Baseline finding aids @ the Beinecke

Reflections on the evolving nature and role of finding aids in light of different

levels of processing

Jennifer Meehan

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

jennifer.meehan@yale.edu

August 28, 2008

J. D. McClatchy Papers

Organized into five groupings:– November 1994 Acquisition (21 boxes)– October 1999 Acquisition (1 box)– January 2000 Acquisition (2 boxes)– April 2001 Acquisition (18 boxes)– October 2007 Acquisition (43 boxes)

Living Theatre Records: Historical Note

Founded in 1947 as an imaginative alternative to the commercial theater by Judith Malina, the German-born student of Erwin Piscator, and Julian Beck, an abstract expressionist painter of the New York School, The Living Theatre has staged nearly a hundred productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents - a unique body of work that has influenced theater the world over.

During the 1950's and early 1960's in New York, The Living Theatre pioneered the unconventional staging of poetic drama - the plays of American writers like Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Paul Goodman, Kenneth Rexroth and John Ashbery, as well as European writers rarely produced in America, including Cocteau, Lorca, Brecht and Pirandello. Best remembered among these productions, which marked the start of the Off-Broadway movement, were Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Tonight We Improvise, Many Loves, The Connection and The Brig. (…)

Historical note comes from The Living Theatre website: http://www.livingtheatre.org/history.html.

Land of Zenj Photograph Collection: Scope and Content Note

The collection, assembled by the rare book dealers Jenny Allsworth and Humphrey Winterton, brings together photographs, photograph albums, glass lantern slides, and a lantern projector, which document the Sultanate of Zanzibar and European colonial expansion in East and Central Africa from 1870 to 1914. Also documented are early Arab and Portuguese coastal settlements at Kilwa, Mafia, Pemba, Sofala, and Zanzibar. The collection also represents the work of certain photographers who operated in different parts of the region, including C. Vicente of Dar es Salaam, Coutinho Brothers of Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, P. De Lord Brothers of Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Walther Dobbertin, and A. C. Gomes & Co. of Zanzibar, among others.

Drawn from "The Land of Zenj. The Sultanate of Zanzibar and European Colonial Expansion into East and Central Africa, 1870-1914. An Historical Photographic Record compiled and catalogued, with commentary and annotations, by Jenny Allsworth and Humphrey Winterton."

Land of Zenj Photograph Collection: Contents List

Series IV. Thematic CollectionsZanzibar - Four sultans and a would-be usurper: 8 photographs (Box 2, Folder 33)

1. Seyyid Barghash bin Said - A group cabinet portrait, on the original photographers' card mount. Maull & Co. of London.

Dimensions: 11 x 16 cm. 2. Seyyid Hamed bin Thuwaini - "Late Sultan. Before

Bombardment 1896." Coutinho Brothers, Main Road, Zanzibar. Dimensions: 29.5 x 21 cm., mounted on card3. Seyyid Hamed bin Thuwaini, Portrait. [Coutinho

Brothers?] Dimensions: 21 x 28 cm, 36.5 x 46.5 cm. mounted 4. Seyyid Khalid bin Barghash, Portrait, unmounted and

stamped on verso "E. C. Dias, photographer, Zanzibar" Dimensions: 13 x 18.5 cm. 5. Seyyid Ali bin Hamoud, Group Portrait. Unidentified

photographer. Dimensions: 20 x 14.5 cm. (…)

Frank Stanford Papers: Scope and Content Note (Version 1)

The collection consists of correspondence, writings, photographs, and other papers documenting aspects of the life and work of the poet Frank Stanford.

Frank Stanford Papers: Scope and Content Note (Version 2)

The collection consists of material created and accumulated by Frank Stanford, as well as material created and accumulated after Stanford's death by C. D. Wright in her role as co-executor of his estate and as editor of Lost Roads Publishers.

Included are Stanford's writings, which comprise manuscripts and drafts of poems and prose, some of which are C. D. Wright's copies, and notebooks; correspondence received by Stanford from editors, publishers, and writers; correspondence relating to Stanford and Lost Roads Publishers received by C. D. Wright; personal and press business records; a small amount of photographs; and printed material.

The material documents Stanford's work as a poet and publisher, his involvement in filmmaking, aspects of the initial operation of Lost Roads Publishers, and the posthumous publication, reception, and study of Stanford's work.

Note on this Finding Aid (Draft)

This finding aid represents the [Collection Title], which consists of multiple acquisitions that have been accrued over time. Each acquisition has been maintained as a distinct physical and intellectual grouping of material, and is described separately in this finding aid.

The narrative sections of the finding aid provide information about the content and context of the collection as a whole. The Collection Contents section provides a general description and in some instances a box or folding listing of the various acquisitions of the collection.

For important information about how this collection has been processed, please read the Processing Information note.

For important information about how material within this collection is organized and tips on how to locate material across various acquisitions, please read the Arrangement note.

Arrangement Note (Draft)

Material within this collection has been organized by acquisition. This organization reflects the fact that the collection has been acquired in increments over time. This organization is also based on the decision not to merge the various acquisitions and organize them as a whole at this point in time, given the fact that future accruals are anticipated and/or that this organization is deemed sufficient for access.

Researchers should note that material within each acquisition overlaps and/or relates to material found in other acquisitions. For instance, correspondence and writings can be found in all # groupings. In order to locate all relevant material within this collection, researchers will need to consult each acquisition described in the “Collection Contents” below.

Researchers should also note that similar material can be arranged differently in each acquisition, depending on how the how material is organized upon receipt. For instance, correspondence in an early acquisition is arranged alphabetically, while correspondence in a later acquisition is arranged chronologically.

Processing Information Note

This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, identified by a unique call number and titled according to month and year of acquisition.

Descriptive information is drawn in large part from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.

This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.

Definition of Finding Aid*

1. A tool that facilitates discovery of information within a collection of records.

2. A description of records that gives the repository physical and intellectual control over the materials and that assists users to gain access to and understand the materials.

*SAA Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology