809walsh Collection Paper

GMF Walsh

Running Head: GMF WALSH

Governors' Mansion Foundation, General Files 1966-1998 Washington State Archives Private Collections

Maura Walsh Emporia State University

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Governors' Mansion Foundation, General Files 1966-1998

The records of the Governors’ Mansion Foundation (GMF) are treated as part of the Private Collections of the Washington State Archives. The private collections are those kept in the State Archives despite the fact that they are not primarily created by the government in the course of official business. The GMF was accessioned in two batches, or groups of similar documents that were received separately and accessioned separately. 25 identical archive boxes make up the 12.5 cubic feet of the collection. One, consisting of 7 boxes, has general files from 1990 -1998 and articles, brochures and speeches as well as the check registers and notes on functions and miscellaneous items. The other batch has 18 boxes, arranged chronologically by year and thereunder by subject with files titled minutes, financial reports, committee reports, correspondence, news releases, art acquisitions, etc. These records reflect the activities of the GMF in the year in question. The file title list tells the story of the activities of each year and gives a good overview of the business of the GMF merely by looking at the file titles listed in the box contents. The first document in the collection is a copy of the Articles of Incorporation from 1966 for CRISP, Citizens Responsive to the need for Improving State Properties. This was the springboard organization for the GMF and actually had a wider scope. The first five folders tell the story of the beginnings of the GMF which was in fact started to pre-empt a group that wanted to tear down the mansion and put up a modern structure more in keeping with the Northwest. The then First Lady of Washington State, Nancy Evans, was instrumental in re-forming CRISP into the GMF to forestall this other faction’s success. Because the GMF appropriated their roots

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from CRISP they cleverly became the status quo and were able to claim more authority than the other, unnamed group. The second document is a notarized copy of the Articles of Incorporation of the GMF. The first files contain by-laws, correspondence, press releases, brochures, acquisition documents, membership lists, speeches (by Nancy Evans and others), interior design documents, legal files, promotional materials, financial records, landscape design documents, meeting files, reports, curator reports, newsletters, and other materials related to the functions and activities of the Foundation. Some of the functions of the different documents are quickly discernable because of their color or format. Internal Governor Office memos are blue, telephone messages are pink, and press releases are green. The thin yellow papers are carbon copies. There are many handwritten letters discussing the formation of the GMF and soliciting support from ladies from around the State. There are handwritten and typed drafts of speeches, many with corrections and what seem to be last minute changes added in the margins. Quite a few of the letters have annotations either indicating when they were answered or, in the case of attached carbon copies, sent. Many of the documents are on printed letter head stationary from lawyers, interior decorators, antique merchants or GMF trustees. Many of the bills are marked “OK to pay” by hand. A room by room list of what furniture, artifacts and objets de arte are in the mansion can be compared with the wish lists of articles to acquire, many of which include color swatches and sketches. The documents related to fundraising are quite impressive with carefully targeted lists of foundations. The members of the GMF were quite capable of raising and spending healthy amounts of money right from the beginning.

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Substantive Attributes

The provenance of the collection is the GMF. Everything in the collection has been created or received by members of the Foundation in the course of doing business. Creators of records include curators, decorators, State General Auditor, governors and first ladies. A documentary film has been amply exploited by the GMF over the years for publicity, outreach and fundraising. Nancy Evans was interviewed for the Washington State Centennial celebrations being held at the Governor’s Mansion in 1989 and she stated “We may feel we’re too young to have history, but if we don’t start thinking long-term it may be too late.” She would certainly approve of the existence of this collection which is due to the efforts of one archivist at the Washington State Archives, David Hastings. In fact, it seems to be almost a pet project of his. The State Archive is only mandated to collect and maintain the records deemed archival that are produced as part of the functioning of the State government. However, in addition to these, the Archives maintains over 100 collections as sub groups in a record group it titles its Private Collections. They include a wide variety of items that may have continuing usefulness to researchers and are considered part of the collective story of the State. The GMF is a non-government entity, but because it concerns a very important government building, the Foundation was encouraged to transfer its records to the Archives and thus far the members have been quite happy to find a good home for them. For the GMF this agreement is extremely advantageous because it conserves, in optimum professional conditions, and at no cost to the Foundation, all the records that it creates. “Archivists are the specialists to manage the transition from present to past, concerning

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collaborative actions and experiences, in such a way that the past remains useful for future presents”(Menne-Haritz, 2000, p. 347). The foundation has access to professional archivists and pristine storage facilities free of charge, and at the same time others can also access these same documents. Pugh states that individuals first seek information from other individuals within the organization (1998). Although she was undoubtedly referring to staff in formal organizations, the same is probably true to some degree in others as well. In this case that could be more difficult due to the changing nature of the GMF. Consider the shifting composition of the membership due to the fact that it is a voluntary association complicated by issues like the social prominence of some of its members and the changing inhabitants of the mansion and their political associations. Having the State Archives act as depository for these documents helps ensure preservation and access. The records here reflect a blending of the public functioning of the Foundation and the private lives and connections of the members both among themselves and with government officials and private business professionals associated with the ongoing functioning of the GMF. The documents in the files do not represent a smooth continuity from inception to present day. In fact, it seems to be feast or famine. Some events are documented from many different sides and in great detail, while others are merely referred to obliquely or can only be detected by later documents. For example, in Box 8 (1979) there are documents where the phrase “ladies of the foundation” has been crossed out and “foundation” is written above. Later in the same file a document changes “women” to “the board members”. From this point forward it is difficult to find any reference to the foundation members except in the most professional terms. Before that they had always been the ladies or Mrs. John Doe, always with their husbands’ names. Staid

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social propriety gives way to a more liberated and professional terminology that does reflect the most up-to-date changing societal values.

Acquisition and Appraisal

The documents in this collection are both informational and evidentiary. They tell what has happened and how it has happened. We can trace the history of the structure of the Foundation from its predecessor, CRISP, through its own incorporation and the changes in bylaws that have substantially changed the governance of the Foundation. We can trace how it has responded to the changes of the society upon which it depends and also how it has sometimes resisted changing with that society. It is easy to see how new demands changed the interior decorator’s role to a curator, how more authoritative experts were consulted and how a program with docents was implemented to make the contents of the mansion open to the public while it continues to serve as the private residence of the State’s First Family. One reason the Washington State Archives has been interested in obtaining and maintaining the collection is because the creating organization fluctuates with time. The Foundation is strictly private and composed of volunteers; they are not governed by the state records management laws, and there is no set schedule for acquiring new documents. It is, after all, a social as well as a maintenance organization and the inhabitants of the mansion change with the State elections so there are also political considerations. In the GMF, records are traditionally kept in members’ homes and passed on when officers change The Archives waits until GMF is ready to send more material. That is why, although the Foundation continues to function, no new records have been

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accessioned for nearly ten years. They are still with members of the GMF. That also means that there are no electronic documents. The State Archives will either wait until someone from GMF contacts them with more documents or they will give a “gentle nudge” (Hastings 2008) when they think the time is appropriate. It is conceivable that some of the earlier gaps could be filled when a Foundation member discovers some forgotten documents in a cupboard or drawer at home.

The fact that the State Archives maintains the records gives permanence to the

organization, credence to their decision making for future incarnations, and it protects records that have no physical safe space. In truth, the physical documents, and so their continuing usefulness, may be safeguarded solely in this collection. The collection does not seem to have been weeded as there are often multiple copies (carbon, printed or photocopied) of the same document, sometimes as many as a couple dozen photocopies of the same meeting agenda or minutes, for no evident reason. There is one certified carbon copy of the articles of incorporation and six more carbon copies. Some documents may be deemed unimportant to the archives, such as photographs of furniture that was offered to the GMF, but which the foundation never seriously considered for acquisition. The collection seems to be being held in safekeeping for some future actions of this kind, perhaps when more of the records are acquired, or when there is time left over from the more pressing obligations of the State Archives. As Jimerson (2003, p.135) stated: “…appraisal is both science and art. It requires careful and systematic thinking about the nature of evidence and information, but it also depends on understanding of the uses of manuscripts and archives, the concerns and priorities of the repository, and the nature of the sources themselves.” Probably this process of identifying the documents that have continuing usefulness to the archives is not yet completed in this collection. They are being preserved now with an eye to a future time when that process can be completed in order to preserve that portion of them that has

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historical usefulness. If space is not at a premium in the archives, perhaps the collection will simply be kept ‘as is’ and no more than this preliminary processing will be deemed necessary. Arrangement There are no restrictions on access to the collection, but neither is it easy to find because it is within the Private Collections record group. I learned of it while doing some work for the Foundation library. I was directed to David Hastings, an archivist in the State Archives, who gave me permission to examine it. However, when I first went to the archives the reading room, I was told that they had no knowledge of the collection and that I would have to provide an accession number or know where it was located. Subsequently I made an appointment by email and was given full access to the collection, as anyone else would be. Once located, the finding aid, although quite succinct, is valuable. O'Toole stresses that knowing how records came to be, what functions they document, what information they contain, and how that information can be used is fundamental to understanding archives and manuscripts. Most of this is easily ascertainable from the finding aid, and more of it can be deciphered from examining the documents themselves. Obviously, the problem in this case, is that a searchable finding aid or an annotated finding aid as described by Light and Hyry is not available to help others find this collection. It would make these records much more accessible. A strong case can certainly be made that the documents are in original order because there are so many that turn up in strange places within the files. Sometimes the correspondence is grouped with incoming and outgoing letters stapled together while other times the answer to an earlier letter may be much further back in the same file or (in at least one case) in a different file altogether. Here are two of the most curious examples. A letter to H. R. Haldeman is found in the middle of the 1972 file labeled Interior Design. How and why it came to be there is a complete

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mystery. When asked, the reading room staff member available expressed interest in the document, but merely shrugged her shoulders when asked about the location. Another example is a 1988 file labeled Standing Committees – Chamber concerts that has concert proposals and bills for piano tuning and restoration as well as a letter and CV from a highly qualified art historian who wants to work for the Foundation. Curiously enough, this woman became a member and is still a trustee of the Foundation, so the document was presumably not lost before it was used. All these records have been created by the different GMF members and committees in the course of carrying out the work of the foundation. Sometimes one individual would be responsible for nearly all the documents created or coordinated in a functional area such as the treasurer. For other functions, such as the regional committees for fundraising, documents were created simultaneously by subcommittees operating in different geographical areas. All the different records were then sent in various formats (especially in the first years), or sometimes may have been reported by telephone (because the regional report appears as notes added to another document) to the executive committee, which in turn created their own minutes of meetings and sent out directives to the various other sections functioning in the Foundation. So, all these complex records being created by an organization of volunteers, even if they all had the best intentions, seems a recipe for mayhem at some point, and this is sometimes reflected in the collection. All in all though, the organization is quite admirable. In general letters have been kept together, bills are together, reports are together and in each aggregation there is a chronological order that is fairly well kept. It is easy for the user to take up a file and find useful and intelligible information. At times it may be difficult to describe what is actually in each part of the collection, but the raw material is certainly there and if a researcher needed information on the

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GMF it is definitely obtainable, although sometimes it will require a bit of work on the part of the examiner. Although all the file folders had titles, none were numbered with either the box number or the place that it occupied in the box. If a file were replaced in the wrong position it might be very difficult to see that it was not in its proper place. A melding of the two accessions would seem to make sense. In many cases the documents could simply be added to the existing files in the appropriate box according to the year in which they were created. In a few instances, it would be more appropriate to make new file folders. If the two accessions are not combined it will continue to make studying the documents awkward as the researcher must go back and forth between boxes in order to check information that could be in the same box, for example fund raising letters sent by the Foundation in 1979.

Description

The description of this collection is far from complete. The only description available outside the State Archives itself is found on their own website, which can be accessed either directly at www.secstate.wa.gov/archives/ or through others like NUCMC or NAGARA. Here is what is found at the State Archives site:

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Record Group: Private Collections Subgroup: Governors' Mansion Foundation Record Series: Governors' Mansion Foundation Dates: 1966-1998 Volume: 12.5 c.f. Description: Records documenting the efforts of the Governors' Mansion Foundation to preserve, restore and furnish the Governors' Mansion. Includes articles of incorporation,

by-laws,

correspondence,

press

releases,

brochures,

acquisition

documents, membership lists, speeches (by Nancy Evans and others), interior design documents, legal files, promotional materials, financial records, landscape design documents, meeting files, reports, curator reports, newsletters, and other materials related to the functions and activities of the Foundation. Arranged chronologically, then by subject. Repository: State Government Archives - Olympia Finding Aids: File Level Inventory Total Cubic Feet: 12.500 Media Type: Boxed Paper (cu. ft.)

This limited description, while complete as far as document types, doesn’t perhaps give a very good feel for what the collection actually represents or contains. The finding aid, available only in the archive and only upon request, gives a file level inventory by box that is much more descriptive. If this collection is actually a work in progress, and a means of preserving material that will later be described more fully to make it more accessible to the researcher, then this is understandable and acceptable. It is also far better than the documents molding forgotten in some basement cupboard or tossed out by a volunteer’s heirs who have no idea what the documents are. Nevertheless, a standardized descriptive record for this collection is needed. Without a MARC record or EAD, it cannot be accessible to more than a very limited group of investigators who either know of its existence or serendipitously stumble upon it. Without this metadata it is

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impossible for either user or archivist to adequately identify, manage, locate, or interpret the information in the collection. If archives had many collections like these it would soon be impossible to use them. Once the box content lists are obtained, which is only after asking for them by specifically by exact name in the State Archives, the file level inventory is reasonably complete. Getting there is the problem. In the description reproduced above some of the basic and required MARC data elements such as local call number, subject access fields and preferred citation note are absent. Other elements, like the physical description and the summary are combined in one general entry. Not only does this make it more difficult to find the exact information wanted, but it precludes it being part of a digital database like NUCMUC or Northwest Digital Archives. When this common language is not used, it also restricts access because it requires more effort on the part of the researcher first to find the collection and second to ascertain the contents of the collection. The woeful inadequacy of the information that is currently available online contributes to the user being dependent on the archives staff, and thus less able to access the information about the collection and indubitably the collection itself.

Preservation, Access and Use

The documents in this collection seem to have been untouched by the archivists’ hands in terms of preservation. Staples and paper clips, rusting and not, are attached to all kinds of documents in these files. A few documents remain folded. The pages of one typed list of donor contributions from 1980 were stuck together where the ink had bled. There is an indiscriminate mix of materials (Photographs, newspaper clippings, drawings and sketches). None were found

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in any kind of protective covering or leafed in special paper. Many of the boxes were so empty that the files and the documents contained in them were bowed. Several files were completely overstuffed and almost impossible to remove from the box with one hand or handle without papers spilling out. It certainly seems that the preservation part of this collection has not been done yet. The environmental conditions of the repository are certainly first rate, and the Archives will be moved to a new, purpose built building in 2012. The attention to the user was also superlative (after that first dismal encounter) with the reading room staff ever solicitous, willing and able to accommodate the user by answering any and all questions and always having materials at the ready. Presumably the anomaly here is the collection being examined and not the archive. Whether or not other collections in the Private Collections are in a similar condition is difficult to say. My impression is that these are special projects being untaken by the archivists when they can steal time from their official duties. Certainly the staff had no information about the collection other than the location of the file level inventory. This collection is valuable to the GMF itself because of the changing nature of the organization. If a volunteer is contemplating recovering a chair, they can easily access the steps that were gone through by the decorator in 1982 and read the opinions given then about what fabric to use, what colors were deemed appropriate, what the cost was or which firms were considered for the job. Decorators and historians might also enjoy using the collection for reference or research, as well as auditors or accountants wishing to conduct a case study. Sometimes the contents are so messy that some perseverance on the part of the researcher is recommended. There are currently no restrictions on access nor does there seem to be any necessity for it. The Foundation can

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effectively control access by simply not making records available to the Archives before they wish the information to be available to others.

Conclusion In conclusion, consider the ‘Big 5’ in archival practices: provenance, original order, hierarchy of control, collection description, and progressive refinement of control. Both provenance and original order (at the file level), as discussed above, seem to be very well respected in this collection. The hierarchy of creation and control is not always inherent in this collection because the creating organization is a mixture of professionals working for volunteers, different volunteers, untrained, creating similar but not always identical records and sometimes a lack of expectation on the part of the organization itself as to what records should be created and what form they should take. This is further carried over into the collection of records on the part of the organization. What actually reaches the State Archives reflects this mild but functional chaos on the part of the organization. The collection description seems to be a work in progress and needs a lot of refinement. This is particularly true when considering the lack of standardized description available. A MARC record would make the collection accessible online to many more users. Needless to say, the progressive refinement of control is almost non existent. The SAA glossary definition, “describes a part or parts of an item for which a comprehensive entry has been made” is only available as file titles on the box level inventory. Once inside the State Archives setting, the user is extremely well taken care of. Users may view all documents by appointment and under the supervision and considerate assistance of the reading room personnel. References

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Governor's Mansion Foundation. (1989). Centeniel Celebration [Brochure]. Olympia, WA Hastings, D., personal communication, January - February, 2008 Jimerson, R. C. (2003). Deciding what to save. OCLC Systems & Serces, 19, from http://0www.emeraldinsight.com.www.whitelib.emporia.edu/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filena me=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/1640190403.html The Library of Congress, (2008, March 13th). Encoded archival description. Retrieved May 5, 2008, from EAD tag library Web site: http://www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/appendix_a.html Light, M., & Hyry, T. (2002). Colophons and annotations: New directions for the finding aid . The American Archivist. 65, 216 - 230. Menne-Haritz, A. (2000).Archival training in a changing world. The American Archivist. 63, 3 4 1 – 3 5 2. Organization of American Historians, (1993). Historians and archivists: Educating the next generation. Joint Committee on historians and archivists of the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians and Society of American Archivists, from http://www.oah.org/pubs/archivists/historiansandarchivists.pdf O’Toole, James M. Understanding archives and manuscripts, Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1990. Pearce-Moses, R. (2008). A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. Retrieved April 21, 2008, from Society of American Archivists Web site: http://www.archivists.org/glossary/index.asp Pugh, M. J. (1998).Information-Seeking in organizations and archives . Cultural Resource Management. 21 - 06, 10 - 14. Washington State Secretary of State, (2008). Washington State Archives. Retrieved February 1,

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2008, from Private Collections - Governors' Mansion Foundation 1966-1998 Web site: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/archives/search_results.aspx?q=mansion+foundation®ion Yakel, E. (2003). Information literacy for primary sources: Creating a new paradigm for archival researcher education. OCLC Systems & Services, 20, from http://0www.emeraldinsight.com.www.whitelib.emporia.edu/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filena me=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/1640190403.html