Texas Monthly Magazine Archive

This project was made possible by a grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Project Archivist, Carolyn McClurkan, C.A., processed the first five years of the Editorial Series, Summer 2000.

Basic conservation practices were performed as the need was encountered during processing: Paper clips and staples were removed; where needed, previously stapled-together items were enfolded, or numbered in brackets. Folded paper was unfolded. Acidic newspaper clippings were copied onto acid-free paper. Manuscripts and correspondence typed onto Kraft paper were interleaved with acid-free paper. Photographs were placed in Mylar sleeves. All documents were re-housed into acid-free folders.

To begin, the papers from each issue were retrieved from the “Issue” and “Research” files. The Table of Contents was located (most convenient is the copy taped to the front of each “Research” Miscellany file; these files began with the August 1975 issue). Then the manuscripts were separated into their order in the magazine. Next the Research Miscellany file was checked for Production and Staff notes, then the Libel/ Legal file, then the “Floats and Captions” folder, dividing this into the original orders, the galley proofs, and the slicks.

Using the “Contents” as a guide, the manuscripts were examined and checked for duplicates. The first “sleeved” draft is always the “to the printer” version. When there are earlier drafts, these are identified on the inventory; also occasionally there are notes to or from the author; these are likewise identified. The “fact-check/research” files are consolidated with the manuscript at this point. If there is in fact something IN those file folders, that is indicated on the inventory. These files range from nothing (either actually nothing, or copies of manuscripts with completely blank pages, which were discarded) to complete Paige boxes of author’s notes and reference materials. The usual, for a Feature, would be a copy of the manuscript, with some editorial marks, several pages of questions and answers, and copies of the galleys with many, many marks and notes. Features’ manuscripts were almost always found. Departments’ manuscripts were almost always found, until the review part of Departments became “Review”, after which only copies of the non-review departments were found. Some reviews were located in “legal” and some of these would be only the first page; sometimes there were only page proofs; sometimes even these were not found. When Reviews were only represented in the "legal" file, copies were made and placed in their respected "manuscripts" folder. Occasionally, photographs were found in the fact-check files; these are always noted on the inventory list. Reporter manuscripts were the most difficult to locate; sometimes they were found mixed up with the galleys. Also, since the staff was working on more than one issue at a time, sometimes manuscript drafts, or galleys, or page proofs were located in the papers of a different issue; these were returned “home”.

In the October 1978 issue, there began the setting into “cold type” part of the isse; this created a different type of proof, with computer printouts. These were retained where found, i.e., if found with galleys, they stayed with galleys; if found with manuscripts, they stayed with manuscripts. Then the galleys and page proofs were separated, again into their order in the magazine. At the beginning of the papers, galleys were retained separately from page proofs, and arranged numerically; the issue papers are arranged to follow this order. However, with the January 1976 issue the galleys and page proofs were retained together, and by article, and that arrangement has been followed throughout the rest of the collection.

Manuscripts and proofs were checked for duplicates. Most exact duplicates were discarded, if there was no new information. Therefore most of the copies of the manuscripts from the “libel/legal” files were discarded; sometimes, however, that copy was the only copy, and was therefore retained. Likewise pages from manuscript copies from the fact-check/research files were retained only when they offered some research note or comment. Again, sometimes that copy would be the only copy of a particular draft, in which case it was retained.

In processing the galleys, page proofs and slicks, copies were checked. Sometimes more than one copy of a galley run was kept, e.g., when the author’s copy and/or editor’s copy had significant comments and changes, those were retained as well as the master copy. These are clearly marked with acid-free dividers. In the case of galley and page proof runs, pages are always arranged “top to bottom”, i.e., the final version is on the top of the group, proceeding through the changes to the original version. Extra, duplicate copies of galleys and pages were discarded. Generally speaking, approximately one-fourth of the pre-processed papers were “weeded” in this manner. Slicks were separated from their respective issues and filed together in "Slicks" boxes, because of the composition of the paper on which they were printed. However, if a piece of slick was found mixed with other files, it was housed in a Mylar sleeve and retained there.