A Manual of Archive Administration
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OF THE U N IVLR.5ITY Of ILLI NOIS PRESENTED BY Theodore Calvin Pease SO 2. ^^ iu. hist, sufivey ^e^o Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/manualofarchiveaOOiljenk A MANUAL OF ARCHIVE ADMINISTRATION A MANUAL OF ARCHIVE ADMINISTRATION by HILARY JENKINSON sometime Scholar of Pembroke College and F. W. Maitland Lecturer in the University of Cambridge: Reader in Diplomatic and English Archives in the University of London NEW AND REVISED EDITION LONDON PERCY LUND, HUMPHRIES & GO LTD 12 BEDFORD SQUARE, W.C.I 1 937 First Edition published 1922 New and Revised Edition published 1937 MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY PERCY LUND, HUMPHRIES & CO. LTD. LONDON & BRADFORD v PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION When I first decided to put in hand a new edition of this Manual I was under the impression that the task would be a very light one. I did not intend (as indeed I have not attempted) to do more than I did in 1922 ; that is, to illustrate the theory and practice of Archive Work from English Archives : I had not changed, so far as I knew, my views upon matters of principle : and for the rest it did not occur to me that after the lapse of a comparatively small amount of time I should need to do more than revise a few references and re-write a few paragraphs. Actually, though the first part of my assumption has proved correct—I do not find myself in disagreement with my former exposition of Archive Theory—I now know that I much under-estimated the number of small practical matters upon which I should wish to give the result of greater know- ledge : I had had what is, I suppose, the common experience of a man engaged in work which progresses only by slow stages—that of not realizing, till circumstances compel him to take stock, how much progress has been made. 1 I should not have thought it worth while to mention this if my personal experience had not chanced to coincide with a period—roughly the period since the Great War—during which appreciation of the value of Archives, and organized effort for their better control and maintenance, have increased to an unparalleled extent both in Europe and America generally and in England in particular. I can make no pretence to deal thoroughly here with these developments (it would need a small treatise) but it may be worth while to glance at a few outstanding matters. 1 I find that since 1922, when I was first charged with the superintendence of a Repair Department, something like 50,000 Archive pieces, many of them containing large numbers of individual documents, have passed through it. I might have known that this could hardly happen without a considerable enlargement of view. Actually we have in that time evolved what amounts to a new technique in more than one department of the work. A similar remark might be made in regard to other divisions of Archive work with which I have been personally in touch : and I have, of course, profited largely by the accumulated experience of many colleagues at the Public Record Office and friends in this and other Countries. » VI PREFACE One has, in fact, only to look at any periodical summary of Archive progress, such as the Year's Work in Archives which is now compiled by the British Records Association, 1 to see that progress on an important scale is continuous everywhere and in relation to every department of Archive work : each year we hear of new Archive Laws or the re-organization of 2 existing establishments ; of new Buildings or the adaptation 3 of old ones to new usefulness as Repositories ; of the working of international agreements 4 touching Archives affected by political changes and the re-integration of ancient fonds long 5 dismembered ; of the enlargement of the scope of the 6 Archivist's work to cover new fields ; of fresh progress in the production of volumes in existing series of Archive publications 7 and the initiation of new ones ; of technical research in 1 Published by the Library Association in its Year's Work volume and separately by the Records Association in its Reprints series. I have taken most of the illustrations which follow from the issues of 1935 and 1936. In this connexion I should not omit mention of at least two Continental Publications —the German Archivalische Zeitschrift and the Italian Archivi d'Italia: Rassegna Internazionale degli Archivi. In many other countries there are now specialist publications devoted to Archive work, though generally their interests are mainly national. 2 For example very important new Laws, increasing the powers both of Provincial and State Archivists in relation to Public Departments, came into force in France in 1936 : a new Decree of 1935 has superseded in Italy the old regolamento of 191 1 : in Germany the re-organization of the Reichsarchiv in 1934 has been, or is being, followed by other important legislation : and many other examples could be cited. Little is known at present, outside Russia, of the results of Archive organization, or re-organization in that country : but they should be full of interest. 3 The number which might be cited is embarrassingly large but perhaps the most important is the rehabilitation of the Hotel de Rohan at Paris as a Repository, and the connexion established between this and the Hotel Soubise. In 1936 occupation of new premises was reported from Rome and from ten other Italian Archive Centres. 4 Notably that between Germany and Denmark concerning the Schleswig-Holstein Archives ; dealing with a situation which dates back to the Treaty of Vienna, in 1878. 5 The outstanding example comes, of course, from Poland. 6 The incorporation of Notarial Minutiers in the Archives Nationales at Paris is particularly important : similar work has been going on in Italy for some years ; and was in progress (until recent lamentable events) in Spain, as the result of a decree of 1931. 7 This is much too large a subject for the citation of representative examples : but anything in the nature of a new general Guide is important, and in this connexion the new French Etat General des Inventaires des Archives . may be cited. PREFACE vii * regard to the materials and conservation of documents ; of experiments in Archive Education—education of the Archivist himself by means of special schools 2 and of the Public by Exhibitions and by increased facilities for research. 3 Perhaps the most striking milestone in the progress of Archive work in recent years, from a national point of view, is the triumphant institution, after more than fifty years of struggle, of a National Archives of the United States Government, 4 its organization upon lines which profit by the trial and error of a century in Europe, and its establishment in a building which must be the object of envy to every Archivist under older dispensations. While as an evidence of the international importance to which our subject has now attained it is only necessary to record that in recent years a Committee of the League of Nations has found it both desirable and possible to compile and issue a 6 Guide International des Archives ; drawing for the purpose information from the Archive Establishments of thirty-six European Countries. A growth which is no less remarkable, though of course on a smaller scale, has been witnessed in England during the same period. It is no exaggeration to say that, at the time this book appeared, there were still many persons concerned with Record work for whom their subject began and ended with the Public Records ; who would not allow much importance to any classes even of those, apart from the Chancery Enrolments, 1 See the replies of several Countries {e.g. Holland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Russia) to the last part of the questionnaire issued for the Guide International mentioned below. 2 As an interesting local manifestation may be mentioned the Instructional Courses for 62 ' District Wardens ' of Archives in Wiirtemberg. Larger and more national (or international) in scope is the Inter- Scandinavian Archive Day, in which Denmark, Esthonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden participate. 3 What is, perhaps, a curious comment on recent political happenings is the official assistance now given in many German Repositories to genealogical researches. In general, increased facilities for students and an opening up of Archives have been a post-War feature in most Countries. A See some description of this in B.R.A. Reprints, No. 5 : 14,000,000 dollars have been expended on the new buildings at Washington. 5 Published by the Institut International de Cooperation Intellectuelle in 1935. viii PREFACE the State Papers, and a few others; and for whom the needs of the Student meant only the needs of Family History or Topo- graphy. If the suggestion had been made to them that for the Archivist all classes of documents in his custody must from certain points of view be said to have an equal value, they would certainly have considered that the person who put it forward was trying to gain a cheap reputation by the use of paradox : and to talk of Archive Science in such company was to run the risk of being thought rather silly. Outside the Public Record Office, though a number of official Reports * had drawn attention to the quantity, nature and importance of our Local Records, there were not more than two or three Local Authorities which had yet even considered the desirability of making special provision for the organization and mainten- ance of an Archive department : and after fifty years of demonstration, in the publications of the Historical MSS.