Month: September 2017

So, I’ve been working on the same piece for a while now (the Chaffey Letters from the Ontario City Library that I mentioned in my last blog post) and I’ve been thinking about the work we do by digitizing these documents. The Chaffey Letters are composed of very thin and fragile paper that over time have begun to rip and degrade. As you can see in the picture, the paper has ripped in the sections that were written with ink. The ink was perhaps a very potent and thick ink because it has smudged heavily, making the beautiful handwriting a bit unreadable, but it is also the only parts on the paper that have ripped (it makes for quite an interesting image, aesthetically).

Some of the only words I have been able to distinguish have been the sign off of almost each letter: “Yours Truly, Chaffey” the last word I cannot completely distinguish. I, personally, think it looks as though it says “bro” but considering these are documents from The Ontario Colony Land Company I think I might be just a little off (just a little).

To continue what I first said, I have been thinking about what digitizing does for sources like these and people who access them.

Without the work of the CLIRWater project and those alike, the fast-paced modern world we live in would leave in the dust documents such as these. It may seem a bit sad or odd to think that so many individuals do not access physical sources like these, but expect their presence online. I like to believe that it is a sort of compromise. We allow the people of the ever so quick internet to access hand-written, historical, archival, beautiful documents that have come to shape today, but also we are giving new life to documents that are in many ways, dying. Although many are preserved and treated properly so as to assure that these documents stay intact and useful for year and years to come, they do not have the longevity as physical pieces in comparison to these documents as sources on the net (the internet). It is sort of resurrection. These very documents in specific have affected the very area we students, employees, workers, etc. are in. Seems a bit corny, but it does shed light on the special-ness of these documents and the importance to keep them around and accessible.

Hello!

My name is Marissa Hicks-Alcaraz and I’m the final fellow
assigned to the CLIR CCEPS water archival project for the Fall semester. I
thought I’d begin my first entry by briefly introducing myself and my interest
in the project.

I’m a second-year PhD student in Claremont Graduate
University’s Cultural Studies program with a focus on the representation of Chicanx/Latinx
cultural identity in film and moving image art, as well as its curation by
cultural institutions such as film festivals, cinematecs, and museums. I’m also
the Programming Director at the Latin American Cinemeteca of Los Angeles, and teach
undergraduate courses on Chicanx/Latinx and Middle Eastern cinemas at Cal Poly,
Pomona in the Ethnic and Women’s Studies Department as an adjunct lecturer.

What initially attracted me to the CLIR project was an
opportunity to learn about the collaborative process among various Southern
California libraries to digitize a mass collection of archival materials. I’m
currently working on a grant to obtain funding for a similar project that would
digitize materials across various personal and library collections in Southern California
related to Chicanx film and filmmaking. A week in and I’ve already gained a lot
of valuable insights regarding this process, such as the kind of equipment used
to digitize archival material and the resources needed to execute such a large
project.

I’ve also come upon some unexpected surprises as well. While
reading through the beautifully handwritten notes (nearly a lost art in the 21^st
century as suggested by Alfonso in his last entry) within a minutes log book
from a meeting of the board of directors of the Etiwanda Water Company held in October
1890, I was surprised to come across some juicy drama. While the entry was vague
on details, it described what was referred to as a “grave and unprovoked assault”
(fist fight perhaps?) committed by a father and son team against the board’s Secretary
of the Treasury, and also the author of the minutes log book. The board
resolved to “take action thereon to vindicate its own respectability as well as
to protect its officers in the discharge of their duties.” It’s fascinating to
see how the motivations for taking the issue to court was just as much about
defending the company’s honor as it was about defending its officer…

I’m looking forward to filling you in on more water drama in
the coming weeks!   

This week I thought I’d talk to you about paper preservation.
Paper is only one possible medium found in an archive. Some others include
electronic files, discs, tapes, photograph negatives, and more. However, when
most people imagine an archive they picture paper and in the case of the
California Water Documents, they would be correct. We are surrounded by paper
here, and our job is to preserve and digitize these paper documents so that
this archive is available to researchers. The preservation of paper is key and I
am going to share some FUN FACTS about paper preservation that are important to
keep in mind when you are considering archives.

The first fact is that paper is made up of organic material
that will degrade and decompose over time. This might seem obvious since we
know that paper is made from trees, but it is a harsh reality to face when
considering the longevity of physical archives. It’s not all sad, however.
Chemical reactions that occur during the decomposition of paper are what
creates the “old book smell” that many people love.

The second fact is that acidity is important. Lignin, a naturally
occurring molecule in wood pulp, is acidic and is therefore corrosive over
time. Although today most paper is acid-free, this was not always the case. Documents
made before the dangers of lignin were recognized show clear signs of damage:
they become yellow, frail, and brittle faster than acid-free paper.

The last fact is that the methods of storing files are
important in not only organizing but preserving paper documents. Using
acid-free folders and other storage materials is of utmost importance as we
have now learned. Storing files in a clean, climate-controlled place is also
important. When working with archival documents, there may be things you can do
on a case-by-case basis to protect the collection. For example, unfold crumpled
pages, remove rusty staples or paper clips, and be sure to stay away from pens,
food, or drinks!

These are only a few things to keep in mind when working
with paper. These are precious documents full of history, we want to keep them
safe.

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Recently I was asked whether I enjoyed working with aesthetically pleasing documents or written text. Immediately, I began thinking of all the written text I’ve been working with. Most recently, we received pieces from the Ontario City Library. The written text I’ve been working with have been, possibly surprisingly, quite beautiful. As you can see in the picture below, some of the emblems or stamps on these documents have their own aesthetic value. 

Also, very aesthetically pleasing were the hand writing of the texts. Although I couldn’t read some of them, I could still admire the precision and beauty of the hand writing. It makes the piece seems very personal, despite being government or company related documents.

I guess my answer was that, with a lot of the written text I’ve worked with, I’ve found incredible aesthetic value. It makes scanning for five hours on end a whole lot more bearable.

This week I visited the Ontario City Library, one of our
project partners, to pick up some new materials for our CLIR CCEPS fellows to
scan. This field trip offered a nice break from document scanning. We are
working with the Ontario City Library, as well as several other libraries, to
digitize a massive number of documents pertaining to water resources in
California. The Ontario City Library’s collection, along with their expertise,
is vital for the project to succeed, and it was great to get to see the library
in person.

The Ontario City Library also has special collections, what
they call the Model Colony Collections. This odd name is actually a reference
to Ontario’s history as the city was often used as a model for emerging
settlements in the surrounding area. The Model Colony Collection is dedicated
to preserving and presenting the history of Ontario using books, photographs,
maps, and other archival material. While visiting the library I was able to
spend time with the librarians in the Model Colony History Room and see the impressive
scope of their collection.

As the librarian at the Ontario City Library reviewed with
us the different materials we were picking up this week, I was struck by the
breadth of information that our project is going to make readily available
online for researchers. Within these boxes, there were water and
land company stock certificates, water well data, letters, land grant deeds,
water pump reports, and more. All these discrete documents are puzzle pieces to
understanding historic water use in California, pieces that would be missing
from our project without the hard work and dedication of the Ontario City
Library.

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Hello all,

My name is Alfonso Casares, I am a second-year student at Pomona College, originally from Northern California.

Today marks the end of my second week here at Special Collections working with Southern California water documents. Perhaps because of my interest in History, it has been just a bit surreal working with all these documents. History is always described as the past but I think we often forget that History is both the past and the present (and as a matter of fact very much so the future!) and working with these texts has shown me that both figuratively and literally, history is right in front of me.

I’m currently working on digitizing a record of transactions for Bear Valley Irrigation Company, (from the late 1800s!!) that is pretty thick. I’m on my second day of scanning with this text and I am not 100% sure I’ll finish today. Perhaps because I’m new I’m a little slow. If so, I’m sure that’ll change soon.

Apart from that, I’m really excited for what’s to come as a CLIR CCEPS Fellow.
Talk to you soon!
-Alfonso

Hello all, 

This week I have been busy scanning documents as I settle
into my new position as a CLIR CCEPS Fellow. In particular, I have been scanning records
from the 1920s and 1930s. When you are working with documents that are 80 or 90
years old, the historical importance transcends the contents of the page. Whether
it is the paper quality, the ink, the typewriter impressions, or the
handwritten notes in the margins, there are more than words held within these
pages.

In particular, I have become transfixed by typography. Many
of the documents I am dealing with have unique and oftentimes artistic typography.
In some recently digitized pamphlets, the first letter of the first paragraph
is large and ornate, oddly reminiscent of the kinds of letters seen in old
bibles. The images below are just a few examples of the kinds of interesting
typography I have found in the process of scanning various documents.

Another typographical element of the documents that fascinates
me is the typewriter text. I have lived in an era of computers and printers.
Consequently, I have lived free of white out, crossed-out words, and
hand-corrected typos. These details,
when I come across them while perusing documents, give a sense of life to the
person who typed the words. There is a humanity and vulnerability seeing a
corrected mistake in someone’s work.

However, it is not just the typos within documents that remind
me that an individual or a group of individuals once worked with these same documents
many years ago. I often catch comments in the margins, aimless scribbles or
doodles on the backs of pages, or handwritten notes among the more formal
documents. Each handwritten addition adds personality to the creator of the
document and as I wait for the scanner to finish whirring or the file to save,
my mind wanders on the life this person lived 90 years ago.

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