Donating UU and UUSC Institutional Records
The Manuscripts and Archives Department of Andover-Harvard Theological Library collects the historical records of the various departments of the UUA and their associated organizations, plus the records of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. These records should illustrate the purposes, activities, and policies of your department or organization. Please call the curator of manuscripts and archives at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library when you have records to transfer here (617.496.5153). Call us before you pack the records, so we can discuss your move.
Usually, records should be at least five years old before transferring them to this office. If you are starting a records management program, perhaps you should establish a set time when records could be transferred to this office. In certain cases, we will accept records that are less than five years old. But we do not accept records that are still active; we cannot store records that will be recalled often by your office for administrative purposes. Please call us to discuss this, if you are thinking of sending us records created in the past five years.
Listed below are some of the kinds of materials that the department collects (and does not collect). If you have records that are not mentioned on the lists below, or if you have any questions about what we collect, please contact the curator of manuscripts and archives (617.496.5153).
Materials that the department collects:
- Architectural records
- Articles of incorporation, charters
- Audio recordings
- Budgets
- Bylaws and revisions
- Clippings
- Constitution and revisions
- Correspondence of officers
- Directories
- Financial statements (year-end summaries, etc.)
- Handbooks
- Legal documents
- Memoranda
- Minutes of meetings
- Membership lists
- Mission statement(s)
- Motion picture film and videotape
- Newsletters and other publications generated by your department or organization
- Organizational charts
- Pamphlets, brochures, fliers, etc.
- Photographs (please identify the photographs)
- Planning documents
- Press releases
- Reports (annual, committee, etc.)
- Rosters
- Scrapbooks
- Speeches
- Subject files
Materials that the department does not collect:
- Bank statements
- Canceled checks
- Routine office records
- Travel vouchers
- Other records that should ultimately be discarded
- Duplicate copies of records. For instance, we usually only need two copies of any given newsletter.
Packing and Sending Your Records
Please do not attempt to organize or catalog the records before sending them to us. They can simply be removed from the file drawers in their original order, and shipped to us in whatever manner is most convenient. Please make sure folder titles are clear, and spell out all acronyms. You may either pack the records in your own boxes, and we will rebox them when they arrive, or you may contact us, and we will sell you the kinds of boxes we require.
Please label the boxes as to their contents, and number the boxes consecutively. It is also helpful to provide a list giving a short description of the contents of each box (for example, Box 1, Rev. Harry Smith, Administrative Correspondence, 1987-1997).
It is not usually our policy to pay shipping costs, but contact us if that is an issue.
If you have any questions, please call this department.