University of Virginia Library

Thirteenth Annual Report on Historical Collections,
University of Virginia Library,
For the Year 1942-43

THE introductory essay of this report represents a departure
from the recent policy of surveying the year's activities
of the Library in the field of manuscripts and other research
materials in relation to problems and developments in
archives and manuscripts throughout the nation. Instead, an
exposition on the accession and arrangement of manuscripts and
kindred materials in the Alderman Library has been undertaken.
In aiming to show to what degree our system is orderly and
practicable we anticipate and invite outside criticism. Such criticism
may confirm and supplement our own in the light of experience
during the past dozen years. We believe that archivists,
curators, and their associates are interested in how the other fellow
handles his professional stock-in-trade and how well the
public may fare by his service. We hope that other institutions
may be willing to provide a view from the inside. Written records
on this subject are unfortunately few in number.

The basic criterion for judging a system of administering manuscript
materials, or any other kind of records, is the simplicity
and directness of the process whereby they can be located and
made available for use. It is justifiable to expect this ready accessibility
in respect to separate collections of papers, to manuscript
volumes within collections or apart from them, and to many individual
manuscripts because of their special importance or because
of a specific reference provided by the inquirer to aid in
finding an item. A second criterion requires that the papers
within any collection be arranged in such orderly fashion as to
render them of maximum research value, and, without vitiating
this objective, to facilitate the search for individual items. Chronological
arrangement is generally preferred, modified sometimes,
however, by certain predetermining factors in relation to the
original scheme of arrangement or to the evolution of an organic
body of papers. Manuscripts brought together from diverse
sources because of some common feature or the peculiar interest
of the collector may have been subjected to some special organization

to accommodate that interest; but the custodian who acquires
such a collection may be able to justify a substitute arrangement
to enhance the usefulness of the papers. A third consideration
in judging the operation of the manuscript depository is the development
of reference works concerning the physical nature and
the contents of the collections. If both current operations and
cumulative projects are to be served by these reference tools,
they must be designed with due regard for their long-time
functions.

The average manuscript, unlike the average book, has an
individuality that defies neat classification schemes ready for use
and adaptable to most libraries of printed works. Likewise a
corpus of manuscript papers, being something more than the
sum of its parts, is not susceptible to regimented arrangement
without loss of character. It should be preserved as an entity but,
if its content is diverse in subject matter, its location in the depository
can scarcely be determined on that basis. Great allowance
must be made for physical characteristics—size, bulk, and
form, especially whether bound or loose papers—in deciding
where they can be placed. In a depository with a wide variety
of records, archival or personal papers or both, it would seem
advisable to avoid that excess of systematic order which may
produce creeping paralysis. Such a system may necessitate frequent
shifting of collections so that new acquisitions will fit into
the proper niche that can never be anticipated. The curator
of a depository with rapidly increasing resources may easily yield
to the urge to evolve a system which meets his needs because the
specifications are his own; yet it may be quite impracticable for
anyone else to use. Simplicity of organization and arrangement
thus suggests one of the curator's obligations to posterity. Another
is to provide a concise guide-index as a sort of master key
to the manuscript resources as a whole, supplemented perhaps
by other keys for more specific purposes, so that he who runs
may read. Surely the custodian who dies with the only index to
his collections in his head should be condemned with the maximum
penalty.

The transfer of the University of Virginia Library from the
Rotunda to the newly completed building in May, 1938, henceforth
known as the Alderman Library, occurred at a critical time

for the Manuscripts Division. Since its inception in 1930, an
expanding program of field work for the collection of materials
had yielded an ever larger number of acquisitions from year to
year. Numerous gifts also came without solicitation from friends
of the University and through correspondence often begun by
some chance information reaching the Library. After five years
had elapsed, serious congestion was developing in the limited
quarters of the Division. Collections were shifted about to conserve
space; many of the newspaper files were removed temporarily
to Clark Hall (the Law School) pending completion of the
Alderman Library; some work in microphotography was started
in a small way with a Leica camera and a make-shift dark-room
in another building. The librarian of the University and the
staff of the Manuscripts Division had always asserted with a
touch of pride that all manuscripts in their custody were promptly
filed and made accessible for use and that none were in storage or
out of reach, at least from the top of a step-ladder. After the
first five years this assertion was made less readily or with
reservations. Nevertheless, what the user asked for could usually
be found quite promptly because the curator was familiar with
the contents of most collections and their location could easily be
kept in mind. Furthermore a general card index had been
begun and special analytical work was in process on the Cabell,
Jefferson, Lee, and Poe collections. The holdings of the Division
did not seem especially numerous, but they were imperceptibly
getting out of hand for want of adequate controls.

Shortly after removal to the new building an increase of staff
facilitated some reorganization amid new equipment and what
appeared to be unlimited space. The University's rare books were
transferred to the jurisdiction of the curator of manuscripts and
the Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts came into being.
The gift of the Tracy W. McGregor Library to the University
in June, 1938, necessitated some revision in the original floor
plans for the Division in order to provide sufficient space for the
McGregor Room as an integral part of the Division. The close
proximity of the Division's offices to the manuscript reading room,
the McGregor Room, and the book stacks on the second floor, and
to the newspapers, maps, and photographic laboratory directly

below on the first floor proved to be very advantageous for use
of the variety of research materials at hand.[1]

The manuscript room in the Alderman Library is equipped
with a large number of four-drawer legal size all-steel vertical
filing cabinets, arranged in double parallel rows, back to back.
The trays are numbered consecutively from top to bottom, left
to right. In order to provide a double check on all materials received
by gift, purchase, or deposit, an Accessions Book was
opened on July 1, 1938. This provides a chronological list of
acquisitions (by date received), complementary to the alphabetical
card file of names of collections, authors of manuscripts, and
subject-headings which had been in process for some years. Beginning
July, 1938, accessions have been numbered consecutively
from No. 1.

Gifts and purchased materials are received through the Acquisitions
Division where a record of each accession is made and retained
in that Division. A typed "main entry" card for each
accession, giving the name of the person from whom acquired,
whether gift or purchase, date received, approximate number of
items, and inclusive dates of the collection if readily determined,
is sent with the collection it represents to the Manuscripts Division
by the Acquisitions Division.[2] Here the same information
is entered in the Accessions Book, with a brief comment on the
nature of the contents. The accession number given to the collection
or single item, as the case may be, is entered on the card.
In the Manuscripts Division analytical cards are made, and these,
together with the main entry card received from the Acquisitions
Division, are filed in the manuscript catalogue.

Having been accessioned, the collection is unfolded and flattened,
piece by piece, and arranged chronologically. If the collection
is not especially large, this job can be done promptly and
the manuscripts placed in folders (five to twenty-five to a folder),

each of which is given the number assigned to the collection in
the Accessions Book. The smaller collections of manuscripts are
scanned and a summary of their contents is made and filed at the
beginning of the first folder. A similar description is prepared for
each large collection as time allows.[3] The accessions folder is
labeled as follows:

   

John Doe 6 Ivy Lane Anywhere, Va.	Papers of Harry Brown ca. 700 items.	No. 688
Gift, April 10, 1933	Placed in Tray 68

After the collection has been arranged in the folder, or folders,
and properly numbered and labeled, it is filed in the vertical tray
in the consecutive order of the accession number.[4] An extensive
collection requiring a whole tray or more is filed separately
and a dummy folder by accession number contains a reference
to the tray or trays where the manuscripts are located. In processing
a few of the more valuable collections, each manuscript

is placed in a separate folder specially labeled and filed in chronological
order. The chronological folder is labeled as follows:

 

1780, Jan. 1

ALS Harry Brown to James Smith

Brown

This detailed preparation, however, does not affect the general
system of arrangement and location. Manuscript collections acquired
before July, 1938, were at this time numbered consecutively
with the prefix "38" and filed in a separate series. Main
entry cards for these collections and some subject cards were
already in the index-guide.

In accepting manuscripts on deposit a special mimeographed
form-sheet is filled out in quadruplicate; the original is sent to the
depositor, the second copy is preserved in the Manuscripts Division,
the third in the librarian's office, and the fourth in the
Acquisitions Division. The deposit slip contains a brief description
of the collection with inclusive dates and number of items,
and the terms of deposit and withdrawal. A deposit, like a gift
or purchase, is assigned a regular accession number, arranged
properly in a labeled folder, and filed in the same numerical
series. The deposit slip retained in the Division is stamped with
the accession number and filed with the collection. If the
deposit is withdrawn, the folder containing the description of the
collection and the deposit slip with information about the withdrawal
remains in the file tray as a sort of dummy entry.

Some accessions consist entirely or in part of bound manuscript
volumes which cannot be conveniently kept with the loose papers
in the file trays. The description of such a collection is filed in
a folder according to its accession number. The folder contains
a reference to the location of the volumes on shelves in the locked
stack adjoining the office of the Division. Thus, for a collection
consisting exclusively of bound volumes the folder filed by accession
number serves mainly as a dummy to locate them. In the
stack, at the head of a group of manuscript volumes belonging to
one collection is a wooden dummy with the accession number
followed by the number of volumes. Such collections consist
mainly of the records of business firms,[5] religious, educational,
and other social organizations. An extensive body of bound volumes
that should be mentioned at this point is the archival records
of the University of Virginia, as distinguished from certain
loose papers preserved in the vertical files. The earlier volumes,
previously in the custody of the bursar, were transferred to the
Alderman Library in 1939.[6] Some records of student organizations,
student notebooks and letters, and numerous other unofficial
manuscripts about the University have been acquired, but
these are filed as separate collections as accessioned.

Because of their importance and frequent use the Jefferson
manuscripts have been given special attention. Beginning as a
small collection before the Library had a Manuscripts Division,
these papers have been steadily augmented by originals, microfilm,
photostats, and photographic prints, mostly as single items
or in small groups. In accordance with the numerical system of
filing, these Jefferson accessions would be scattered throughout
the files under their respective accession numbers. Instead, they
have been brought together as the Jefferson Collection, chronologically
arranged, each item in a separate folder. As the collection
was arranged, a calendar was made; later this calendar was
typed, indexed, and bound for use in the Division. The original
folder for each accession remains in its proper place by accession

number in the general files, with a cross reference to the Jefferson
Collection; and the folder with the manuscript in the Jefferson
Collection bears the accession number as a tracer to the information
on its acquisition. When the calendar was completed
and before it was indexed, each entry was numbered consecutively
and this number was also stamped on the folder containing
the manuscript. Thus it is possible to refer quickly from the
calendar to the manuscripts or vice versa. To maintain this
advantage without impairment, manuscripts acquired after the
calendar was completed have been accessioned as usual but filed
as a collection of "Additional Jefferson Manuscripts" in close
proximity to the Jefferson Collection. The disadvantage of having
two such collections could be obviated by bringing the calendar,
as originally compiled on loose leaves, up to date and maintaining
it as a continuing project. The two Jefferson collections could
be merged without regard for entry numbers in the typed calendar
and additions recorded in the loose-leaf calendar as a current
reference tool.[7]

Of wider significance as a guide to Jeffersoniana is a chronological
card checklist recording the location of all known letters to
and from Jefferson, with citations of printed texts. It has been
compiled from various printed bibliographies, check-lists, calendars,
and dealers' catalogues, from photographic copies of manuscripts
and indexes generously provided by other libraries, and
from data gathered during personal visits by members of the staff
to other institutions. The task of verifying names and dates has
been greatly facilitated by means of Jefferson's own "epistolary
record," which he kept from 1779-1826. Thus the University of
Virginia has the only near-complete guide to all extant Jefferson
manuscripts. An analysis made of it by Dr. Julian P. Boyd of
Princeton University, during a preliminary survey to plan a new
edition of Jefferson's works, revealed that only twenty-nine and
six-tenths per cent of the letters by Jefferson and a mere six
and five-tenths per cent of those to him have been published.

The Tracy W. McGregor Library includes manuscripts as well
as rare books. Most of the manuscripts have been purchased

since the McGregor Library was transferred to the University of
Virginia, with emphasis upon significant Virginia and southern
material, especially Jeffersoniana. McGregor acquisitions are
entered in the Accessions Book in the same way as all others; a
card is made and a folder with accession number, heading, and
the note—"McGregor Manuscript in Vault." This folder is then
placed in the general file by number and the manuscripts go to
the vault where single items and groups, whatever the nature of
the acquisition, are filed alphabetically by the writers of the
manuscripts. A group of papers is, of course, filed chronologically
within the group. Therefore, many dummy folders are required
in the general file, as illustrated above; thus, too, the Jefferson
Collection must contain dummy folders referring to manuscripts
in the McGregor files in the vault.

The Albemarle County Historical Society, organized in 1940,
accepted the offer of the Alderman Library to preserve its manuscripts
in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Division. They are
accessioned as all other manuscripts are; in addition, the Society
has its own accession record book which is kept up to date by the
archivist of the Society who thus far has been also the person in
charge of manuscripts in the Library. The Society's manuscripts
are filed in a separate vertical tray, alphabetical by name of
collection or by writer of the manuscript if it is a single item.

Maps belonging to the Alderman Library are preserved on the
first floor, below the reading room of the Division and directly
accessible by stairway. Unbound maps are placed in manila paper
folders cut to size which are labeled with the name of the state,
country, or region, a call-number, and the decade in which the
date of the map falls. The system of call-numbers is an adaptation
of the Dewey classification which has been used for some
time by the Virginia State Library. Taking the history-geography
classification 900., the digit 9 is dropped and the decimal point is
moved one place to the right. Thus the Dewey number for Virginia,
975.5, becomes 755.0. The number for any country or subdivision
can be readily found by consulting the history section of
Dewey's Decimal Classification and Relativ Index. The maps are
filed in all-steel map cases, but up to the present time only the
Virginia maps have been arranged in detail chronologically.
Dummy entries in the folders refer to bound folio maps too large

for the cases and to smaller bound maps which are filed elsewhere.
A main entry card catalogue of all Virginia maps to ca. 1875 has
been prepared. Each card contains the date, name of cartographer,
title of map, place and date of publication, and the number of the
map in the Phillips and Swem bibliographies.[8]

Maps in the McGregor Library are kept in the vault. They are
separated into three groups—Virginia, North America, and others
—and each group arranged chronologically. A main entry card
has been made for each Virginia and North American map and
filed in the general index guide to materials other than books in
the Division. McGregor folio atlases are arranged chronologically
in separate cases in the vault. They have been inventoried but
not catalogued as yet.

The newspaper collection of the Alderman Library consists of
three groups—Virginia papers, all others published in the United
States, and foreign. The Virginia papers constitute by far the
largest proportion of the total.[9] Most of the newspaper collection
is shelved on the first two stack floors below the locked stack
adjoining the manuscript room; papers antedating 1821, those of
the Civil War years, and a few others of special value are preserved
in the locked stack. Within each of the three groups mentioned
above, the files, scattered issues, and single numbers, as
the case may be, are arranged alphabetically by name of city or
town and under each city by key word of title. Where the same
paper was published daily, semi-weekly, and weekly, each edition
is filed as a unit in the order just listed. Lack of adequate funds
for binding has necessitated the use of heavy cardboard and durable
tape for shelving unbound papers flatfiled in bundles labeled
at one corner so that they can be easily identified on the shelves.
A card index to the collection (one card for each year of every
title), which also serves as an inventory, is arranged alphabetically,
using the same system by which the papers are filed. This

index is located in the office adjoining the stacks on the first
floor.[10] The McGregor Library contains a few rare newspapers.
These are preserved in the vault and are recorded in the card
index.

In locked cases in the McGregor Room, adjacent to the Manuscript
Room, are the rare books of that Library which consists
chiefly of Americana and some volumes of English literature.
They are arranged on the shelves by date of imprint and under
each date alphabetically by author. They are separately catalogued
but author and subject cards for each book are incorporated
in the public catalogue of the Alderman Library. A main entry
card catalogue of the McGregor Library is filed in the office of the
Division; an index to the names of binders of rare books in this
Library is also kept here. The rare book collection of the Alderman
Library is catalogued, like all other books, according to the
Library of Congress system of classification. Cards for these rare
books are also included in the public catalogue. An asterisk
preceding the call-number indicates that the book is rare and is
located in the locked stack of the Rare Books and Manuscripts
Division. Since Virginiana are one of the special interests of the
Alderman Library, a Virginia imprints catalogue, alphabetical by
place of imprint and chronological under each place, of all such
items in the Library, whether rare or not, is maintained in the
office of the Division.[11]

Master's theses and doctoral dissertations written at the University
of Virginia are filed in the locked stack in two series. Master's
theses (M. A. and M. S.) received each year are arranged
alphabetically by author and then numbered consecutively in a

continuous series from year to year. Each volume is labeled with
the letter "M" and a number assigned to it. The series of doctoral
dissertations is arranged and labeled in the same way, with
the letter "D." Separate author catalogues are maintained for
master's theses and doctor's dissertations. Subject-title indexes
are in preparation.

The photographic laboratory, established in connection with the
Rare Books and Manuscripts Division of the Alderman Library, is
equipped to make photoprints, single and double frame microfilms,
and projection slides.

Photoprints serve two purposes; they fill gaps in our collection
by reproducing materials located in other libraries, and they
protect rare manuscripts by allowing research students to use a
print rather than the actual document. They are filed as separate
items or within the collections to which they refer, as though they
were manuscripts.

The microfilm library of the Manuscripts Division is steadily
growing. From a collection of only a few rolls, it has expanded
until some separate system of classification and filing became
necessary. There are, at present, three types of microfilm rolls:
those of the series ordered from the University Microfilm Company,[12]
of books printed in England before 1550, those of printed
items assembled by the Library itself, and those of manuscript
items.

The University Microfilm Company furnishes mimeographed
catalogue cards with the films. After checking the cards and the
film roll, the roll is assigned a number, which is indicated on the
cards. The cards are then sent to the Preparations Division and
are treated as any other catalogue cards. The rolls of printed
materials assembled by the University itself are analyzed in a
similar manner. Literal transcripts of the titles appearing in the
roll[13] are sent to the Preparations Division where a mimeographed
card is made for them and they are catalogued in the
regular manner. Instead of an LC number, however, all microfilm
rolls of printed material, whether University Microfilms or

those assembled by the Library, are given a "P" number, starting
with P-1 and numbered consecutively in the order of their acquisition.
The "P" number is indicated on the card which is filed
in the general catalogue, and upon the film with a special ink.
The film, each roll in a cardboard carton, labeled with the identical
number, is then placed in consecutive order in a locked case
close to the reading machines.

Microfilm of rolls of manuscript materials is treated in a similar
manner. Enough items are spliced together to make a roll of
one hundred feet. Whenever possible, these rolls are made up of
definitely related materials. For example, there are many rolls
of Jefferson manuscripts, several of Poe letters, others of Civil
War items. Each roll is then analyzed, much as though it were
a regular manuscript collection. Main entry and subject cards,
indicating the owner of the original manuscript, the date of the
microfilm, as well as the subject of the microfilm, are made and
filed in the manuscript card index. These rolls are given an "M"
number consecutively as they are assembled. For example, the
letters of Mrs. Henry Jacob Smith are on microfilm roll M-38
and are so indicated upon the card in the manuscript index. The
roll itself is marked as above, placed in a cardboard container,
and filed in the same locked case mentioned above.

Photographic orders for students, departments of the University,
research workers, and others, are placed through the Manuscripts
Division. Many manuscripts and valuable documents have
been made available for research by those who have graciously
allowed us to photograph the items in their possession. The
microfilm room is equipped with the following film reading machines:
Argus microfilm reading machine (Science Service), Reading
machine projector (Society for Visual Education), Recordak
Model C library film reader (Recordak Corporation), Students
microfilm reading machine (Spencer Lens Corporation).

The program of the Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts,
expanding from a small nucleus administered under serious
physical handicaps in the Virginia Room of the Rotunda, has coordinated
activities outside the Library with those within. Field
trips have been cumulative in their results, not only in manuscript
and printed records collected but also in data gathered on the
archives and manuscripts of a wide variety of institutions in

Virginia. Personal contacts with these institutions have fostered
cooperation in the preservation of research materials and in the
interchange of information and good will for the advancement of
scholarship. Obviously these functions have a direct relation to
the program within the Library whereby additional material is
acquired by correspondence, collections are made accessible for
use, reference tools are compiled, and publications are issued.[14]
Thus the enrichment of the Library's resources and the services it
affords have contributed to the promotion of research at the University
of Virginia. Especially significant has been the influence
of the McGregor Library toward this end.

In conclusion, it is appropriate to point out that Dr. Dumas
Malone, before he left the University of Virginia in 1929 to become
co-editor of the Dictionary of American Biography, gave
inspiration and support to the idea of establishing a Manuscripts
Division. The planning and execution of this program has been
chiefly the work of Sergeant John Cook Wyllie, Director of Rare
Books and Manuscripts (on leave), Lieutenant Francis L. Berkeley,
USNR, and Miss Louise Savage, successively Acting Directors,
and Lieutenant George H. Reese, USNR. The scholarly advice
and judgment of Professors Thomas P. Abernethy and Bernard
Mayo of the History Department, in consultation with the Librarian,
the Director, and the writer, have been most helpful in discussing
matters of policy and determining the more important
purchases. Valuable assistance in preparing the present report
with the list of accessions and index was given by Miss Savage,
Mrs. Patricia Holbert Menk who wrote most of the descriptions
of collections, and Messrs. Harris H. Williams and Dabney Wellford.
The sage counsel and friendly encouragement of Librarian
Harry Clemons are especially cherished by all of us.