to refer my researchers to him, if
we do not have the materials to answer certain questions.

I've visited the man's home (located about one hour from the UConn campus at
Storrs) and talked with him about his collection, but he has made it very
clear that he has no intention of donating his collection to UConn or any
other institution.  He has a profound distrust of archives and historical
societies, believing they all collect material to simply sell it in time or
squirrel it away, letting it sit unattended in their storage rooms.

The collection will go to his son upon the man's death.  It is my fear that
the son will not be as devoted to the collection as his father is, and will
either sell it piece by piece or let it lanquish.

Laura Smith

Laura Katz Smith, CA
Curator for Business, Railroad, Labor and Ethnic Heritage and Immigration
Collections
Archives & Special Collections
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
405 Babbidge Road, Unit 1205
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT  06269-1205

Phone: (860)486-2516
Fax: (860)486-4521
Email: Laura.Katz.Smith@UConn.edu




-----Original Message-----
From: Dean DeBolt [mailto:ddebolt@MAIL.UWF.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 5:26 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Nature's RAIN


I actually met Jeremy Norman when the SAA met in San
Francisco in 1981, and at that time, he was interested in
private publishing of scientific works and collecting and
selling antiquarian scientific/medical works.

I have expressed concern in the past over the "private"
archives.  We have a wonderful local Civil War Soldiers
Museum, owned and operated by a local doctor, and
a number of people have donated family collections of
Civil War letters to this museum, including descendants
of important Southern generals.   My concern has been
that this is a private museum, hence I'm not sure the
families knew the difference and may have assumed
that "museum" meant public hands and permanent
safekeeping.

Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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