File - Amy Martin, MLS

I will be working with the Crump/Byxbe
collection that was recently donated to the
Estes Park Museum. The Byxbe’s became
regular summer visitors in the early 1920’s,
during which time, Byxbe showed his work in
local exhibits and sold it in Estes’ gift shops.
Byxbe is well-known for his etchings of scenes
around Estes Park and his ―Junipers‖
collection that he started in the 1940’s,
although his earlier works include a few
portraits, and subjects from Omaha and other
locations in the Midwest. Byxbe worked
primarily in aquatint, drypoint, and etching
(and various combinations of these
techniques). He also executed works in
mezzotint, conté crayon, oil, pencil, and
watercolor, though these are relatively
rare. Byxbe’s work was nationally recognized
and was featured in exhibits across the
country, as well as shipped all over the world
to tourists who visited Rocky Mountain
National Park.
Lyman Byxbe at the printing press, ca. 1938
At the turn of the century if you didn‟t live in a
major metropolitan area,your chances of
finding quality art instruction were almost
non-existent. The fact that Byxbe was
successful in his desire to become an artist
and did so without formal training says much
about his talent and ability tokeep his eyes
fixed on the goal he set for himself.
- Crump, Catalog Raisonne (2002)
Byxbe sketching, ca. 1920
Robert Crump graduated from the American
Academy of Art in Chicago and worked as a fine
artist and art director for graphic design
companies in the midwest. Crump was also
interested in the work of other artists, in
particular, those men and women who worked
during the 1930’s and 1940’s to overcome
depression-era hardships. He was also interested
in the art of printmakers who combine artistry
with the technical requirements necessary to
produce prints. Lyman Byxbe’s works caught
Crump’s eye and he therefore spent many years
researching the life and works of Lyman Byxbe,
resulting in the publication in 2002 of The Prints
of Lyman Byxbe (1886-1980) a Catalog
Raisonne. His research ranged from requesting
information and copies of prints from museums,
documentation from exhibits, and spending the
1990’s interviewing people around Estes Park
who knew Byxbe—among them Byxbe’s
daughter, Alice Anspauch, and Byxbe’s assistant,
Coyt Hackett.
Robert Crump, from 2005 exhibit
„OldEstes‟
Specializing in art, antiques, and items of
historical interest from the Estes Park area
from http://www.oldestes.com/index.htm
Dave Tanton is an art collector with ties to Estes Park
who is responsible for the donation being made to the
museum. I had the opprtunity to learn about the
historical significance of this collection during an
interview with Tanton, in which he shared stories about
the history of Estes, as well as his memories of Byxbe
and other local residents relevant to Crump’s work.
Tanton’s family has been in Estes since between 1905
and 1910, when his grandfather built a small summer
home. His grandmother later bought land from F.O.
Stanley, where she and her husband built a second
summer home in 1917, which was passed on to Tanton’s
mother who kept the family home even through hard
times. Dave spent many years in California before
returning to the family’s house to find that it’s renters
over the years had cleared it of all art and decorations
that his grandmother had furnished it with. Dave
therefore set out to restore the house and to collect items
that he imagines would have been there. That is what led
him to become an avid collector of Byxbe’s work. When
Crump began doing his research, he and Tanton become
friends and corresponded occasionally. After a period of
not hearing from Crump, Tanton grew concerned,
contacted Crump’s son, John, and learned that Crump
had passed shortly after the death of his wife.
The collection was donated to the museum by Robert Crump’s son, John. In addition to giving the
museum all of Crump’s papers, the copyright for Crump’s book has been turned over to the museum, as
the family is hoping for the collection to be processed and for Crump’s The Prints of Lyman Byxbe
(1886-1980) a Catalog Raisonne to b erevised and reprinted. After the catalog’s publication in 2002,
Crump began to receive letters from collectors all over the country, who informed him that they had
prints that were not in the catalog. Although Byxbe kept decent records of his etchings that allowed his
wife & daughter to reconstruct the chronology of his works, it was by no means a detailed ledger, and
the omissions were plenty. Additionally, Byxbe often retitled his etchings when he would redo a run.
Crump therefore, made an addendum after the release of his book, but the family wants to see the catalog
reprinted. Dave said that he had a few copies of it at one time that sold for $100 on eBay because they
are so hard to come by. He said the audience for this catalog is predominantly art collectors; however,
there are also collectors of materials related to Estes Park that also have an interest in the book.
The museum’s vision for processing the collection is to keep all of it intact, even though my
preliminary scan indicated that there are duplicate photocopies of some letters, newspaper
clippings, etc. The director feels like the museum has enough space for everything, and that he
plans to keep it in storage to be retrieved for researchers if requested, rather than use it for
displays or exhibits in the future.
Step 1
Start with a preliminary inspection of the contents of each box. (I determined that all of the boxes
contained papers related to Crump’s research and compilation of the catalog. He appears to have been
meticulous and thorough, and I was able to sort the boxes chronologically after determining his
organization scheme.)
Box 1- Background research: genealogy, residence, exhibits, newspaper clippings, photo prints,
negatives, letters requesting samples of art from collectors & museums
Box 2 & 3 -Drafts of sections of the book & descriptions and copies of each piece of art in catalog
Box 4 -Correspondence related to publishing, slides and presentations
Box 5-Electronic records (CD‟s, floppy discs, zip drives, negatives, VHS tapes
Box 6 -Posters
Step 2
Make a folder list for each box. I began by creating a list of the names Crump used as folder titles,
and jotting down general notes about the folder’s contents. I also started to remove paper clips and
unfold documents. However, part way through the first box, I realized that this was not the best way
to approach the task. Item details and rehousing need to happen at a later stage.
Step 2 (cont.)
In creating folder lists, I focused on creating a simple list of all the folder titles in an Excel
spreadsheet. I chose to create this list electronically since it will have to be retyped later anyway,
and so the records can be more readily exported into the museum’s PastPerfect database for
accessioning. By the end of the day, I had only made it through two boxes, though Nancy came
back with her computer and we looked at the contents of the CDs and zip discs. Technology issues
big time!
I wasn’t able to view the majority of the files because they were created on a Mac and I use a PC.
Even on Nancy’s Mac, we were not able to open files that were created in early versions of Apple
word processing software. Fortunately, Crump also saved hard copies of all of his computer files,
so no information will be lost. Since there are tangible copies, we decided that the discs only need
to be described by the labels that Crump put on them—not down to the file or document level.
Other challenges - The PDF’s that are saved on the zip discs with the master files for the book will
be difficult to manipulate because they are written line by line in a font that no longer exists.
Likewise, there is such a large volume of files, many of which are duplicated on other discs, that it
would take a lifetime to sort through it all and determine what information to keep and what is
redundant. One of the challenges of working with digital formats is that there is no way to capture
the hierarchy of a collection like you can with tangible objects. When you have a physical box,
containing folders and papers, it is easy to go through the contents and make a connection between
items and determine relationships. With electronic files, it is like falling down the rabbit hole…it
is easy to get buried and have to back track to get your bearings!
Step 2 - Example of Folder List
The entire Crump/Byxbe collection contains 693 folders
Step 3
Make item level lists for each folder.
Step 3 (cont.)
In a museum each piece (even sticky notes) should be counted separately. For this project, it isn’t as
critical that the count be precise, as this collection will be accessioned at the folder level and the item
lists will simply serve as a description for each folder. Because of this, I am struggling to decide how
detailed my descriptions should be.
Examples:
Create a line-item for each letter, or just enter ‘correspondence’ followed by the number of pieces?
Include the date on letters, and who they are from or to?
Invoices – Date and what for?
Photographs – B&W or color? Include subjects?
Business cards – Name of business?
Do I create the item list as each item appears in order, or can I create keywords and get a count
for the whole folder?
Ultimately the goal is to find the greatest level of detail you have time for. By creating at least semidetailed records, you make sure that you will be able to find items again, and will be able to retrieve
data when doing a database search. Also, to some extent, you have to anticipate future uses and
predict what descriptive information will be most helpful for users.
Potential users:
local historian, art historians, art collectors, biographers, family genealogiests
Potential stories told by the collection:
Byxbe’s life and works, Crump as researcher, Crump as collector (collecting as obsession or detective
work?), Crump as an author (what goes into the writing and publishing of a book), survey of the
transition to electronic research methods, correspondence, computer word processing, etc.,
Step 3 - Example of Item List
The number of items uniquely listed (not including individual count for pages per item)
for boxes 1-6 totals over 2500.
Step 4
Rehouse in archival folders, remove paperclips, etc. Put loose photographs and negatives into archival
protector sheets. Label folders with name and accession number.
Many of the photo reproductions in Crump’s
collection were received from galleries and
museums, I am guessing this is why a number
of the photographs are already housed in
archival quality photo sheets. However, photo
sheets that are not clearly marked as being
archival quality, must be discarded. Due to
budgetary contraints, we will not be able to
purchase new photo sheets, but will instead
leave the photographs loose in their folders and
separate them with archival paper.
Additional preservation tips:
• If there are large newspapers, etc. that must be
stored separately, original order is maintained
by putting a note in the file where the object
should be, indicating its alternate location (ex:
map case)
• Find out if there is special treatment for carbon
paper
• If an object is bound with a deteriorating
rubbers band, removal of which will cause
damage to the object, trim rubber band close to
the edges of the paper and leave it attached.
The deteriorating effect that staples can have
on historical documents is remarkable. I
found a few staples that had already rusted
and bonded with the paper, requiring that I
exercise great caution in its removal. This
spatula is a tool used by archivist and
curators to remove staples without incurring
additional damage to the paper. One end is
used to pry back the back two clasps of the
staple, followed by using the other end to
remove the staple from the front side.
Paper clips and clamps must also be removed
from paper to prevent future rusting. There
were numerous signs of rust transfer on pages
in this collection, indicating that deterioration
can occur in less than twenty years in the
right conditions. I was instructed to keep all
of the paperclips I removed from folders to
put in a bag and keep with the collection.
This is because even the paperclips tell part of
the story or provide information about the
creator, his time, etc.
Duplications: How do you decide when to keep duplications in a collection and when to discard
them? For example, in the Crump/Byxbe collection, there may be 13 copies in a folder of the same
museum newsletter, or 8 photocopies of the same image. Why keep them all?
If you have the space, you should keep them all because duplicate items in a collection of this tpe
may say something important about its creator. For example, there may be copies of images that
vary only slightly in size. However, Crump may have created these various sizes for a reason when
he was working on compiling the manuscript of his book. Likewise, he likely kept duplicates of
exhibit brochures for a reason…maybe they were the last of their kind, maybe he kept them in case
he needed to cut clippings from them…we will never know for sure, but they should be retained in
case this information is ever needed.
Quality Control
The museum does not have an accessioning template or forms, and therefore uses no controlled vocabulary when
creating descriptions. Therefore, standardized descriptions. There are always variations from one curator to the
next and how things are entered into the database. This makes it difficult when conducting a search or running
query– one must enter every variation of words that someone could have possibly used at some point in time.
The museum would greatly benefit from a full-time collections curator who would create and implement consistent
standards, conduct a thorough inventory and clean up inconsistent records, and organize the storage room so items
can be found
There’s no point in keeping things
just to keep them…if objects aren’t
accessible, they’re not doing any
good. Derek expressed frustration
with the storage room because it
often takes his 2-3 hours to find
everything for a new exhibit because
he has to check every shelf before he
finds what he’s looking for. I also
overheard a conversation between
Alicia and Derek about needing to
get through last year’s backlog so all
of 2009 accessions are entered into
Past Perfect for an upcoming report.
Alicia explained how challenging it
is to assign a location to new objects
because it’s not clear where things
should go.
Reflection on processing a collection of personal papers
To what extent to you internalize the habits, thoughts, etc. of the person who you are doing research
about, or whose collection you are processing? I have found myself starting to make inferences
about why and how Crump did his work, as well as what he valued and what his motivations were. I
also found myself thinking about searching eBay for Byxbe works that just maybe weren’t included
in the Catalogue Raisonne. As I sort through the auction sheets that Crump saved, I find myself
getting excited to find out if he wins the bid, or how much the items go for. I find myself inspecting
images that other collectors sent to Crump, scrutinizing them to find the small variations that make
them unique and therefore worthy of inclusion in the Catalogue’s addendum. I am curious what it
felt like for Crump to be confronted by collectors after he dedicated 14 years to the project, only to
find out that it wasn’t complete? I wonder if the motivations that triggered his project remained
constant throughout the process or if they changed at all? How have my own ideas and feelings about
Crump and Byxbe changed since Monday? How will my own processes involving record keeping
change after seeing how meticulous Crump was? How are archivists changed by the stories that they
come to know so intimately? How do archivists maintain neutrality when making decisions about a
collection that they feel they have grown to know so well, understanding that it may be used for
different reasons in the future, and inspire different conclusions among future researchers?
“In preparing this catalog the author has made certain assumptions and has come to what he
trusts are reasoned conclusions concerning edition sizes, dates, states and other questions.”
.
-Crump, Catalog Raisonne (2002)