I am not sure what the best resource would be for answering questions
specifically related to archival material and copyrights. However, I will
take a shot at offering some quick practical answers to your questions (with
the usual caveat that I am *not* a copyright attorney).

Material such as Civil War letters were automatically under copyright
owned by their writer(s). If these copyrights were not renewed within the
lifetime of the writer(s) plus 75 years (which is highly unlikely, of
course), then the letters are now in public domain. In other words, nobody
now owns the copyright to the actual content. (However, if your organization
produced a printed version of the letters, that version would be
copyrightable.)

If a scholar transcribes the material, then the scholar owns copyright to
that transcription, unless it was a work made for hire and was so designated
by agreement between the scholar and the museum. Copyright would then cover
the actual physical copying of those transcript pages; the content is still
public domain. The difference, in academic terms, would be that a researcher
would cite the transcript (a secondary source) rather than the letters.

Classroom (or any other) use has no effect on copyright. Whether you have an
obligation to make the material freely available depends on your mission and
public charge, in my opinion, but in similar situations I have made such
material available though local libraries.

Regarding the amount of material used, again, if we're talking about
something in the public domain, using an entire letter or quoting a
single sentence would make no difference. Ditto for whether it was used
alone or as part of a broader publication. In either case, researchers
should give proper attribution for the material as a primary source. On the
other hand, if your organization produces a printed version, then anyone
quoting from that version should seek the organization's permission.

I'm sure others can point to published sources that cover this type of
situation. But I hope this practical view will be helpful.

Elizabeth Simon
Manager, Publications
CSWE

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Aderman, Ella <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

>
> There has been much on the discussion list about copyrights of images, but
> I am wondering if any one can point me to some resources related to
> publication rights of archival material in an organization's collection,
> such as transcription of Civil War letters and their subsequent
> publication.   So not an image of the handwritten letter, but its content.
> Is that copyrightable material?  If a "scholar" does the transcribing, can
> the institution still retain copyrights, or should they?  If the material is
> made available for use in say a classroom situation, does that preclude any
> rights for publication?  As a public institution, do we have an obligation
> to make the material available free and clear? Does it make a different if
> the handwritten letters are used in whole, or just quoted?  Included with
> other background material or stand alone?
>
> I would appreciate any comments or suggestions from people at organizations
> with experience in this type of thing.
>
> Ella Aderman
> Site Supervisor
> Pennypacker Mills
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