Dartmouth College Library
Collection Management & Development Program
Collection Development Policy
ARCHIVES: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE HISTORY
- COLLECTION AREA
- GENERAL PURPOSE
- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PROGRAM
- GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES
- LANGUAGES
- GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
- TYPES OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS
- OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE
- DETAILED SUBJECT AREAS
- CROSS-REFERENCE
- COLLECTING INTENSITY
- CREATION DATE
- REVISION DATE
- BIBLIOGRAPHER
Archives: Dartmouth College History (publications)
DC History, a major component of the Dartmouth College Archives, consists of materials by and about Dartmouth College, including the professional schools, affiliated centers, conferences, and properties.
In addition, publications relating to the town of Hanover and local area are collected as time and space allow. DC History originally served the needs of the College community, however a wide patronage is also received from the general public residing in the twin-state area, as well as nationally and internationally, through email, postal mail, facsimile transmission, and telephone service.
Other components of the Archives, having separate collection policy statements, are Archives (institutional records), Alumni Publications, Photographic Records, Theses and Dissertations, Local History, and Webster.
DC History is the most heavily used collection in Special Collections. DC History is used by undergraduates for course assignments as well as for their own curiosity. All areas of the College make use of the resources held in DC History. DC History is heavily used by the offices of the President, Treasurer, Provost, College Counsels, Deans, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, The Dartmouth, and Public Affairs. It is used by the Hopkins Center, Hood Museum of Art, FO&M, DOC, teaching departments, and the three professional schools. Use outside the Dartmouth community includes local and family history researchers, academic researchers, and others.
Any printed or published material by or about the College having enduring administrative, legal, fiscal, or historical value to the institution may be included in DC History. (Other recorded information forms are also accepted.) College policies, programs, publications, events, and people consitute the largest areas of DC History. Additionally, there are strengths in local history.
Past practices have created a local community expectation for the Archives to function as the local history repository. Neither the Hanover Historical Society nor the Howe Library collect local history material. The expectations were reinforced in 1988 when the Archives accepted municipal records on a deposit basis.
Biographies, genealogies, and town histories are housed in Baker main stacks as well as the Reference Room. Microtext houses local newspapers and census information on microfilm. The Map Room has local maps not duplicated in the College Archives. Film, audio and video tapes of College events and speakers are held by Instructional Services. The Records Center and other college departmental offices contain a wealth of administrative and academic information that is not a part of DC History, and inquiry of and referral to are made of these.
Language is in English, with only isolated titles in foreign and Native American languages.
Geographic bounds are chiefly lands belonging, leased, and rented to and by Dartmouth College, and the town of Hanover. Exceptions to this is inclusion of Norwich, Vermont, and other adjacent towns on a limited basis.
All types of College information are collected.
The bulk of these holdings are printed materials. However, all types of formats are collected: books, serials, pamphlets, photographs and other visual images, phonotapes and other audio recordings, film and other moving images, drawings, cartoons, engravings, clippings and other ephemera, broadsides, posters, realia, maps, scores, essays, and architectural drawings.
Generally, a preference is given to eye-legible formats. Microform, motion picture films, numismatics, and philately generally are not collected.
Archives (institutional records) provide additional context for DC History holdings. Related bodies of personal papers are overseen by the Curator of Manuscripts. The Curator of Rare Books has responsibility for certain Hanover imprints, Book Arts imprints, and some overlapping Outdoor Programs items in the White Mountains Collection.
Administrative and academic offices hold their current publications and reports. The Records Center holds offices' inactive material. Queries received relating to the immediate Connecticut Valley towns and their inhabitants are often referred to other institutions and persons such as the New Hampshire and Vermont Historical Societies, New-England Historic Genealogical Society, town historical societies, town libraries, museums, town clerks, etc.
Reports and other documents issued by College committees, offices, and officials which have enduring administrative, legal, fiscal, and historical value to the College are the basis of the collection. Identifying the enduring value is done within the context of archival appraisal, existing holdings, and information provided by the creating offices.
Examples of College materials collected are:
- Annual reports of administrative and academic offices, and of student organizations
- Architectural plans
- Class newsletters, reports, and alumni office publications
- Clippings, menus, dance cards, obituaries, tickets, announcements, and other
- ephemera documenting student life
- Course catalogs and bulletins
- Exhibition catalogs
- Faculty committee minutes and reports
- Financial reports
- Histories
- Maps
- Newsletters of the administrative and academic departments, and of student organizations
- Posters and broadsides of College sponsored events
- Photo albums, and memorabilia books
- Sports publications, including athletic events programs
- Staff and student directories
- Student, faculty, and personnel handbooks
- Student publications, such as course critiques, literary and humor magazines,
- newspapers, organizations' newsletters, and yearbooks
- Syllabi, examinations
- Symposia and professional meetings proceedings
Examples of Hanover materials collected are:
- Account books
- Cemetery records
- Church bulletins and newsletters
- Hanover businesses publications
- Hanover imprints
- Hanover High School publications
- Histories, biographies, and genealogies
- Maps
- Municipal records
- Photographs
- Town and school reports
Related policies include: Archives: Local Records; Education; Genealogy
Existing strength of the collection: 4
Actual current level of collecting activities: 4
Desirable level of collecting to meet program need: 5
There is a distressing campus trend. With fee-for-service being instituted, more campus offices are charging for their products. There is no mandate for the offices or organizations to provide the Archives with copies of their publications, reports, or other historical documents. If the trend of offices charging for the record continues, the acquisitions budget will need to be reviewed and allocations made for purchase of College documentation.
November 19, 1986, Kenneth C. Cramer
March, 1998
Anne Ostendarp
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Last updated January 28, 1999 by: CMDC@Dartmouth.Edu (jdh)