Donating Your Personal or Family Papers

For millennia, written records have provided essential clues to the past. Through letters, diaries, and unpublished writings of many types, and also through the audible and visual records of recent times, researchers have been able to study and understand much about the history of particular families, communities, businesses, and organizations, the history of specific events and broader societal trends, and the history of the United States in general.

Letters, diaries, photos, and other material collected over the years give vital and unique information regarding your life or the history of your family. And while these papers obviously matter to you, they may be important to your community, state, or nation, too. Whether or not members of your family attained a degree of fame, they have contributed to the heritage of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. When you donate your personal or family papers to The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) Archives, your family history becomes a part of your community's collective memory.

What Can The University of Texas-Pan American Archives Offer You?

Archives carefully preserve collections of written, visual, and audible material created by private citizens both past and present. Such repositories ensure that these personal and family papers will be available for research by generations to come.

A manuscript repository is run by professionals whose first priority is the preservation of historical materials. We can discuss with you the historical value of your papers, and advise you on which repository would be best for your papers. In addition, once you donate papers our staff will continue to work with you as you locate or identify other materials to donate.

If your personal or family papers are deemed appropriate for our collections, and you agree to donate those papers, you stand to gain many benefits. The UTPA Archives can provide the papers with environmentally-controlled, secure storage and can oversee their proper handling and use. Equally important, it can provide research access to the contents of the papers, both to you and to the scholarly public. In future years, researchers - including students, professors, genealogists, journalists and many others may thus find your papers both interesting and of value to their work.

What to Preserve

The UTPA Archives accepts donations of as little as a single item and as large as dozens of boxes. Material need not be organized; it need not be "old"; and it need not relate to a famous individual, event, or organization in order for it to be historically significant. Generally, however, repositories are more interested in a coherent body of material rather than individual items; photos, tapes, and films should be identified. The UTPA Archives request that historical material itself not be mailed or dropped off without first consulting with the Archivist; a repository must evaluate all material offered and ask the donor to sign a donation agreement.

Do you need to "cull" the papers or reorganize them?

Archivists are experts in identifying materials that should be transferred to a repository or manuscript library. Because the research value of records may be diminished if items are removed or if the records are rearranged, donors are encouraged to contact the UTPA Archivist before weeding, discarding, or reorganizing their papers and records.

Examples of historically valuable material.

While it is important that the archives staff be permitted to survey papers or records in order to determine which materials have enduring historical value, listed below are types of materials that are often valuable to a researcher. These lists, which are suggestive and not definitive, illustrate the wide range of documentation often useful for historical and administrative research.

Among the types of materials in personal and family papers of interest to researchers are:

•  diaries
• letters
• memoirs/reminiscences
• scrapbooks/photo albums
• genealogical information
• professional papers
• speeches/lectures
• business records
• subject files
• legal documents
• minutes/reports
• brochures and flyers
• photographs (labeled)
• films/videos/audio tapes (labeled)

Also of interest are files relating to the individual's civic, business, religious, political, and social activities. Churches, political organizations, businesses, economic interest groups, community groups, voluntary associations, professional associations, and other collective enterprises all produce records which document their purpose, policies, and activities. An individual or family may hold the records of such a business or organization, and this material, too, may be significant.

Will the UTPA Archives take everything you offer?

Although the UTPA Archives cannot accept everything that may be offered (whether because of staff and space constraints or because the papers are not within the collecting mission of the UTPA Archives), we welcome the chance to review material; if it is not appropriate for the UTPA Archives, there may be another one to which it could be referred. Some material, though, may be of more sentimental than historical value, and should be kept by the individual or family itself.

Donations.

Please make an appointment in advance to review and discuss your donation.

Most archives can only invest materials and labor in the preservation of items which they own. Therefore, the UTPA Archives accepts donations of individual or family papers, but will not accept such material on deposit or on loan. Donors are asked to sign a donation agreement, which formally signifies that the papers become the actual property of the archives.

Access to Collections.

Once material is donated to the UTPA Archives, it does not circulate — in order to insure that it is preserved as long as humanly possible. Access to donated papers is governed by the UTPA Archives written policies regarding availability, photo duplication, and publication. A prospective donor should become familiar with our policies and discuss any special needs or concerns with the Archivist before completing the donation agreement.

Restrictions on Access.

Sensitive material that may exist in individual or family papers should not be removed by the donor. Instead, the donor should discuss with the archivist the possibility of restricting part of the collection to protect the privacy of the donor or others. While archives desire to make all papers freely accessible to researchers, they normally will agree to reasonable and equitable restrictions for limited periods of time.

Copyright.

Assignment of copyright is often complex, and you should work with the UTPA Archives staff to clarify issues of copyright ownership. Generally, copyright belongs to the creator of writings and other original material (such as photos and music), but can be legally transferred to heirs or others. Moreover, ownership of copyright is separable from ownership of the physical item (the letter or photo). Curators often ask donors to donate not only the physical papers but also any copyright in them that the donor might own. This request is made to make it easier for researchers to use quotations from the papers in their work.

Conditional Gifts.

A repository usually is not able to promise that donated materials will be placed on exhibit or used in some other specific fashion as a condition of accepting the gift.

Monetary Appraisals for Tax Deductions.

In certain circumstances, it may be possible for a donor to take a tax deduction for the donation of a manuscript collection to a repository. Donors are encouraged to speak with their tax accountants or attorneys about this possibility. Archivists cannot give tax advice, nor are they permitted to appraise the monetary value of a collection. The archivist may be able to provide donors with a list of local manuscript appraisers who can (for a fee) make monetary appraisals for the donor. It is up to the donor to arrange for and bear the cost of any such appraisal, although the repository will make the collection available to an appraiser hired by the donor.

Monetary donations.

The UTPA Archives is a non-profit organization. Preparing papers for use by researchers is the most expensive operation in a repository. Although such grants are rarely a prerequisite for the acceptance of a collection, donors who are able to assist repositories by making grants toward the arrangement, cataloging, and conservation of their donations of papers are encouraged to do so