The archival documentation strategy and its implications for the appraisal of architectural records

American Archivist

Volumn 59, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 144-154

  Cox, Richard J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 39049110561     PISSN: 03609081     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17723/aarc.59.2.a63421672782h178     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Hilary Jenkinson's primary contribution was his 1922 Manual of Archive Administration, 2d rev. ed. (London: Percy Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd., 1966).
2. Margaret Cross Norton's major writings were published in the 1930s and 1940s and have been conveniently compiled in Norton on Archives: The Writings of Margaret Cross Norton on Archival and Records Management, edited by Thornton W. Mitchell (Carbondale, 111.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975).
3. T. R. Schellenberg's most important contribution was his Modern Archives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956).
4. Lewis J. Bellardo and Lynn Lady Bellardo, comps., A Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators, and Records Managers (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1992), 12.
5. "On the considerations of vernacular architecture, see Witold Rybczynski, Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture (Baltimore: Penguin Books 1992), 149-153;
6. Nathaniel W. Alcock, "Vernacular Architecture: Historical Evidence and Historical Problems," in Material Culture and the Study of American Life, edited by Ian M. G. Quimby (New York: Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum by W. W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1978), 109-20.
7. This idea of appraisal as a solitary pursuit is reflected in the two Society of American Archivists' manuals on appraisal. Maynard J. Brichford suggests that the archivist "may turn to others for assistance, seeking the opinions of the administrator, the legal counsel, and the auditor" as well as "subject matter specialists" but adds the statement that "most archival records are retained primarily because the archivist believes that there is a reasonable possibility that a searcher in the future will find them useful." Maynard J. Brichford, Archives and Manuscripts: Appraisal and Accessioning (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1977).
8. F. Gerald Ham's recent manual reflects essentially the same perspective, with the emphasis on the archivist and a series of steps including background research, discussion with records creators and custodians, review of the records, and the use of "outside experts." F. Gerald Ham, Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1993), chapter 7.
9. For example, Andrea Hinding, "Toward Documentation: New Collecting Strategies in the 1980s," in Options for the 80s: Proceedings of the Second National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, Part B, edited by Michael D. Kathman and Virgil F. Massman (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1982), 531-38.
10. 'Contrast the approach of Denis Cosgrove and Stephen Daniels, eds., The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design and the Use of Past Environments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)
11. to Tony Hiss's "science of place," as described in The Experience of Place (New York: Vintage Books, 1990).
12. What matters most is not how these individuals would tend to look at the same building, but rather the questions they would ask about it and the nature of the evidence they want to preserve. "It is difficult to argue with the conclusions David Bearman makes in his Archival Methods (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics (1989).
13. 'See, for example, John D. Dorst, The Written Suburb: An American Site, An Ethnographic Dilemma (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), which provides a good understanding of how the pressure of merging societal forces can determine what aspects of the built environment are saved and how they are used in interpreting the past and the present.
14. 'Kevin Lynch, What Time Is This Place? (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1972) 36.
15. ""Who Controls the Past," American Archivist 49 (Spring 1986): 109-24.
16. "The Documentation Strategy Process: A Model and a Case Study," American Archivist 50 (Winter 1987): 12-47.
17. "Philip Alexander and Helen W. Samuels, "The Roots of 128: A Hypothetical Documentation Strategy," American Archivist 50 (Fall 1987): 518-31;
18. Richard J. Cox, "A Documentation Strategy Case Study: Western New York," American Archivist 52 (Spring 1989): 192-200.
19. For example, Terry Abraham, "Collection Policy or Documentation Strategy: Theory and Practice," American Archivist 54 (Winter 1991): 44-52.
20. See, for example, Ellen Garrison, "The Very Model of a Modern Major General: Documentation Strategy and the Center for Popular Music," Provenance 7 (Fall 1989): 22-32.
21. "See, for example, Frank Boles, "Mix Two Parts Interest to One Part Information and Appraise Until Done: Understanding Contemporary Record Selection Processes," American Archivist 50 (Summer 1987): 356-68.
22. '"John W. Roberts, "Archival Theory: Myth or Banality," American Archivist 53 (Winter 1990): 110-20.
23. "Margaret Hedstrom, "New Appraisal Techniques: The Effect of Theory on Practice," Provenance 1 (Fall 1989): 1-21.
24. Terry Cook, "Mind Over Matter: Towards a New Theory of Archival Appraisal," in The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor, edited by Barbara L. Craig (Ottawa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992), 38-70.
25. See also his "Documentation Strategy," Archivaria 34 (Summer 1992): 181-91.
26. Terry Eastwood, "Towards a Social Theory of Appraisal," in Craig, The Archival Imagination, 71-89
27. and "How Goes It With Appraisal," Archivaria 36 (Autumn 1993): 111-21.
28. Luciana Duranti, "The Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory," American Archivist 57 (Spring 1994): 328-14.
29. Cook, "Documentation Strategy," 186.
30. Terry Eastwood, "Nurturing Archival Education in the University," American Archivist 51 (Summer 1988): 235;
31. Frederick Stielow, "Archival Theory Redux and Redeemed: Definition and Context toward a General Theory," American Archivist 54 (Winter 1991): 17.
32. Robert Sink, "Appraisal: The Process of Choices," American Archivist 53 (Summer 1990): 453.
33. Judith A. Perrolle, Computers and Social Change: Information, Property, and Power (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1987), 30.
34. John R. Rizzo, Management for Librarians: Fundamentals and Issues, Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science, no. 33 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980), 19.
35. John Ziman, Reliable Knowledge: An Exploration of the Grounds for Belief in Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1978, 101-2.
36. M. Ham, Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts, 12.
37. '"Joseph Z. Nitecki, "Conceptual Dimensions of Library Management," Journal of Library Administration 1 (Summer 1980): 49.