Editing Historical Documents: A Handbook of Practice (American Association for State and Local History)

401 Pages·1997·100.886 MB·English

by  Michael E. Stevens, Steven B. Burg

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR STATE AND LOCAL
HISTORY BOOK SERIES
Series Editor
Bryant F. Tolles, Jr.
University of Delaware
Editorial Advisory Board
Robert R. Archibald, Missouri Historical Society
Lonnie G. Bunch, Smithsonian Institution
J. Kent Calder, Indiana Historical Society
Philip Cantelon, History Associates, Inc.
Debbie Kmetz, State Historical Society of Wisconsin
George F. MacDonald, Canadian Museum of Civilization
Philip V. Scarpino, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis
Constance B. Schulz, University of South Carolina
Lawrence J. Sommer, Nebraska State Historical Society
About the Series:
The American Association for State and Local History Book Series publishes
technical and professional information for those who practice and support
history, and addresses issues critical to the field of state and local history. To
submit a proposal or manuscript to the series, please request proposal
guidelines from AASLH headquarters: AASLH Book Series, 530 Church
Street, Suite 600, Nashville, Tennessee 37219. Telephone: [phone].
Fax: [phone].
About the Organization:
The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) is a
nonprofit educational organization dedicated to advancing knowledge,
understanding, and appreciation of local history in the United States and
Canada. In addition to sponsorship of this book series, the association
publishes the periodical HISTORY NEWS, a newsletter, technical leaflets
and reports, and other materials; confers prizes and awards in recognition of
outstanding achievement in the field; and supports a broad educational
program and other activities designed to help members work more
effectively. Current members are entitled to discounts on AASLH Series
books. To join the organization, contact: Membership Director, AASLH, 530
Church Street, Suite 600, Nashville, Tennessee 37219.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stevens, Michael E.
Editing historical documents: a handbook of practice / by Michael E.
Stevens and Steven B. Burg
p. cm.—(American Association for State and Local History book series)
Published in cooperation with the American Association for State and
Local History, the Association for Documentary Editing, and the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
9780759117532
1. Editing—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Manuscripts—Editing—Handbooks,
manuals, etc. 3. History—Sources—Publishing—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I.
Stevens, Michael E. II. American Association for State and Local History. III.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin. IV Title. V Series.
PN162.B79 1997
808’.027—dc21
97-21155
CIP
Cover Design by Joanna Ebenstein
Table of Contents
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR STATE AND LOCAL HISTORY
BOOK SERIES
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Authors
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One - What, Why, How, and for Whom?
Chapter Two - Selection and Arrangement of Documents
Chapter Three - General Principles of Transcription and Proofreading
Chapter Four - Transcription: Types of Sources
Chapter Five - Presenting the Text
Chapter Six - Principles of Annotation
Chapter Seven - Forms of Annotation
Chapter Eight - Special Issues of Access and Indexing
Chapter Nine - Front and Back Matter
Bibliography and Short Titles
Permissions
Index
About the Authors
MICHAEL E. STEVENS is State Historian at the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin and holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-
Madison. He is the former director of publications at the South Carolina
Department of Archives and History and has edited ten volumes of historical
documents, including The State Records of South Carolina series, the Voices
of the Wisconsin Past series, The Family Letters of Victor and Meta Berger,
1894-1929, and As If It Were Glory: Robert Beecham’s Civil War, from the
Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments.
STEVEN B. BURG holds degrees from Colgate University and the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he is a doctoral candidate in United
States history. He currently is an editor at the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, where he is working on the Voices of the Wisconsin Past series.
Preface
The publication of historical documents has a long and venerable tradition in
the United States. In 1792 the Massachusetts Historical Society became the
first state historical organization to publish historical documents when it
issued the initial volume of its venerable Collections series. Since that time,
scholars, historical societies, and interested individuals have increasingly
made the record of our past more accessible through their efforts. The past
half century in particular has seen a flowering of historical editing in which
some of the most essential records of our nation’s past have become more
widely accessible through the publication of modern editions. This handbook
of practice draws on the work of the past two generations of documentary
editors and provides guidance for anyone planning to publish historical
documents in a book edition, magazine article, pamphlet, or microform, or on
CD-ROM or the World Wide Web.
Although historical editors have produced a remarkable body of work, they
have been reticent about codifying their practices. Prior to the early 1980s,
prospective editors had relatively few sources to guide them as they began
their work, although Samuel Eliot Morison provided ten pages on
documentary editing in Oscar Handlin et al., Harvard Guide to American
History (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1954), and Clarence Carter, in his 1952 Historical Editing (Bulletin of the
National Archives, no. 7), offered a concise summary of the state of the art.
With the formation of the Association for Documentary Editing (ADE) in
November 1978, systematic literature on the methods of documentary editing
began to appear in greater quantity.
In recent years, those who sought guidance on how to edit historical
documents could follow one of several avenues. By 1984, the Newsletter of
the Association for Documentary Editing had evolved into Documentary
Editing, a quarterly that provided a venue for articles on editorial techniques
as well as lengthy reviews of editions that examined methodological issues.
Useful guidance could also be found in periodical literature outside of
Documentary Editing, and the publication of Beth Luey’s Editing Documents
and Texts: An Annotated Bibliography (Madison, Wis.: Madison House,
1990) brought together abstracts of the growing body of literature. Although
helpful, periodical literature, scattered in various locations, did not offer new
editors a unified summary of the current state of practice. The publication of
A Guide to Documentary Editing, by Mary-Jo Kline (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1987), helped remedy this problem by gathering
together advice for editors. The Guide grew out of a proposal made in Arthur
Link’s 1979 ADE presidential address, in which he called for a manual for
editors. Because of the varied approaches used, the manual evolved into a
guide, summarizing current editorial theory and raising important questions
for editors to consider. The Kline Guide helped editors steer clear of the
shoals of bad practice and will appear in a revised second edition in 1997.
While the Guide provided a superstructure, editors still find themselves
thumbing through already published documentary editions looking for
models to emulate. Whereas the Guide provides both theory and the rationale
for it, this handbook brings together samples of ways that editors have
resolved different problems. By examining these solutions, editors can see
both the range of choices and their practical implications. Some editors will
undoubtedly still delve further into particular editions that match their
concerns, but they can do so with the advantage of having seen various
techniques compiled in a way that permits easy comparison.
At its heart, documentary editing is a form of translation, converting
original documents into readable text. And like all good translation, it is part
craft and part art. The art cannot be taught, but the examples provided here
can teach the craft. Editors still must evaluate their documents, learn general
principles of documentary editing, and consider the needs of their audience
before beginning their projects, although they do not need to reinvent the