Treasure Chest Thursday - The Time Capsule - First Steps

I don't know about you but boxes, or in this case suitcases, of really cool old things tend to get me very excited.  Kind of like a little kid on Christmas Day.  I want to know what's in it now.  When presented with the Time Capsule (you can read about it here) I did take a deep breath. I was going to try and do it right.

My hands were washed; I had the digital camera handy.  As we went through the suitcase, layer by layer, I took a picture of each layer before removing the items.  Since I was going to have to put it all back, I wanted to keep the contents in order for now.

After going through the "Time Capsule," not only had my initial curiosity been satisfied but I was able to get a general understanding of this particular collection.  The next step was to write a short description including how I know that these were Frances Lowe's things, when and where they were found and how they came to be in my possession.  The book, Organizing Archival Records, A Practical Method of Arrangement and Description for Small Archives, by David W. Carmichael, has some good forms for this activity.

On Saturday, I will begin going through Frances' Time Capsule, layer by layer, describing what I found and how I will catalogue and store this collection.

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum