Beyond Sanborn...

I learned a bit about industrial geography this week and developed an even greater appreciation for librarians and archivists.  I spent two days at the Library of Virginia (LVA) in the Special Collections and Maps Rooms--a venue staffed with pre-eminent experts in various fields of Virginia history.

One of the items on my list of things to look for was the continued search for interior floor plans of any Tredegar building.  I hadn't found anyone at LVA aware of their location or even whether they existed--mostly it had been possible to figure out where they are not. But the second day of this research trip, an archivist was right there with the likely answer before I even had my stuff in the locker. He'd found out because he'd run into someone at dinner the night before who had worked on restoration of the Tredegar site, and he spent some of their conversation conveying my research request of the day.

Tredegar corporate documents are in one collection at LVA intermingled with family financial records described in an excellent and extensive finding aid.  Nonetheless, research within them is neither linear nor a quick process.  It's the relationship among records, both in the collection and likely in external collections that will provide whatever narrative ensues for the story of Tredegar in the latter part of the nineteeth century.  I spend a lot of time looking at materials that make no sense to me at the time, but come together later as related records surface and as my reading of secondary sources expands.  I spend more time looking at materials that still make no sense to me.

BUT, the great find was blueprints of the site from 1920 that include building sizes, materials, and explain details about railroads, mill races--other elements critical to factory operations.  I would not have recognized their value before this class.

A revisit to the Tredegar site fell into the category of things I didn't know then, but I understand now.  The industrial archaeology of the site is well documented and usefully diagrammed, but the exploration into historical maps provides coherence among the ruins.

So, on to the grids of page layout.

Comments

[Chris King]

What a fantastic "Historian-in-action" story, Lee Ann! It just goes to show you that even in the archives, it's not what you know but who you know that will get you places. And I think your layout looks fantastic!