Bertram K. Little papers

Description

The papers of Bertram K. Little (1899-1993) organized in this series thoroughly document Little's career in publishing and non-profit management, and illustrate his expertise in history, decorative arts, and historic preservation. His involvement in dozens of museums and preservation organizations - as a trustee, member, lecturer, or contributing author - is particularly evident in these papers. Organizations include the Shirley-Eustis House, the Walpole Society, and the Rushlight Club.

Many of the papers in the series, however, pertain directly to Little's work at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) as the Corresponding Secretary/Director from 1947-1970. Rather than disrupt Little's placement of these files among his personal papers and move them to the SPNEA (now Historic New England) institutional archives, they have been segregated into a separate subseries.

The other subseries in this series are as follows: Professional Papers, Organizations, Lectures and Conferences, Publications and Writings, Harvard University, News Clippings, World War II, and Miscellaneous Papers.

Unlike the rest of this collection, most of the papers in this series were not processed by Selina Fletcher Little. She processed approximately two cartons of papers, but the collection processor found four additional cartons of papers contained in Bertram Little's original folders and envelopes. These envelopes and folders were not arranged in any discernible order, so they were integrated into the subseries structure created by the processor. However, the envelopes and folders were kept intact and order of the papers inside was preserved. If a folder was processed by Selina Fletcher Little, this is noted in the folder description.

Because some folders were processed by Selina Fletcher Little and some were part of Bertram K. Little's original order, and because the collection processor did not want to disrupt either arrangement, there is some unavoidable repetition in the folders. For example, there are numerous folders containing papers related to "various historical organizations," but the collection processor avoided combining them or rearranging their contents.

Also, as noted above, those papers that pertain to Bertram K. Little's work at SPNEA have been arranged into their own subseries. This arrangement was done at the folder level; individual papers were not moved. Because Little interacted with certain historical or preservation organizations both as the director of SPNEA and as an individual, there is some overlap between the SPNEA Papers subseries and the other subseries.