The Justice Tom Clark collection at the University of Texas at Austin’s Tarlton Law Library contains papers and other artifacts related to Justice Clark, the first Texan to serve on the United States Supreme Court, from 1949 to 1967. The varied nature of this collection, which includes both foldered and bound paper, scrapbooks, sound recordings, film, photos, plaques, framed papers, textiles, and many types of plastic, wooden, and metal artifacts, has presented difficulties for its custodians in terms of care and particularly storage. Current housing, particularly that of the textiles and the uncategorized artifacts, is both damaging to the materials, and does not allow for optimal accessibility. The scrapbooks, constructed of inherently unsound materials, are also not accessible to researchers in their present state; digital reformatting could solve this problem and prevent further damage to them.
In order to protect this important collection and to facilitate user access to the information within, this project would undertake the rehousing and reformatting of its most vulnerable materials. The scrapbooks detailing Justice Clark’s career and public activities, his Supreme Court judicial robe, the academic hoods representing his honorary degrees from nearly thirty universities, and the collection of gift object that he received in commemoration of his contributions to various causes and organizations, are all facets of the collection that its curator has designated as high preservation priorities. The scrapbooks, which are extremely large and heavy, are filled with newspaper clippings. In many cases, the adhesive attaching the clippings to the pages has failed, meaning that the clippings are in danger of being disordered, lost, or gravely damaged during handling of the scrapbooks. Digital imaging of the scrapbooks would allow researchers to view facsimiles of their contents, and would prevent unsafe handling until the scrapbooks can eventually undergo conservation treatment. The textile items in the collection are currently stored folded in boxes. This system of storage has led to severe creasing and crushing of the textiles; it is also difficult for researchers to view the hoods not stored at the top of the box. Switching the robe and the hoods to hanging storage would allow them both to better retain their shape, and to be more readily accessible to researchers. The miscellaneous artifacts are either packed in boxes with insufficient padding, or, in the case of Justice Clark’s Stetson hat and two Native American headdresses, sitting open on the shelves where they are susceptible to dust and other environmental hazards. Placement of these artifacts in custom enclosures would go far towards keeping them safe and better organized.
Justice Clark is an important figure at the university, state, and national levels; his work on cases impacting desegregation, school prayer, voting rights, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, Communism, and Mexican American civil rights is extremely relevant to current and future legal and historical research. This collection documents not only his legal contributions, but also his commitment to community service and affairs as it contains many gifts given in recognition and appreciation of his extracurricular work. As such, it is an important resource for a wide range of researchers, including law students and lawyers, and historians whose work relates to the issues mentioned above; appropriate steps should be taken to ensure that its availability extends far into the future. Our proposal takes into account the simultaneous needs for preservation and access of the Justice Tom Clark materials, and strives to do the best possible service both to the collection and to the community of researchers.
Our team, consisting of one Conservation student and one Preservation Administration student from the University of Texas at Austin’s Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record, has a strong background of knowledge both of the principles behind caring for collections, and of the materials in need of care. Our work in the classroom, as well as our professional experience, has prepared us to offer sound recommendations for the preservation of the Justice Tom Clark collection. We bring to the project a great deal of enthusiasm, and a commitment to caring for the collection materials in the best way possible as we recognize their centrality to enduring issues from which a wide population can learn.
Overall good. Points to consider. You don't need to be so detailed in terms of each of the items, leave that for the full report. Highlight what you will do, you already stated what was wrong before. What is the broader impact of your project? what makes it technically different from others and deserving of money? Are other libraries holding materials from Federal Judges? Perhaps your encompassing approach, the fact that you could create online digital library projects with the digital surrogates, the possibility to have the contextual materials side by side with the archival materials? Anything can go, you just have to make a convincing case.
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