Fall Meeting Set for Akron

Vol. 12, No. 2 Fall 1981 discuss the difficulties they experience Fall Meeting in utilizing architectural and engineering drawings. Set For Akron The Quaker Square Hilton Inn provides a luxurious and beautiful setting for this year's meeting. This unique hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is constructed in thirty-six giant silos that once housed tons of grain for the Quaker Oats Com- pany. The handsomely decorated circular rooms are available at a special rate for archivists, manuscript curators, librarians and others attending the meeting. The Quaker Square complex includes forty unusual shops, boutiques, restaurants and attractions. An en- closed swimming pool and recreation center are also located in the hotel. All sessions for this program will be held at the Quaker Hilton. Registration will be on Friday morning. A luncheon will precede the two Friday afternoon sessions and the day's activities will be ti capped ti by a mixer in the evening. The opening session Friday afternoon will feature a general presentation of The Fall meeting of the Society of Ohio the historic preservation movement. Dr. Archivists is scheduled for October 2-3 Theodore A. Sande, Executive Director of at the Quaker Square Hilton Inn in the Western Reserve Historical Society, Akron, Ohio. The Conference will focus will discuss current trends in this on a recurring dilemma for the archivist field and examine the role of the ar- and manuscript curator: architectural chivist as seen by a preservationist. and engineering drawings. Attendees Similarly, H. Roger Grant, Professor of will have the opportunity to hear ar- History at the University of Akron, will c hivis ts discuss such problems as ap- investigate the role of the archivist as praisal, storage, cataloging and micro- seen from the viewpoint of an archi- filming while researchers and historic tectural researcher. He will also preservationists relate their needs and discuss the use of architectural drawings in research and comment on current 10, 1981, and mailed with the appro- trends in such use. priate fee to: The second session on Friday, "The Linda Folc,; Archival Services; Bierce Archivists Dilemma: Evaluation of Library; University of Akron; Akron, OH Research Materials," will feature pre- 44325. sentations based on first-hand experience in collecting and appraising engineering and architectural drawings. Participants for this session will be: Richard Wright, Di rec tor of the Center for Archival Collections, Bowling Green CWRU: State University and Michael Lawrence, I Assistant Curator for Architectural Records at the Cuyahoga County Archives. An Archival Profile By Laura Gorretta The first Saturday morning session, Assistant University Archivist "Case Study: Care and Preservation of Architectural and Engineering drawings," The Case Western Reserve University will be devoted to the archival treat- Archives was established by the Board of ment of architectural research ma- Trustees of CWRU at the first Trustee terials. Two archivists, Les Stegh, of meeting following the federation of Deere and Company, Moline, Illinois, and Western Reserve University and Case Peter Daniloff of the Tower City Cor- Institute of Technology in July, 1967. poration, Cleveland, Ohio, will discuss The Archives antecedents date back to storage, preservation, preparation of 1959, when the case Institute of Tech- finding aids and microfilming at their nology Archives began to take shape respective institutions. The second under the direction of an English pro- session on Saturday morning will also fessor. In 1964, the secretary of have a "case study" format, wherein the neighboring Western Reserve University use of architectural records in actual appointed Ruth Helmuth Archivist of that restoration projects will be examined. institution. She continued as Archivist Ted Curtis, University architect at Kent of Case Western Reserve University. State University, will discuss his Under her direction, the Archives has experiences with the Quaker Square grown in scope, volume and services restoration project, while Robert C. offered. Gaede, president of his own archi tectural firm, will detail his work with Formerly housed in the basement of a the Roscoe Village and Ohio Courthouse campus cafeteria and in the University restorations. Circle Police Station, next to the suspect holding room, the Archives Following the closing luncheon on Sat- repository now occupies two floors of urday, meeting participants can join a the Quail Building, a former classroom formal tour of the Hower House, a Vic- building on the Case campus. Also torian mansion in the process of res- located in the Quail Building are the toration, or individually visit other offices of Security and Environmental nearby sites including the Football Hall Affairs and Plant Services whose proxi- of Fame in Canton and Stan Hywet Hall in mity does not, contrary to all logic, Akron. enhance their services to the Archives. The Archives also maintains additional We hope you will plan to attend what storage sites in four other campus promises to be an informative meeting in buildings including the Medical School a beautiful setting. Pre-registration and Allen Memorial Library. The Quail forms should be postmarked by September Building facilities are served by a 2 sturdy freight elevator and are properly Staffing levels have fluctuated over the protected by a security system tied in years. The first full-time assistant to the University Circle Police Station archivist was hired in 1972; prior to and by ionization heads and heat detec- that time, graduate student assistants tors in the roons and hallways. Air supervised by the University Archivist conditioning units cool the repository processed col lee tions and ran the re- during the heat of Cleveland summers and pository. A high level of three full- provide cold drafts during the winters. time and two part-time archivists (excluding the University Archivist) was 61 Since we are unable to revel in the reached in 1979. Today, two full-time amenities found in new repositories or and one part-time archivist supervise recently remodeled facilities, we make the operation of the repository, assist the best of what we have. The "main researchers, process collections too room" is the hub of the Archives' activ- difficult or sensitive to assign to ity, serving as both the processing room students and direct the practicum for and the reading room. It is also the graduate students in the Archives Edu- location of the typewriter, the tele- cation Program. (A detailed description phone and the microfilm reader and has of the education programs can be found been known to become boisterous on in the Spring, 1980, issue of the News- occasion. We do have a large number of letter.) -- windows in the Quail Building, which makes up for the absence of wall-to-wall The current holdings of the Archives carpeting and matching tables and consist of approximately 5,000 linear chairs. From these windows, we have feet of records pertaining to the Uni- seen Army helicopters landh1g on the versity. Case Western Reserve Uni- football field, the University football versity dates from 1826, when Western team working out under the August sun, Reserve College was established in rapid transit cars aflame on the adja- Hudson, Ohio. A Medical School was cent railroad tracks and the Interna- established in 1843 which, over the tional Association of Jugglers -- on years incorporated the medical depart- campus for a convention -- honing their ments of Wooster University, Ohio Wes- juggling skills while riding unicycles lyan University, Charity Hospital and around the parking lot. the Cleveland College of Physicians and Repository is on 2nd and 3rd floor of the Quail Building 3 Surgeons. The School of Nursing began of files usually follows a visit by an as the Lakeside Hospital School of archivist to a given office. The Ar- Nursing in 1898. The Case School of chives' carefully cultivated reputation Applied Science was founded in 1880. At for efficient service has enabled us to various times, CWRU has had a School of establish relations with departments Education, a School of Pharmacy and a that have heretofore preferred to be School of Architecture, as well as a responsible for their noncurrent re- preparatory school, Western Reserve cords. Not infrequently, cartons of Academy. The records of these entities records have appeared on our doorstep include the requisite minutes of govern- without notice and without indication of I ing boards and faculty bodies, official origin, these having been sent by secre- f publications of the University (dis- taries who were referred to us by satis- sertations, theses, catalogues, year- fied customers. books, newspapers, and products of the University Press), blueprints and speci- Accessions procedures are simple. They fications of land and buildings owned by often involve preliminary weeding and the University, student records, alumni repacking in order to save space in the records and office files from the prin- accessions room. Approximately 7 5% of cipal and not so principal administra- all material that comes into the Ar- tive officers. chives is thrown out of the Archives. Processing includes appraisal on an individual document basis, the removal of staples and paper clips (the paper clips are recirculated to campus offices) and basic conservation measures if needed. Acid free folders are used to house all documents. The primary finding aids are boxlists and series descriptions which are listed by record group on visible file cards. At this point in the history of the Archives, we find ourselves reprocessing many collections that were originally processed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In order to improve the physical arrangement of documents or to further weed collections, our appraisal criteria have changed over the years, as have our preferred arrangement schemes. Demands on our space and a need for efficiency A view of the main room. in retrieving information often require the total rearrangement of some series.

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