Alphabetization

Folders are alphabetized according to the American Library Association Filing Rules (Chicago: American Library Association, 1980).

Capitalization and punctuation

Titles are capitalized and punctuated according to the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed., rev. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1998). Note that because the Museum’s finding aids are generated from a database, it is not possible to italicize or underline text. As such, titles of published works typically appear as plain text while titles of works of art appear in double quotes. Brackets indicate that the information therein was supplied by the archivist.

Dates

Dates supplied by the archivist appear in brackets. Uncertain dates are followed by a question mark. Circa dates (“ca.”) imply a date within five years of the approximate date given. For example, ca. 1910 implies that the material dates from 1905–1915.

MARC records

Collection-level MARC records generally adhere to the cataloging rules specified in Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1989).

Online finding aids

Finding aids are compliant with the Encoded Archival Description Document Type Definition (EAD DTD), version 2002, and with RLG Recommended Application Guidelines for EAD, version 1.

Personal and corporate names

Names of individuals and corporate bodies are verified whenever possible using the Library of Congress’s Name Authority File, available at http://authorities.loc.gov. Note the Library of Congress and its participating partners do not update all authority records with death dates.