1. Archival Processing at the South
Street Seaport Library
Roger Yerburgh
LIS 698 Seminar and Practicum
Spring 2012

2. The South Street Seaport Library
History
• Founded in Late 1960’s
• Mission and collection policy changed many times
through its history
• Library run by marine historian and interns until 2004
• Museum of the City of New York took over Museum
and Library (18 Month contract) in 2010
• Carol Clarke and Anne DiFabio hired as Project
Archivist and Assistant Archivist to inventory and
establish intellectual control over collection (First
trained archivists/librarians to work in the Library)

3. The Collection (General Inventory in
Progress)
• 32,000 Ship Plans
• Several Thousand Photographs, Negatives, and
Slides
• Manuscript Collection-80 Linear Feet
• 2,000 Reference Books
• Several hundred boxes of institutional archives
• Many thousand periodicals
• And Much More (many odds and ends, the result
of not having a clear collection policy)

4. The Project: Processing The Charles
Lawesson Collection
• Charles Lawesson New York Area Maritime
Historian and Author
• “The New York Built Marine Engine”
• “Williamsburgh and Its Ferries”
• 13 Linear Feet, mostly Maritime History
Research Materials
• Mixed Materials from 1939-2010:
Manuscripts, articles, photocopies, images, shi
p plans, ephemera etc.

5. Challenges
• Preservation Issues/Treatment
• Establishing Provenance of Materials
• Finding “Original Order” in mixed up
materials
• Recognizing Research Areas, trying to think
like Charles Lawesson

6. The Series
• I. Personal
• II. Research
• III. World’s Fair
• IV. Oversized
• V. Photo Collection

7. II. Research Subseries
• Subseries A: Williamsburgh Ferry/New York Ferry History
• Subseries B: New York Built Marine Steam Engine/Steam Engine
History
• Subseries C: Ship Building, including: Ship Building, Ship
Design, Dry Docks, Ship Launching and Brooklyn Navy Yard
• Subseries D: Steam Ships, including Steam Ship Lines, Steam Ship
Lists, Steam Ship Images
• Subseries E: Ships (General), including Cruise and Shipping
Lines, Clipper Ships
• Subseries F: New York Area Maps, Atlases, and Directories
• Subseries G: Industrial History, including Iron Forging, Steel
Working, Coal and Fuel, transportation, and Mechanical Terms
• Subseries H: Illustrations and Drawings
• Subseries I: Miscellaneous and General History

8. The Processed Charles Lawesson
Collection and Finding Aid
• 11.5 Linear Feet
• 431 Folders
• 25 Page Finding Aid