Do Genealogists Need to be More Like Curators?

I've seen the word curator tossed around a few times recently.

Thomas MacEntee mentioned it in his post "It's Not Easy Being Abundant" where he says,

"...a hoarder gathers somewhat indiscriminately with little purpose besides gathering and possessing. A curator gathers that which adds value."

After that I found a follow-up post by Randall Dickerson called Hoarder or Curator?  Randall further defines the difference between hoarder and curator, "To me, the definition of curator implies a person who gathers and keeps items of intrinsic value, both to themselves and others. A hoarder gathers anything they think “may” have value, regardless of what others think (i.e. no peer review)."

These two posts really got me thinking about all the items that I have collected over the years as the family historian. I have my mother's genealogy research, as well as newspapers clippings and other paper documents. In addition I have been given many books, heirlooms, photo albums and ephemera.

I have collected all these items but never cataloged them. As genealogists we are focused on finding the paper trail of documents that lead us from one generation to the next. We do a good job, or try to, of organizing, storing and documenting the papers.

Some items I have, such as family Bibles, have been documented because they contain specific information related to family history. Outside of that the individual Bibles are not cataloged or organized in any specific way. In fact, they are boxed and just sort of squeezed into any spare space possible.

My mother, in addition to being a genealogist, collected antiques. She numbered her collection and maintained a paper list of the items with their description, number and value. I presume she cataloged as she went. I'm not sure why her cataloging efficiency didn't rub off on me.

How is it that after years of indiscriminately accepting and collecting family-related items that I have never thought to catalog them? Wouldn't it be great if I had a list of each item, what type of item it is, how old it is, where it came from and where it is currently located?

I'm not going to add this to my already long to-do list for 2012 but I am going to start thinking about how to organize what I have and search for systems that I can use to keep track of it.

Tell me I'm not the only one who has randomly collected family-related items and never thought to organize them! Someone else must be in the same boat as me, right?!

Comments

  1. >>Tell me I'm not the only one who has randomly collected family-related items and never thought to organize them!<< Uh... um... er... raising hand. I know I _should_ organize 'em. And someday I'll get that much-needed round tuit...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am so with you on this! I have a large storage tub full on bibles and other books. Many of them from the 1800's. I was looking at them the other day. They are from my family and my husband's family. I realized I am starting to forget which book belonged to who. I MUST record this information somehow. And there are the wedding rings - those belonging to my husband's mother and his grandmother, and those belonging to my mother and grandmother. Someday, no one will know the story behind them. As I look around my home, I realize I am blessed with many family treasures. What a shame if someday when I'm gone, they are sold at a garage sale because no-one realized they were a family heirloom. If you ever find a good system for cataloging, I hope you write about it!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am raising my hand also, I so need to organize what I have. the to do list just gets longer!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Photograph each, connect on your data base to the person the item belonged to, write a bit of history or what you know about each. Multimedia rocks! And, oh, good luck~ LOL

    ReplyDelete
  5. Organizing the variety of things that I have acquired, from documents, photos (lots), and other ephemera, has been on my "To Do" list for years. I'm trying to break it down into smaller tasks and accomplish some of this in 2012!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Those of us few remaining antiquarian booksellers out there have the "cataloging" thing in our blood, probably from all the old book dust we've been breathing in for 40 plus years. Yeah, we organize our stuff, including our genealogy and family archives stuff.

    In fact, I'll be speaking on this very topic in June at the Ontario (Canada) Genealogical Society's event, in a new talk called "Keepers of the Family Stuff: Some “Best Practice” Tips on Maintaining the Family Home Archives for Genealogists and Family Historians."

    This can be a formidable task if you've never done it. Anyone planning on doing this should get themselves a copy of Melissa Mannon's new book "The Unofficial Family Archivist: A Guide for Creating and Maintaining Family Papers, Photographs, and Memorabilia"

    It's a great read!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a great tip! Now on my list of 2012 books to read. Thanks! ~Kay

      Delete
    2. Mel, thank you for recommending my book. I'm glad that you enjoyed it and find it useful.

      Delete
  7. Such an important topic, Marian! And the only way to do it is to record it all - like filing - is by doing it one item, one page, one book, one piece of ephemera (such a good word) at a time! You are so very lucky to have so much wonderful family "stuff"!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Don't forget to preserve as well! I've seen what can happen when newspapers are left attached to old papers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Rather than curate them, I've been giving things away to appropriate institutions. This way they will get labeled, catalogued, and be available to the public. After making copies of the appropriate pages, why not donate the family Bibles to the NEHGS? They will give them good care and preserve them and you can visit whenever you feel the need.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Another hand raised, though I'm in the (lengthy) process of addressing this. One method I'm using are blog posts about the various treasures we've inherited from our family. Eventually they'll be gathered into a small book or dvd and left with our wills so our heirs will know the history of the pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I finally took some time and did a run thru of my heirlooms....took a photo or a few of each item, labeled them and wrote where they came from. If I knew the story I jotted that down. Some time :) I'd like to flesh the stories out! But it is a start, a photo book that is labeled!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I agree with Martin: Stick to what you do best, and leave the catalogueing and curating to the appropriate organizations for all items you have of intrinsic value, both to yourself and others. you can 'hoard' the rest, which would be mainly stuff with sentimental value, or items only significant to you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I also didn't know what to do with some of the inherited items. What I decided to do was to pass on things with meaning to the younger generation. These were to people who appreciated the items and I know that they will not just be dumped after I am gone.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Marian,

    Great post to get people thinking I just want to expand on your use of "intrinsic value" from an archivist's perspective. (and because I'm an archivist, this kind of thinking applies mostly to records and media, but in your home you can apply the concepts to other objects too - which are usually the purview of a curator.) "Intinsic value" means the value inherent in an artifact just because of what it is. ex. Mom's locket has value because it's mom's locket. When collecting, there are other factors to consider - other kinds of values. The most important values to consider for genealogists and other researchers are "evidential" and "informational." Evidential is the evidence it provides about someone's life or an event. Informational is the information it gives beyond that...maybe even information about another person's life. I talk a little bit about this in a blog post here, if people are interested: http://archivesinfo.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-finds-at-local-antique-shop.html

    ReplyDelete
  15. Maybe I should also mention that I talk about "values" in a book too. The book is called "Cultural Heritage Collaborators." It is aimed primarily at people caring for collections in repositories, but when I thought about it for a second I realized it might be a topic that interests genealogists too! I think genealogists and archivists should work together more. Marian and I have talked in-person about this...(sorry to take up so much space here M!)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I need the Mannon book, and the round tuit,... where can I get my hands on them. Great post and very special comments, as is often the case on Marian's posts! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. For anyone who is interested here is the info on the book that Mel Wolfgang mentioned - The Unofficial Family Archivist by Melissa Mannon.

    Available from amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Family-Archivist-Maintaining-Photographs/dp/0982727615/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318340527&sr=8-1

    or Create Space - https://www.createspace.com/3690421

    ReplyDelete
  18. Book ordered. Now, where is that 'round tuit' ???
    ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  19. I file everything according to what the document is, Anthony Corkran, Conveyances 1785-1891,

    Rapides Post, Legajo 118, 1787

    Rapides Post, Legajo 209, 1794

    Unfortunately, I do not have any old family bibles and few old pictures because most family members did not like history or genealogy.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment