"A Manual of Archive Administration, Including the Problems of War Archives and Archive Making"Sir Hilary Jenkinson
A digital version of the 1922 edition of
"A Manual of Archive Administration, Including the Problems of War Archives and Archive Making", by Sir Hilary Jenkinson, is available courtesy of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
This is perhaps the most famous work produced by British archivist and theorist Jenkinson, who speaks with great passion about many concerns that continue to reverberate today in the worldwide archival community. The book is divided into five parts:
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Part I defines archives, discusses their nature and quality, and the standardization of methods respecting them, and summarizes the purpose of the book.
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Part II treats the origin and development of archives and the rules for archive keeping—their evolution with respect to division and differentiation; their transmission with respect to questions of custody and administration; the functions of an archivist; archives as contrasted to with manuscripts in museums and libraries; the physical and moral defense of archives, their housing, care, and repair; principles for classification of archives; preparation of guides, indexes and printed texts.
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Part III is concerned with problems arising in the selection and destruction of “modern archives.”
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Part IV on “archive making,” discusses materials, administrative functions such as preservation, accessioning, use of a register, limitation of use, and organization of staff.
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Part V addresses World War I archives, such as questions of selection and ideas for their collection and arrangement.
In addition, there are six appendices, one of which outlines a scheme for “bibliography of archival science” and another of which provides “rules for an archive repairing department.”
New York State Historian Victor Hugo Paltsits, in a review of Jenkinson’s book in the American Historical Review (April 1923), wrote: “Such a work in English has been a need and the American archivist could set himself no more useful undertaking than the making of an intimate summary of this volume, in all matters that are applicable and adjustable to the nature of American archives; and he could enhance the value of his archives by introducing the first principles into his administration of them.”
For your FREE download of this archival classic:
http://www.archive.orgPublisher: Oxford: The Clarendon Press (1922)
284 pp.
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