Progress Report on the Collection

During the last month or so, we have continued to clean and flatten the correspondence, which makes up a large portion of the materials in the Gresham family collection. Additionally, Gerri and I have determined a preliminary arrangement for these items and letters are being sorted accordingly. The letters are first being grouped by who received them. Within the larger grouping, we are then arranging them by sender. It should go without saying that the letters are also in chronological order, but I'm throwing that in just in case you think we've forgotten that step. We have also found, scattered among the correspondence, single locks of hair, dried flowers, and small photographs. While most of the letters are in good condition, we are also housing the more fragile ones into L-velopes (Mylar sleeves).

Thanks go to Mat for doing research on the Jones-Negley-Gresham family tree because it has helped us immensely in figuring out relationships between the correspondants, which will, in turn, assist us in determining the order of the family members in the arrangement.

This collection also contains some wonderful scrapbooks and photographs, and other papers such as receipts, school journals and newsclippings. We were pleasantly surprised to find that there were a dozen or so little ringlets in one box, but we haven't yet figured out who they once belonged to. We will consider the arrangement and preservation of these materials a little further down the road.

-Traci