Since January, I have leafed through thousands of cc’d letters concerning the publishing activities of the former Edinburgh publisher, Thomas Nelson & Son Ltd. Their four Scots Song Books were published 1948-54, so I focused on those years, a little before and a little after. You might struggle to imagine just how many boxes and file books were filled in such a comparatively short timescale – yards of them – but it was a big, commercially active firm.
And I have indeed found documents about the song books, but I’ve still harboured a sneaky suspicion that there had to be more. I made further lists of files I ought probably to check, just in case.
Today, I captured my prey! Two whole folders dedicated to these books, spanning several years but sitting quietly in the middle of one single year … with a handwritten note saying where they should be filed. (The ultimate, unattained destination is immaterial, considering the books and boxes now live in an archive rather than the demolished Parkside Works.)
These two grey folders are packed with letters and memos, and – unusually – there are quite a lot of incoming letters as well as the expected carbon copied outgoing mail. Very nice indeed. (I wanted to hug them, but that might have looked a bit weird!)
There’s nothing for it – I’m listing every sheet of paper, in chronological oder (thanks, Microsoft), with sender, addressee and a summary of content. Or a transcription, if appropriate. Data protection means no photos of anything from 1950 onwards, but photos aren’t a very good way of remembering the content in detail, so I don’t really mind.
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 