Preserving and Enhancing Access to Manuscript Collections Centering on Family Life in Chicago and the Midwest

FAIN: PW-50287-09

Newberry Library (Chicago, IL 60610-3305)
Martha T. Briggs (Project Director: August 2008 to December 2011)

The arrangement, description, and preservation of 56 manuscript collections, comprising 605 linear feet, focusing on families from the Chicago area in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and documenting a wide array of social and cultural history themes.

The Newberry Library proposes to arrange, preserve, and describe to current archival standards 56 underprocessed manuscript collections (604.8 cubic ft.) documenting family life and individual experiences in Chicago, the Midwest, the nation, and the world. These multigenerational collections of wealthy, middle-class, ethnic, and rural families tell the stories of women, children, the elderly, farmers, immigrants, and others who formed the fabric of American society. The collections' wide-ranging subject matter will be surfaced by collection-level catalog records and EAD inventories that will be disseminated widely on the Internet and national bibliographic utilities. With improved access, scholars, genealogists, teachers, and students at all levels will be able to make creative use of these rich, untapped resources to interpret everyday life and experiences from the viewpoint of the participants.