The Archive by Marilyn Healy
Sellotape – the bane of an archivist’s life! At the heart of the Society archive are the Minute books and records of the Scottish Country Dance Society, later the RSCDS. They consist of • The Minutes of the Executive Council from 1923 until it was replaced by the Management Board in 2002. • Mrs Stewart’s Secretary’s Diary and Examination Book which included the dates of formation of branches and candidates taking examinations (with results) from 1923-1937. • Minutes of the Propaganda Committee from 1934; Publications Committee from 1934, Summer School (a sub-committee of Examinations Committee) from 1954, General Purposes from 1953, Finance (a sub-committee of General Purposes) from 1951 and Finance (as an independent committee) from 1962.
In the early days, until her retirement as Secretary of the Society in 1933, the minutes were written in hard cover books by Mrs Stewart in her beautifully clear handwriting. Thereafter they were written by succeeding secretaries until 1952 when the minutes began to be typed and the pages pasted into a variety of Minute or exercise books. That worked well but from 1976 the pages were attached to the books with sellotape (adhesive tape sometimes known as Scotch tape depending on where you are in the world) - and in some cases cut into portions right up to the text. Inevitably – and hindsight is a wonderful thing – the sellotape has dried out and the pages, or scraps of paper, have become loose and where they have no ‘edge’ or margin are extremely fragile. Membership Services Committee agreed that these records are irreplaceable and we are coming to the end of a two-year programme to have the books restored and rebound. The sellotape marks have not been – and without damage to the text
cannot be – removed but the paper has been permanently attached and pages bound into permanent Minute Books. I once met someone from the world of archives who had a colleague who fretted so much about sellotape, and the damage it can do to documents over time, that his colleagues suspected that he would not use it even when wrapping Christmas presents! Sellotape is not the only product that damages documents. Paper clips, unless made of steel or brass, and cheap staples also deteriorate and the rust they generate seeps through to surrounding pages and we have examples of those as well!
Bibliography I have compiled a bibliography to help students undertaking research and any members interested in the development of SCD and traditional music. This bibliography has recently been uploaded to the RSCDS website (under “Help”). Maybe some of our members can suggest other publications – please note in this context, not books of dance descriptions or individual branch history. The list shows which of the items we have in the archive. If any of our members would like to ‘fill a gap’ and donate a book (or books) that we do not currently have, we would be delighted to receive it.
SNDC – Scottish National Dance Company Some of our members will know that SNDC ceased trading in January. Lewis Innes, a partner in the company died in October and the company had a clearance sale prior to closing. We were able to buy almost 200 items of books and leaflets not already in the archive.
An example of the damage caused by sellotape. Minutes of an Executive Council meeting held at St. Andrews in August 1976.
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