Harry Thomas Gisborne Papers, 1899-1949

Custodial History

Harry Gisborne entrusted Charles A. Wellner of Moscow, Idaho, a fellow USDA Forest Service employee, with his personal correspondence and many of the drafts for his technical papers. Most of the field research documents, data sets, USDA Forest Service publications, and photographs were housed at the USDA Forest Service Northern Forest Fire Laboratory (now Rocky Mountain Research Station Fire Sciences Lab) in Missoula, Montana. Additional materials, including Forest Service newsletters, newspaper articles, and scrapbooks were obtained by Charles E. Hardy from the possessions of Gisborne friends and extended family. Mr. Hardy did not preserve detailed records from whom these materials were gained.

Acquisition Information

Gifts of multiple donors over several years including: Charles A. Wellner, 1977; USDA Forest Service, 1997; and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Tebbe, 1982.

Processing Note

The bulk of the collection was originally gathered, organized, and described by Charles E. Hardy, a research associate with the University of Montana School of Forestry and the Missoula research station jointly funded by the University and the USDA Forest Service. Original processing was completed in 1978. Hardy originally completed the collection as LC 98; additional materials were processed as LC 108, with some photographs processed to the item level in 1981. Many photographs were left unprocessed.

In 2003 the collection was significantly reprocessed to integrate additional materials, implement material preservation practices, and apply standardized organizational structures. Materials were extensively re-described in 2003. Archives staff also identified an extensive amount of Mike Hardy's own research material inserted into the Gisborne collection-often identifiable by dates subsequent to Gisborne's death. All materials relating to Mr. Hardy's personal research were extracted as a separate collection.

Materials in Series II, Correspondence, were originally located in several different contexts (such as placed with an article though lacking a clear and logical connection to the article and those received from different donors, thus exhibiting slightly different content descriptions). During 2003 correspondence not directly tied to an existing series item or within an identifiable sequence of exchanges were incorporated into "General Correspondence" files organized by date.

In applying series structure to the Gisborne collection, numerous items were removed from their original processing location to create a coherent and consistent subject structure. Primarily these actions involved moving published articles into separate series from Gisborne's writings. When processors encountered a published article directly attached to a document Gisborne wrote, these materials were retained in that context in reflection of Gisborne's organization of the material. However, in most instances it was clear that articles related to Gisborne's writings were inserted into his writing files (or placed in an immediately adjacent folder) by someone other than Harry Gisborne. In light of these circumstances, a decision was made to transfer such published materials to Series IV, Research Files, and VI, Writings of Others. Transfer of published materials included articles that could not be definitively identified as authored by Harry Gisborne, such as published USDA Forest Service documents without an attributed author or originating staff. During 2003 reprocessing these materials were placed within Series IV, Research Files.

Loose photographs encountered during file processing were transferred to Series VII and incorporated, as best as possible, into the existing photograph organizational structure. The photograph organization actions of the original processors are unknown. In 2003 a decision was made to maintain the original content structure as best as possible, with a few notable exceptions: (1) prints were removed from large group folders and placed within individual envelopes and/or folders for preservation purposes-the contents of former group folders were numbered in sequence to reflect original group arrangement; (2) duplicate prints found in multiple locations were placed within the same folder, separated by archival paper, and assigned the same photograph number; and (3) when possible, mounted photographs were separated from the mounting media for preservation purposes-if the mounting media contained contextual information, the media was retained in the same folder as the photograph and separated by a sheet of archival paper.

Materials in series VIII, photo albums and scrapbooks, received minimal reprocessing in 2003 as a reflection of delicate conditions and limited potential to enhance existing preservation measures. Some photographs originally located within these items became separated both prior to donation and during original archival processing. Most of these separated photographs were subsequently added to the general Gisborne photograph collection during original archival processing. In 2003 a small portion of these photographs were returned to the originating photo album-only when the provenance could be definitively established.