The John Hay Library began organizing previously "hidden" collections of manuscripts and documents in January thanks to a $141,455 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, according to University Archivist Jennifer Betts.
The collections, which had been difficult to access because they were not digitally cataloged, include papers by Emily Dickinson's niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi, works by S.J. Perelman — who wrote screenplays for the Marx Brothers — papers by Charles Evans Hughes and pieces from a variety of literary papers and journals.
The grant will pay for a project archivist, two student assistants and a laptop, said Alexander Lorch, archives program officer at the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
The recently hired archivist will put the documents, which currently take up 6,500 linear feet of shelf space, into a digital cataloging system that will allow researchers to search for them and access them more easily, according to Lorch.
"Each application (for the grant) to NHPRC is reviewed by the corresponding State Historical Records Advisory Board, a panel of professional peer reviewers and the Commission staff," Lorch said. Based on these reviews, the NHPRC makes recommendations to the government on which projects should receive funding. The University received and accepted the grant in June 2010.
