Hello, readers, and welcome to the first edition of This Week in the Stacks, the moment when I tell you in detail all the junk that’s going on in my archival life. Or, at least the last week of it.
Well, I actually spent very little time at work at all this week, really. I got some nasty sickness this past weekend and spent Monday and Tuesday curled up in bed, finishing Susan Jacoby’s Freethinkers and drinking copious amounts of O.J. I really should have used the time to study for the certification exam since that’s coming up but hey…Speaking of which, I received my official “You’re Signed Up” letter from the Academy of Certified Archivists and am all ready to go on August 11. This is a bigger deal than seems at first blush because I wasn’t sure how my unpaid experience fit in to the guidelines. The rules are unclear about what sort of experience qualifies and the last thing I wanted in my quest for employment was to be shut down for certification because I didn’t have a pay stub. Anyway, they’ve accepted my credentials and I’m ready to go. The next hurdle to get over is having Richmond, VA be declared a remote test site. You need five test-takers to do this and I won’t know until later this month if we’ve been selected. The state library where I work was selected as the test site last year which would be damned convenient. If Richmond isn’t chosen then I’ll have to mosey on up to Washington which will blow, mainly because the test begins at 8:30AM making it almost a foregone conclusion that I’d be looking for a hotel during the conference, during the height of summer vacation and in the nation’s capitol. BLAH!
Anyhow, we’ve established that I haven’t studied. This does not really present a problem because I took the little practice test and it was EASY! I think my fabulous graduate education must’ve been worth every penny because not only did I get every single question correct but I also read just about every article and book listed in the study guide during my time in school. Okay, so I am studying just a little bit but I’m not pushing myself too hard. I also keep telling myself that I’ll check out the online study forums on the academy website but….
So, as I’ve said, I didn’t get to spend as much time at work as I’d like to have done. At this moment I am processing a collection of deeds from Charlottesville, VA. They span 1888-1917. The funny thing about deeds (for those of you who aren’t aware) is that the designation “deed” is totally worthless. Anything can be entered as a “deed”. I’m processing everything from wills, contracts, indentures and dental licenses (!) to property sales, maps, affidavits and every frickin’ sales receipt J. Perley and Sons ever wrote for one of their customers. The sheer variety of documents makes the whole thing interesting, as does the endless stream of podcasts entering my ears as I work. Also, there are a number of deeds in the collection relating to Jefferson Levy, a United States representative from New York and the man whose uncle bought Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Jefferson Levy was the last private owner of Monticello, selling it to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923 after heavy financial loses and rank anti-Semitism forced him to sell what he once claimed he would never part with “for all the money in the U.S. treasury”.
Levy was an interesting man. A jew, a statesman, a rabid Thomas Jefferson fan (as was his entire family, as evidenced by Levy’s first name), a wealthy, lifelong bachelor who maintained an agent in Europe solely for the purpose of sniffing out nifty furnishings and decor for his beloved Monticello. In fact, the Levy family is the entire reason we have Monticello in the condition it is in today. When Uriah Levy (Jefferson’s uncle) first took possession of Monticello back in 1836, the place was a bit of a ruin. Hard times had come to Monticello and it was a shadow of the stunning Italianate home it had once been. Uriah set about restoring everything from the wood carvings inside to the extensive grounds and gardens outdoors. When you go to visit Monticello today, much of the beauty and grandeur you see there is thanks to Uriah and Jefferson Levy who were some of the first Americans concerned with the preservation of historical American landmarks. Today, Monticello is a World Heritage site.
So, you can see why these deeds have become a little more interesting to me, despite the fact that they have consumed so much more of my attention than I had anticipated, due to many tears and other conservation issues. I finished processing the collection last week and am this week arranging and describing the collection. I will finish this next week with a nifty MARC record for our LVA catalog as well as a nice little EAD finding aid on the Virginia Heritage Project website.
Starving Archivist 