#archival processing

Director Ezra Stone and actress Joan Davis on the set of the TV show "I Married Joan" that aired from 1952-1955.

Join us this Thursday, November 20th, between 4-6p for our next Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester!

This event will feature the recently processed Ezra and Sara Seegar Stone Papers. Ezra Stone (1917-1994) was an actor, director, author, theatre professor, and cow farmer. Best known for his portrayal of mischievous teenager Henry Aldrich on the radio show "The Aldrich Family" (1939-1953), Stone directed several Broadway productions, World War II soldier morale productions including Irving Berlin's "This is the Army,"  IBM educational films, and 300+ TV episodes including "The Aldrich Family," "I Married Joan," "The Munsters," "Lost in Space," and "Lassie."

Immerse yourself in 1930-1950s era Hollywood with original Aldrich Family 1930s radio scripts and stage designs for the TV show "The Munsters."  Learn about the Broadway musical "This is the Army,"  and how the U.S. Army attempted to boost WWII soldier morale. See an archivist’s prized rusty paperclip collection and learn about the process of organizing a large 200+ box archival collection. 

We're getting ever closer to having the Husni Collection ready for researchers. Haley, Mariah, and Clare, our superhero team of Husni processers, recently passed an amazing milestone - 100,000 magazines rough sorted, checked against finding aids, and re-boxed. Watch the video (sound on) for Haley's intro to how she and the team took this collection from 0 to 100k in 10 months.

Newly Processed!

We’ve just finished processing the records of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills. Totaling 87 boxes, the collection includes general church records, scrapbooks, photographs, and the records of previous ministers of the congregation.

Now processing: the papers of Professor Laura J. Cooper, who was heavily involved in the implementation of anti-discrimination procedures at the U of M in the wake of the Rajender Consent Decree.

boss/colleague/project manager: why do you have so many subsubseries??

me: 

After the recent processing and digitization of the William H. Rau lantern slides collection revealed a beautiful array of forty-six lantern slides, many of them hand-colored, the staff of the Hagley Library began a project to address other unprocessed glass plate images in our collection associated with the Philadelphia photographer William H. Rau.

These collections were largely acquired in a flurry of activity during the mid-1970s, after Edwin P. Alexander’s 1971 On the Main Line: The Pennsylvania Railroad in the 19th Century reproduced a number of Rau’s photographs, igniting a rekindling of interest in the once renowned, but then obscure commercial photographer.

The most recent fruits of our labor had us diving in to six boxes of 151 glass plate negatives, which had been tentatively associated with William H. Rau based on their subject matter. Like the recently digitized images of the William H. Rau lantern slides (Accession 1971.360) collection, these images depicted scenes from in and around Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania (now Jim Thorpe) and the surrounding region in the later years of the 19th century.

It quickly became evident, however, that, while these images likely originated from a single photographer, it was unlikely to have been Rau, whose work in documenting the Mauch Chunk region took place during an 1895 commission from the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Using landmarks and other hints hidden in the images, we began a search for answers.

Staff Pick of the Week:

Up and Coming! The Max Arthur Cohn Collection

When I tell people I work as a graduate intern in the Special Collections department of the UWM Libraries, they often (and mistakenly) assume I sit at a desk and study, just waiting for someone who needs help finding a book. This could not be further from the truth. Sheepishly they then ask, “So, what DO you do?” The truth is, most people are unaware of what librarians and archivists do. Through no fault of their own, patrons never really get to see all that it takes to make information freely, efficiently, and readily available. As an intern, my job is to learn all the aspects of the professional job! One of my newer assignments is to learn to process collections and create finding aids to accompany them. I have the good fortune of having at my descriptive disposal several really fascinating collections encompassing paper making and social justice, fine arts of the 20th century, film posters from the 1950s, and local comic book history.

Today, I present a teaser of one of these forthcoming collections—the Max Arthur Cohn Collection (UWM Mss 360). The collection was generously donated by the artist’s daughter, Jane Cohn Waldbaum, and Steven L. Morse. Included are selections of Cohn’s art from 1923 - 1950. There are a number of etchings, lithographs, and serigraphs (for which he is most well-known). Cohn worked for the WPA and achieved fame internationally for his skillfully executed and vibrant silk screens.

Pictured first is an undated portrait of Max Arthur Cohn (1903–1998) done by renowned cartoonist Jack Markow (1905--1983). Likely, the two men who were contemporaries were well-acquainted: both were born in London, immigrated as young children to New York, studied at the Art Students League, and remained active in New York during their careers. 

Also shown are an example each of Cohn’s most favored mediums:

A 1923 etching titled “Subway”

A serigraph done in 1935 titled “Wheat Harvest”

A 1937 lithograph titled “Brooklyn Bridge”

Several of the items in this collection are non-editioned (you won’t find copies in museums or galleries) and most of the items in this collections are too large for our scanner, so come visit us and view them in person! If you are interested in silk-screening techniques, Cohn co-authored Silk Screen Stenciling as a Fine Art with Jacob (Jack) Israel Biegeleisen.

Stay tuned, we will periodically highlight items from the collection as we prepare to catalog these items and make the finding aid live. So, what exactly do I do with my work hours? Well, I make sure that artifacts like these are carefully preserved and ensure they are discoverable and available to researchers!

Find out a little more about Max Cohn and his daughter Jane Waldbaum in a previous post we did on another item from Cohn’s collection.

Coffee, Cigarettes, and Cigars

It is nearing the end of the Federal government’s fiscal year.  Here at The National Archives at Riverside, that means planning for next year’s projects and ordering necessary supplies are top priorities.  While processing a collection from RG 92, Records of the Quartermaster General, Archivist Jennifer found supply requisitions for March Field (our neighbor just across the freeway) from almost 100 years ago.  What’s top on their list?  Cigarettes (of different varieties), cigars, coffee and potatoes!

These records arrived at The National Archives at Riverside in pretty bad shape.  The letter size folders are original to the era and are highly acidic, not to mention flaking apart.  They provide little, if any, support to the light-weight typing paper found within.  The documents have been crinkled on the edges and fastened with brads, staples, and straight pins for nearly 10 decades.  

Our staff and volunteers are slowly straightening the materials, removing fasteners, and rehousing the documents in acid-free folders and boxes.  Then, a full file list inventory will be created and available to researchers.