Blogs

The longer I work processing manuscript collections, the more I realize that it is not the big events in these materials that get me excited, but the texture and circumstances of people's lives and how they integrated monumental events into their everyday.  I love sifting through old receipts to see what people were buying, what they ate, and how much they spent.  I like to read their letters to each other about major events, and see how those events impacted them.  I enjoy looking at these collections to get a sense of the people who created them, and when I don't get that s

Today, I virtually had the processing room to myself since everyone else is out for the holiday.  This is a rare occasion, and one that I usually take advantage of by playing music and sometimes singing out loud.  (And you thought archivists were serious, proper folks who never raise their voices above a whisper except to scold you when you pick up your pen!)

This week, I am working on finishing up the John Rutter Brooke Papers, the first collection I am processing as part of the Digital Center for Americana.