Provenance: Find out more
Structure & Materials
It can also be useful to learn about the custodial history of an object, or its provenance: to find out who has owned it, for how long, and why.
Was it a prized possession handed down from generation to generation, or was it economically rather than personally valuable, sold on to the highest bidder?
The object itself will often reveal clues about its custodial history. Researchers should look out for inscriptions, bookplates, annotations, or any other marks of ownership. Alongside the condition of the object these additions might also indicate how it has been used previously.
To find out more about the importance of provenance and what it can reveal have a look at the Brotherton Shakespeare First Folio Digital Resource.
Useful terminology: Provenance
Provenance refers to where an object has come from and who it has been owned by previously. Annotations, inscriptions and bookplates placed in books are some of the means by which provenance can be determined.
Useful terminology: Original Order
Where possible items in archive files are kept in the original order in which they were donated, so that the order itself can be preserved as potentially important contextual information. For example, if the owner of the files had arranged them according to subject, then to rearrange them chronologically, or by some other means, would eliminate these unwritten links. It would change the way we look at a file or collection as a whole.
