How We Organise the Collection

We have been asked by another local Society to talk about how we organise our collection. So this is just some brief pointers.

We catalogue on InMagic v.10, with one database that includes everything. Numbers are issued from a single register, with blocks being set aside in the register for certain types of items, such as photographs.

Basically, the collection is divided roughly into:

Three dimensional objects (includes books that are not about the local area, and any photographs that are framed)

Photographs - only those on photographic paper - not photocopies

Digital Photographs - where they initially only exist on the hard drive of the computer

Manuscript Files

Archives

Maps

Local Books / Reference Library



Three dimensional objects

These items are either on display, or in storage. For those on display we use a numerical location code: 01.02 is the second wall on the left in the first room, when you walk in the front door. This is backed up with a map. 01a is fixture (eg glass cabinet) in the first room, according to the map.

The great majority of our items are in storage, in boxes. These are either SB001 etc, or LB001 etc. SB is a Storage Box, LB is a Little Box (eg for coins, medals etc). Items too large for the boxes are on the shelves in the shed, with a shelf bay number. Things to big to go on shelves are just in the back of the shed (03.03), and are pretty easy to find.

This photograph shows our objects storage boxes in the shed. We know they are not archivally perfect, but they are better off than they were. We will work towards better boxes. This shelf is now temporarily curtained, to allow a backdrop for the display in front of it.

You might notice small framed photographs in an open box on centre bottom shelf. This just gets a SB number, and we know where to find them. It does take a little bit of management to always get light boxes on top - single depth shelves would be better thoughout, but this also lets us store some larger items.



Photographs - only those on photographic paper - not photocopies

Photographs are divided into locations, and the sheets on which they are fixed have the number written on them in pencil. The Dargo photos, for example, start at P-DAR001, the next sheet is P-DAR002 etc. All localities have this three letter location, except Stratford, which is divided up again. P-STR-CHU003 is the third sheet in for Stratford Churches. If a photograph of the same church comes along after the first cataloguing, it goes in at P-STR-CGU003a etc.

Again - they get a Register Number when first catalogued, but are filed according to their location.

All these are in drop files, mounted on acid-free card, in appropriate clear covers, in filing cabinets.



Digital Photographs - where they initially only exist on the hard drive of the computer

They are given file names that correspond to their register number (yes, they are registered), and filed in the computer in that order. P03684VSFH.jpg is an example of the name of a Digital Photo. All our photographs of objects are named the same way, and it is important to have our four-letter identification code in there in case our material is ever filed in a database with others.

This not the digital copies of photographs that already exist in the collection, and have been copied.



Manuscript Files

Stratford already had an extensive Manuscript File when cataloguing started, with no organisation apart from a rough alphabetical series. There was also a "Miscellaneous File" for each letter of the alphabet.

The first thing we did was create one catalogue record in which we listed the name of all files, except the Miscellaneous ones. This means when we search the catalouge, we are immediately told there is, for example, a Wuillemin family file.

(Slight Digression Here: This form of cataloguing relies heavily on all family names and all place names appearing in the description field)

The next step was to catalogue each Miscellaneous File, one catalogue entry to each file, so we knew what was in each. This was a brief description of the contents, not a full listing of all names.

Some time in the future we need to start working through each of the named files, and describing the contents in them, giving each file its own catalogue record.



Archives

The Archives is a series of boxes in the shed. This is the Minute Books, cricket scores, shop day books, pasted newspaper clippings books etc etc - things too large to go in Manuscript Files. We created one catalogue record for the whole series, and roughly list the contents box by box (starting from AB001) in that. Although a few major items that have come in lately also have their own catalogue record. Some day each item in the boxes will have its own record.

This shows our Archives series, in the shed, with some framed items stored beside them. That spot in the shelves has a number designated to it (03.02.04). The boxes came to us from the Public Record Office, as we are a POD (Place of Deposit)



Maps

Maps are stored in the map drawers, and are not yet catalogued. We have rough-sorted them so the local ones are at the top of the top drawer. They may then get a Location Number like the photographs - only starting M-DAR001 etc



Local Books / Reference Library

We have roughly divided up our locations. We use books from the former Shire of Avon most, so that is one section. The next is "Rest of Wellington Shire", then there is "East Gippsland", "Rest of Gippsland" and "Gippsland General".

There is no sorting within these divisions, except small books with no spine go in Pamphlet Boxes (PB001), which also have their geographic area written on them.

The Catalogue location for each appears as "Bookshelf-Avon Shire" or "Bookshelf-PB001". No - the PBs are not in order.

This is our reference books (with some POD books from the Public Record Office top left), just after we moved back into the museum. It is now much fuller, with piles of items waiting to move on to their ultimate location. However newsletters will stay up on top, and the two top centre shelves remain as reference books.



The key to the whole system - have it written up on the wall somewhere what SB, PB, LB, AB, P- etc stand for.

It is also useful to have a list pasted up of what the Manuscript Files are, and what the Photograph areas are - especially as, for example, Perry Bridge photographs (P-PER) covers Ramahyuck and Strathfieldsaye.


It works for us - and the Maffra System is almost identical, except the Manuscript Files have been put together in a different way, and are just numbered from 1.

World War I Honour Rolls

Sonia Young from the Stratford RSL and Lee from the Statford Primary School have been doing exhaustive research in the Primary School Honour Roll. So we have been thinking a little about who is on the various Honour Rolls and Cenotaphs around the place. The one above is in the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, as is the one below.

You can see a larger version of the one above HERE.

Thanks to Sonia for providing both photographs.

Nicholas Family at War II

Lt Byron Nicholas was the second of the five Nicholas brothers to be lost at war. Bryon was a teacher at Gormandale East in 1912, and the two part-time schools at Carrajung South and Willung South in 1913. He enlisted on 10 March 1915 as a private and saw service at Gallipoli and in France, where he was promoted to officer rank and awarded the Military Cross on 5 April 1917. He was killed in action on 9 October 1917 in the attack on Daisy Wood.

Following the war, the Nicholas parents moved to Stratford, where John Nicholas was pharmacist until his death, aged 68, in 1924. He is buried in the Stratford Cemetery. A short time later his widow, Mary Ellen Nicholas, built the house that later became the Convent at Stratford, before selling it in 1926 and moving to Melbourne.

The only daughter of the family, Aileen, became Sister Ignatius at the Notre Dame de Sion Convent in Sale, until her death in 1949. The sketches of her brothers with other photographs and records were in the care of the Sion Sisters until the 1990s, when they were passed to the Stratford Historical Society.

The Nicholas Family at War

Stratford Historical Society has started research on its Nicholas Collection. In this photograph Hilda Rix and Major George Nicholas leave Buckingham Palace on 4 October 1916 after the presentation of his DSO. On 7 October they were married. On the following Monday he returned to service.

Major Nicholas was killed in action in France on November 14 1916.

George Nicholas (and four of his brothers) enlisted while his parents were living at Trafalgar in Gippsland.

Hilda Rix was a prominent artist, and following the death of her husband, painted many gloomy wartime photographs.

This is her sketch of her husband, two days after their wedding, as he left for the Front. Similar sketches of his brothers are also held, along with other material.

Interested in Small Museums?

Are you interested in small museums like Stratford, in Australia and New Zealand? I was reading a blog I will not name the other day, where a museum, with eleven staff, said it was small. Which set me to wondering, where do the totally-volunteer museums sit on the radar of professional museums. Obviously somewhere well out of sight.

So - if there are any other small Australasian museums out there, their friends or those who delight in visiting them - feel free to drop over to the Small Australasian Museums group on Flickr, and share your photographs. Like this one:

This is our book sales area. I have to admit I like zooming in on the detail in other museums, so I have loaded the full size HERE. It might be you might to look at our system of hanging cheap corkboards from $2 shops by fishing line to make quick temporary notice boards. Or using fishing line to hang stained craftwood (or MDF) to provide somewhere for labels under framed works. There is a picture rail above, out of sight, and we love our restored walls so much we don't want to stick anything to them.

So if there is anyone else out there that would like to give us a look inside their museum - please feel free to pop over to the Flickr link above, and join the group.

Mending and Making Do

We have been exercising our minds about "Mending and Making Do". The objects in our collection (and that we have available on loan), that show the practice of repairing items for further use. Such as these cups, currently on loan from a private collection:

These cups both have replacement handles, one of wire, one of metal (possibly a Fowlers Vacola clip in a previous life), to extend their life.

We have had a preliminary look at our items. We have a mended rug, a roughly mended chair, an apron made of hessian (but not an old sugar bag), but little else. We are on a mission to see what else we can find.

In the discussion, one thing led to another with the older members of the Society talking about the unavailability of any form of china during the Second World War - which led us to realise the importance of this overlooked cup, saucer and plate in the collection. Glass crockery was apparently all that was available to purchase new during part of the war. These settings are becoming rarer. We are fortunate to already have some in the collection, but are keeping our eyes peeled for more - examples of "making do".