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Archives and Special Collections: Donating Archive Material

Donating Archival Material

Unitarian Universalist history and identity guides Meadville Lombard’s extensive archival and scholarly expertise, such that our policies—from acquisitions to cataloging to digitization—all act to serve scholars and the larger UU community. One of the most vital ways we do this is through our acquisitions policy.
 
Our acquisitions policy both looks into the past and thinks about the future of Unitarian Universalism. We look into the past to recover historical materials of significance to liberal religion, Unitarianism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism. We also think about the future by working with other UU organizations to facilitate the preservation of history currently being made every day.
 
While looking into the past and thinking about the future, we are always acutely aware of the need to lift up and bring into the historical record all of the diversity present within our movement, with particular attention to those who often go unrecognized or underrepresented.
 
We are looking to collect...
  • Papers of individuals and families
  • Records of congregations and organizations
  • Accumulation of historical material pertaining to a single event, theme, or movement
  • Historically and culturally significant manuscripts and artifacts
To best serve scholars and the larger UU community, all possible acquisitions materials undergo rigorous inspection. All acquisitions must be generated by individuals and organizations historically and culturally important to liberal religion, Unitarianism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism. 
 
When inspecting a collection we also consider the condition of the materials and expenses related to their shipping and storage. After we receive a collection, we remove materials lacking in historical and cultural significance so that we can maximize the accessibility of the collection.
 
Because our goal is to make history accessible, we will only acquire materials if we are given sole ownership. While we prefer to receive materials without access restrictions, we will allow materials to have reasonable access restrictions if required by the donor.
 
If you are interested in donating materials to the Meadville Lombard Archives and Special Collections, please contact an archivist.

Donation Checklist

If you are making an archival donation, please follow this checklist:

  1. Contact an archivist to discuss the possible donation via a Zoom appointment or else via email.  Before your meeting, you are recommended to prepare the following information:
    • What sort of materials are you interested in donating?  Who is the creator and what is the format?
    • Are these original materials or published materials?
    • How much material are you interested in donating (ideally in number of linear feet or banker's boxes, or, for electronic files, in KB/MB/GB/TB etc.)?
    • Who owns the rights to these materials?
    • In what condition are these materials?
    • What are the materials' relationship to Unitarian Universalism?
    • Is there anything special we should know about these materials?
  2. In your talks with the archivist, you will discuss, amongst other issues, the parameters of the ownership of the donation, and you will be provided with different deed of gift options. In consultation with the archivist, you must choose, sign, and return a deed of gift form.
  3. Unless the creator of the works to be donated already has the materials organized in a way that is particularly meaningful to them, you are encouraged to sort the materials you intend to donate before sending them.  Taking these steps will greatly increase the speed and accuracy in which the materials can be sorted, processed, and made accessible:
    • Try to group like materials together into categories (for example, sermons, correspondences, papers related to congregational service, etc.)
    • Within these categories, try organizing the materials in a way that makes sense (i.e., chronologically, alphabetically, by recipient, etc.)
    • If possible, please include an inventory or manifest of the materials to be donated in as much detail as possible
    • If submitting electronic files, make sure you name the files using a regularized naming strategy that helps inform others what the files contain
    • If the archivist instructs you to remove any sort of materials from the collection, please do so.
  4. Unless the archivist instructed you otherwise, do not send any materials that are infected with mold or pests.
  5. If sending physical materials, the archivist will provide you with a mailing address.  Please contact the archivist when you have shipped the materials with a tracking number and an explanation of how many boxes to expect.  DO NOT SEND AN ARCHIVAL DONATION BEFORE FIRST CONSULTING WITH AN ARCHIVIST.

Ask an Archivist

If you have any questions about the Meadville Lombard Archives and Special Collections, just ask!

We can help with...

  • Scheduling an archive visit
  • Accessing archival materials
  • Using our digital archive tools
  • Answering reference questions
  • Scanning selections of documents
  • Donating archival material to Meadville Lombard
  • Creating archives at your local congregation

Meadville Lombard Wiggin Library
180 N. Wabash Ave.
Suite 625 
Chicago, IL 60601


Library and Archives Phone: 312-546-6488        Library Email: library@meadville.edu        Archives Email: archives@meadville.edu