Consultations

The Maryland Room Manager will consult with individuals who wish to make a donation of their family, personal, or institutional papers to the Maryland Room, or any other archival institution. Staff cannot provide monetary appraisals of material; however, advice can be given on the appropriate way to care for organizational or personal treasures.

Maryland Room staff are also happy to meet with individuals to discuss particular research problems. If you run into a research brick-wall, even if it does not relate directly to a Maryland topic, we maybe able to provide ideas on where to look next. Sometimes it is just helpful to talk through your research with a fresh ear. Please contact us to make an appointment so that we can give you and your problem the attention they deserve.

The Maryland Room is also happy to talk with people about caring for their own books and paper materials. We also recommend that you consult the Northeast Document Conservation Center’s webpage; especially the “Technical Leaflet” entitled NEDCC Offers Hints For Preserving Family Collections at http://www.nedcc.org/leaflets/fmlycol.htm. The Canadian Conservation Institute has a delightful site called “Preserving My Heritage”  The Preservation and Imaging Department at Harvard has an excellent page, Caring for Personal Collections: Selected Web Resources, with many other very useful links.