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Arrangement for a MS collection



I have been debating this question and thought I would turn to the list
for its collective wisdom.

How would you arrange a manuscript collection containing the papers of
several generations of one family?  The conventional wisdom is, I
believe, to divide the documents up according to format, i.e.,
correspondence, deeds, receipts, poems, legal opinions, etc., and then
arrange them in subseries by creator.  However, I have been thinking
about the type of arrangement a researcher would find most useful.  It
seems to me that potential researchers would be interested in the entire
picture (as far as it has been preserved in this collection) of each
generation:  what they were writing to each other in letters, what they
bought, what parcels of land they owned, what was in their business
papers, etc.  So I thought that arrangement by person or generation
would make more sense, further divided by format (correspondence,
poetry, deeds, etc.).

I'm also aiming for clarity & simplicity in the arrangement.  Does
anyone have any opinions on which option is less confusing?

The collection is from the 18th & 19th centuries and numbers less than
200 documents.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts & experiences!

Rebecca Fitzgerald, CA
Mt. St. Mary's Archives & Dept. of Special Collections
Mt. St. Mary's College & Seminary
Emmitsburg, MD
301/447-5397
301/447-6868 (fax)
rfitzger@msmary.edu 

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