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| 2018.0054 [CONTROL RECORDS] |
| Date Range of Records: |
1996-2018 |
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The Germaine Greer Archive has been made available due to its historical and research importance. Statements which form part of the collection are not made on behalf of the University and do not represent the University’s views. It contains material that some researchers might find confronting. This includes: explicit language and images that reflect either the attitudes of the era in which the material was originally published or the views of the creators of the material but may not be considered appropriate today; names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in published and unpublished printed material, audio recordings and photographs; graphic descriptions of medical conditions and treatment.
This series contains lists, inventories and control records relating to the Germaine Greer archive compiled by various individuals from 1996 to 2014. The series is artificial in the sense that none of these records were collocated and were created by various parties, including archivists at University of Melbourne Archives (UMA). These documents trace the growth of the archive over time and the ways in which different individuals have understood and approached elements of it. Attempts to describe and quantify the Greer Archive are also intrinsically linked with the sale and transfer of custody of the archive. Control records created by Greer and staff were created to market the Archive to prospective buyers and assess gaps in the collection. The work of UMA archivists following the Archive’s sale and transfer focused on describing the contents of the archive to support access for researchers.
It appears that Greer first made a concerted effort to sell the archive in the mid 1990s. In 1996 Anne Scott (partner of friend and colleague Jonathan Scott) was employed by Greer to document the amount of correspondence in the archive. In each correspondence file documents were categorised and counted by year, format and whether a reply was sent. This project filled four large notebooks with tally marks. In 2009 it appears that the work was recommenced. This project was obviously not undertaken to improve access or searchability for this part of the archive. The names of files are documented and the quantity of contents, however little attention is given to the identity of correspondents (except where significant), the dates of correspondence or the matters discussed. The final figure of Scott’s tally was 20404 items of correspondence, a figure which is alluded to in a document titled The Greer Archive located in Major Works 2014.0045.00603. Here, Greer notes ‘The archive is useful not only as a guide to feminist thought, but, because of the 20,000 letters etc. from the general public, to the evolution of social attitudes in the latter half of the century‘.
Greer created her own inventory of the archive in 1997, incorporating some of the work from the above project. This inventory is arranged by year, then physical location or drawer. Drawers are labelled Author drawer (now 2014.00444 Early Years Academic, Performance, Writing And Personal Papers and 2014.0045 Major Works), Academic drawer (also 2014.00444 Early Years Academic, Performance, Writing And Personal Papers and 2014.0045 Major Works), Journalism drawer (now 2014.0046 Print Journalism), Television drawer (now 2017.0002 Television) Correspondence drawer (now 2014.0042 General Correspondence), Radio drawer (now 2017.0011 Radio), Speaking drawer (2017.0009 Speaking). This catalogue only refers to parts of the archive and does not include digital media, audio visual media and photographs and only mentions highlights from the General Correspondence series. This inventory was valuable in UMA’s efforts to catalogue the archive as it contains details about the contents of the archive known only to the creator, for example dates of documents or the identity of editors who had hand emended texts. Where possible this information has been included in the finding aids created by UMA.
The audio-visual component of the archive is documented in Melissa Osbourne’s inventory. This list was compiled as part of a project in 2012 to create a comprehensive collection of Greer’s film and television appearances. It’s worth noting this project was a proactive attempt by Greer to add material to the archive. Correspondence is spread throughout 2017.0002 Television and other series relating to Osbourne’s efforts to acquire recordings from television production companies. It is heavily annotated with additions, notes regarding production company details or the whereabouts of recordings. Information from this inventory such as program titles, recording dates and numeric identifiers have been incorporated into the finding aids for 2017.0002 Television and 2014.0041 Third Party Audiovisual Recordings.
When the archive was acquired by University of Melbourne Archives in 2014 it was appraised and packed by University Archivist Katrina Dean. Katrina compiled a box level list in the order of packing with brief notes on items of interest and access restrictions. As such it provides useful insight into the physical arrangement of the Archive prior to its transfer to UMA. This list was used by researchers in combination with Greer’s 1997 inventory prior to the Archive being catalogued at item level.
Initial item level cataloguing of the Greer Archive was undertaken by volunteers beginning with the series’ 2014.0039 Research and Reference Card Indexes and 2014.0042 General Correspondence. Katrina Dean made the decision to use Library of Congress subject headings to help cataloguers use standard terms for recurring subjects within the General Correspondence series. Volunteer Tanya Harrison suggested the creation of a thesaurus to track commonly used subject headings. As cataloguing progressed to further series and the Greer Archive project team grew to include Lachlan Glanville, Sarah Brown, Millie Weber and Kate Hodgetts in addition to Curator Rachel Buchanan, the use of subject headings was adopted across the Greer archive and the thesaurus became a collaborative document encompassing discussion and disambiguation of suitable terms, general style notes and gaps in the LCSH vocabulary to be filled by non-standard terms. It is included here in the hope that it will aid researchers to navigate across the Archive and identify potential areas of interest. |
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| 1 unit (0.17m) |
| Collection Category: |
Culture and the Arts, individuals |
| Access Conditions: |
Access: Restricted
Some records available online via Search Digitised Items at http://archives.unimelb.edu.au/ |
| Finding Aids: |
Yes listed ONLINE |
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