This week I was contacted by a former Archivist with the University of Georgia Libraries who fully understands the importance of preserving original documents, care and handling thereof. I shared with her how several years ago I had the privilege in the company of my brother, to see, the discovery of the finest known example of a work - that prior to that point only the rare book division of a library in Boston had the only known copy in existance. This book was 'stored' in an open faced dress box in this woman's attic! What a thrill it was to see first hand a booklet published in 1860, in Griffin, only aged by 140 years of storage - in as pristine a condition as one could imagine and to be dumbfounded as to how it was stored. The lady was gracious enough to allow my brother to photocopy this booklet - (the one in Boston too fragile to even photocopy) - to use in his doctoral work along with an original note dated 1849, wherein a woman told her intended that most likely her father would give them a couple of slaves as a dowry. I writing to find out your thoughts on places for persons to contribute original documents that can not only be used for research but will be available for the public at large to view. In the last year or so, I've had delivered to my inbox copies of two really neat original documents - - muster roll of an Illinois unit, names of soldiers, rank, pay, if they had a horse or mule - that served in the Black Hawk War (Crawford County) - today - list of scholars, age, study, number of days attended for the school term in a particular township (yet to be determined which one) for Feb. 1857. Additionally a copy of a note telling of the demise of the instructor in early May of that same year in Dodge Co., WI (Richland County) What I'd like to do is let the contributors know and encourage them to consider donating or loaning these documents to a repository that can perserve them. Tim

Tim - This is really cool stuff - Thanks for sharing. R/S MAK --- Tim Stowell <[email protected]> wrote: > This week I was contacted by a former Archivist with > the University of > Georgia Libraries who fully understands the > importance > of preserving original documents, care and handling > thereof. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/

Tim, I haven't been able to reply until now, sorry for the delay. The obvious answer would be a state historical society. However, you may want to look into giving the documents to the American Antiquarian Society. http://www.americanantiquarian.org/ Michelle Laycock Racine/Kenosha WIGenWeb Tim Stowell <[email protected]> wrote: This week I was contacted by a former Archivist with the University of Georgia Libraries who fully understands the importance of preserving original documents, care and handling thereof. I shared with her how several years ago I had the privilege in the company of my brother, to see, the discovery of the finest known example of a work - that prior to that point only the rare book division of a library in Boston had the only known copy in existance. This book was 'stored' in an open faced dress box in this woman's attic! What a thrill it was to see first hand a booklet published in 1860, in Griffin, only aged by 140 years of storage - in as pristine a condition as one could imagine and to be dumbfounded as to how it was stored. The lady was gracious enough to allow my brother to photocopy this booklet - (the one in Boston too fragile to even photocopy) - to use in his doctoral work along with an original note dated 1849, wherein a woman told her intended that most likely her father would give them a couple of slaves as a dowry. I writing to find out your thoughts on places for persons to contribute original documents that can not only be used for research but will be available for the public at large to view. In the last year or so, I've had delivered to my inbox copies of two really neat original documents - - muster roll of an Illinois unit, names of soldiers, rank, pay, if they had a horse or mule - that served in the Black Hawk War (Crawford County) - today - list of scholars, age, study, number of days attended for the school term in a particular township (yet to be determined which one) for Feb. 1857. Additionally a copy of a note telling of the demise of the instructor in early May of that same year in Dodge Co., WI (Richland County) What I'd like to do is let the contributors know and encourage them to consider donating or loaning these documents to a repository that can perserve them. Tim ==== WIGEN Mailing List ==== Celebrate Wisconsin! Visit the Washington County WIGenWeb Project Pages http://www.rootsweb.com/~wiwashin/