Now that I have completed processing all or most of the materials for the McKissack’s larger architectural projects, I am now taking a slightly different approach by doing a little more multi-task-processing. Most of the remaining boxes contain documents for multiple smaller projects constructed across the South. I am now concentrating my processing on projects completed in Memphis, Tennessee. Since multiple projects are in one box and since many of these projects sometimes appear in one document, I have begun to go through each box to sort out the Memphis projects into the following sections: Metropolitan Baptist Church, Lauderdale Church of Christ, Universal Life Insurance Company, Riverside (or Riverview, not positive of the accuracy of the name yet) Christian Church, Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, and “Combined or Other” Memphis projects. As I go through the folders in the boxes, I have found that most will specify the name of the project on the document. However, there are times when there are multiple projects on a document or no project is listed at all. In these cases, I am placing the documents in the “Combined or Other Memphis projects” subseries. So far none of these smaller projects are using more than three boxes, so I have about ten boxes into which I am sorting the Memphis projects. I have about three more boxes left to sort at which point I should be able to finalize those sections of the finding aid all at once. This approach has helped me to make up the time I fell behind while working on the Hot Springs Bathhouse project.
Challenges
When I first evaluated this collection, the original order
was obviously altered so I rearranged some of the folders and boxes in order
for the documents of each project to be together. However, I am finding that in some cases
multiple projects are listed on one document (usually a vendor invoice or in financial
notes) so my hope that each project will have its own subseries will not be completely
realized. Fortunately, the “Combined or
Other Memphis projects” (title not finalized) subseries is my solution. This subseries will contain documents that do
not name a specific project or name multiple projects. Currently, I am also including in this
section documents that only name a street or information to the effect of “church
job” because it is impossible to tell which church job is being referenced. Those documents will be held in this section
until I can gather enough information to determine the specifics of the
individual project. The latest example
of this is the Riverside (possibly Riverview) Christian Church. At first, all I saw was a reference to
Riverside Road. Then I saw a reference
to Rview [sic]Christian Church as well as Riverside Christian Church, but they
both seem to be the same place. Once I
find the contract, I will have the information necessary to validate the name
but I have not yet found any information outside of some personnel records and
a few invoices. For the smaller projects
of which the specifics cannot be verified, they will more than likely be placed
in the Memphis projects section.
Blueprints
The Memphis projects section was slightly delayed this week
so that I could begin the flattening process for the large number of blueprints
in this collection. I have been
concerned with the blueprints because they were found a little later thus not
included in the original timeline of my project. However, I determined that if I can get the
metadata from them (Dublin-Core-esque
elements, of course: Title, Creator, Location, and Date) and then find a place
to overlay them with weights, then they should be flattened and ready to be
boxed by May and I should be able to include the metadata in my finding aid, as
well. With the help of Franklin
Library’s conservation expert, Mr. Michael Powell, we made a fortunate
discovery. Not all of the rolled
blueprints are a part of the McKissack’s papers. Some of them belong to the Rosenwald
collection that my supervisor, Ms. Mattie McHollin, is processing. This is fortunate because she was aware that
not all of her blueprints had been located.
It is also fortunate because it will hopefully reduce some of the time I
will spend on the blueprints section thereby allowing me to complete this
collection on time. I took one day this
week to unfolder and remove the staples from the blueprints that had been
stored in boxes. I laid them out and
cleaned them before Mr. Powell brought in a weight to help flatten them. So now on Monday and Wednesday mornings,
volunteer Ms. Evelyn will help me to flatten the large rolled blueprints and
drawings and document their information.
Once we have them all unrolled and documented, Mr. Powell will bring in
another weight to flatten those. By
completing this task now, I hope to give the weights enough time to properly
flatten the materials so that they can be permanently stored in specially-made
boxes that will be more accessible for researchers.
Outreach: Black History Month powerpoint
This was the last week of my Black History month
presentation. All went well. I packed it all up on Thursday evening before
I left and stored the large touch-screen monitor, laptop, and cables. However, on Thursday evening I received an
email that the new President of Fisk University had not had the chance to stop
by and see the presentation, so we also set it up again on Friday so that he
had a chance to view it. This time, I
combined the playlist I created with a CD of the Fisk
Jubilee Singers and
a CD of music by Dr. Matthew Kennedy so that there were a variety of interesting music
and speech excerpts available for the president’s visit.
Amanda J.
Carter
Franklin
Library, Fisk University
IMLS
HistoryMakers Fellow 2012-2013
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