1. Early Manuscript Collecting in Business, Industry, and Technology
Erik Nordberg, Ph.D.
Wayne State University
Society of American Archivists Research Forum
Washington, D.C.
August 14, 2018

2. Personality Over Policy: A Comparative History of the Founding
and Early Development of Four American Manuscript Repositories of Business, Industry, and Technology.
Ph.D., Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, Social Sciences Department, Michigan Technological University, 2017

3. Research Questions
How have the major archival repositories for American business and industrial history gathered material?
What contexts have informed their specific appraisal and selection of this material?
Is a useful and comprehensive amount of historical material being retained which will provide adequate evidence to historians and other researchers?

4. Positioning this Research in Existing Literature
Development of Modern Archival Practice
Emergence of Business History as an Academic Discipline
Development of Collecting Practice for Manuscripts in Business, Industry, and Technology
T.R. Schellenberg

5. Scope of this Study 4 Case Study Institutions
Limited to Manuscript Collecting
Temporal limit = 1983
Source Material
John White, MHT

6. Case Study Repositories
Baker Library
Harvard Graduate School of Business
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Established
1908
Period of rapid growth
Growth of Collections
1932 = collections
1978 = 1,403 collections
Museum of History and Technology
(National Museum of American History) Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.
Established
1954
Period of rapid growth
Growth of Collections
1966 = 3,325 cubic feet
1986 = 4,500 cubic feet
Hagley Museum and Library
Wilmington, Delaware
Established
1952 Museum
1953 Library
1961 Merged
Period of
rapid growth
DuPont collections:
Regional collections:
Growth of Collections
1955 = fewer than 12
1982 = 1,803 collections
Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company
The Henry Ford
Dearborn, Michigan
Established
1929 Ford Museum,
1950 FMC Archives
1964 Merged
Period of
rapid growth
Growth of Collections
1951 = 2,543 cubic feet
FMC Archives
1980 = 10,000 cubic feet
Ford Museum

7. Contexts for Comparison
Institutional Type and Mission
Models Followed
Organizational Structure and Staffing
Collection Policies and
Appraisal/Acquisition Systems
Facilities and Space

8. Institutional Type and Mission
Associations with Academic Institutions
Associations with Museum Functions
Associations with Corporations

9. Models Followed Two Archival Traditions: Literary Manuscripts Approach
vs.
Collections/Archives Approach
Private Research Library
Industrial Museum

10. Organizational Structures and Staffing
Confident, Aggressive, Dominant
Personalities (rather than policy)
Topical Knowledge vs.
Archival/Library Expertise
Backlogs of Unprocessed Acquisitions
Balance of Acquisitions vs.
Processing Staff
Stable Funding = Stable Staffing Levels

11. Collection Policies and Appraisal/Acquisition Systems
Periods Without Policy
Geographic Boundaries
Temporal Boundaries
Systematic Collecting

12. Facilities and Space Space as a Defining Constraint
New Construction vs.
Renovated Structures
Corporate Support:
A Mixed Blessing

13. Additional Research Microappraisal at Each Institution
What Happened at These 4 after 1983?
Additional Case Studies:
 Later Periods
 Other Regions
 Other Nations
Postmodern Analysis of These Cases?
(a.k.a., “What Would Derrida Do?”)

14. Closing Comments Has Enough Been Preserved? Where Are the Gaps
(at least from these 4)?
Challenges Inherent in
Archival History Research
Adventures of an Archivist in Historian’s Clothing

15. Thanks Erik Nordberg, Ph.D. Interim Assistant Dean
University Library System
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan /
Link to dissertation in Michigan Tech institutional repository: