Until March 2021, I only had a small selection of McCoy family history. It consisted mostly of ephemera kept in a carved wooden box and a green photobook my parents put together for me. The photobook holds photographs from throughout the decades with notes from my parents mentioning relatives' names and the year. The box holds ephemera such as a pearl necklace that my grandmother received when she was 5 years old and two pocket watches.
Image 1: A carved wooden box with two pocket watches, a large commemorative coin, a pearl necklace in the original Cartier box, and other boxes. Beside it, a photobook with two images and descriptions written beside them.
In March 2021, I drove from Colorado to my parents' house in southern Virginia. While staying, dad showed me the collection of old items he acquired over many years. The items were stored in various rubbermaid containers and old suitcases. We also ventured to a storage shed to sift through some of my Uncle Scott's possessions that were left behind after he passed in 2018. As we went through items, I sorted them into envelopes based on their location and their container. I kept everything in the same order I found it so as not to disrupt the original collector's timeline. Then we repackaged the items for the drive back to Colorado. Once home, I puzzled over how to best organize everything.
Enter preservation quality photo sleeves. In order to be considered "archival safe", products need to have a neutral pH, be acid-free, and PVC-free. Not just any photo sleeves will do. After some research, I ordered Samsill 4 pocket sleeves, 2 pocket sleeves, and full size sheet protectors. I also ordered Samsill Earth's Choice binders to hold the sleeves and separate different collections.
Image 2 - Teal binder with different pocket dimension sleeves spread across it.
The real task began during summer break 2021. I started with the first packaged envelope and ordered all the photographs and items across the dining room table. Utilizing a never used makeup brush, I removed any dust that had collected. Then I placed the items in the sleeves, maintaining original order, and secured in the binder. I used sheets of paper to separate items found in different locations, writing the name of the collection and where I had found it as well as the estimated dates of the materials.
The items began to sort into natural collections. The Vintage McCoy Collection sprouted from several different envelopes - those found in a ziploc bag ranging from 1869-1936, those found in a tattered envelope from 1912-1923, and those found in an existing family photo binder in disarray from 1920-1940. The Scott McCoy Collection formed based on the items discovered in Uncle Scott's unsorted possessions. A small collection came from items collected by my grandmother after the birth of her first son, my father, in 1948.
Thus far, I've sifted through the very old photographs (1869-1940) as they were top priority to physically preserve and protect. I also made it through 3/4 of the Jean Shepherd Collection, which is the largest collection at 447 photographs, 7 letters, 2 postcards, and 1 book from 1930-1957. While sorting through these photographs and materials, I began to recognize faces that will help me identify relatives in future steps.
The organization paused for school work in the Fall. Now it's paused while I work to digitize and create metadata for the Vintage McCoy Collection during winter break. But I'll tell you more about the scanning process in the next post: Stick it to the Scan.
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