K.O.,



Although your museum collecting policy may say otherwise, the letters would be better described and accessioned in an archival finding aid.  If your museum uses Past Perfect, it contains a module for doing that.  Manuscripts (such as historic letters) are not USUALLY numbered individually unless they are of some extreme importance.  They are usually described as a collection or series.  It would help to know more about your museum.  Although we are a relatively small museum (compared to the Met or the Smithsonian), we house several hundred feet of historic letters, photographs and other manuscripts.  We use a separate archives management system to provide finding aids for this material.  If you have such an archives, the letters probably belong there.  If not, you might want to consider whether you expect to collect more manuscripts and plan accordingly.  I'm happy to offer help if you'd like it.



Greg



Gregory A. Jackson, CA

Archivist, Bryn Athyn Historic District

Glencairn Museum

www.glencairnmuseum.org

267.502.2421







-----Original Message-----

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of K O

Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 8:28 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Accession Numbers for a collection of letters



Hello All,



I have just received a collection of historic letters ranging from 1913 to 1928, as a donation to my museum. I am very excited about them and will be accessioning them into my collection. I am wondering however, about the best way to attach a meaningful accession number to said letters.



Traditionally the "lot" would be numbered as follows: 2013.05.01a-aaa (Year.Donor.Lot# & letter in that lot) However, I think it might be more meaningful to lable each year a different number, or include the year the letter was written. 

For example:

Option 1: 2013.05.01a-g, 2013.05.02a-z, and so on...

Option 2: 2013.05.1913a-g, 2013.05.1914a-z, and so on...





Any thoughts?



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