Quartermaster returns in Frankfort, Ky

[ewtaylor]

Just thought I'd start a new thread. At the Military Musuem in Frankfort, Ky, you can view and actually touch the 140+year old Qmaster returns for most of the Union Kentucky Regiments. They are kept in a folder according to regiment and can be handled freely by anyone with an appointment. I was shocked to say the least when I was allowed to do this, but it was exciting. I'm just afraid these valuable articles are becoming damaged by being handled by so many people. You are not allowed to xerox them, but you may bring a digital camera and photograph them. The following is just one document I photographed.
everett Taylor

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: Quartermaster returns in Frankfort, Ky

The document you show (and thanks, it's in nice shape!) is a requisition that evidently went unfullfilled. If you received the items requested, you wrote that down in the bottom third of the form.

[TeamsterPhil]

Re: Quartermaster returns in Frankfort, Ky

There are many museums/archives that will let you handle documents such as you describe. Some of the best days of my summer in Delaware were spent in the Library of Congress & National Archives down in DC. Many good hours were spent looking at the hospital records of Fort Delaware and the personal letters of JAG Joseph Holt.

Phil Campbell

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: Quartermaster returns in Frankfort, Ky

Years ago I spent some time in the New Hampshire Historicay Society handling and looking at 18th century documents. My personal favorite was John Stark's New Hampshire commission. For those that don't know, Stark is the New Hampshire person who uttered, "Live Free or Die", now the state motto. Anyway, I noticed a watermark in the center of his commission, so I held it up to the light. There, in the center of the paper commissioning one of the most ardent patriots of the Revolution, was a large Royal crest complete with lion and the unicorn, the royal symbol of Britain. I bet even John Stark saw the irony of that, and had a good chuckle over it.

[ephraim_zook]

Re: Quartermaster returns in Frankfort, Ky

I'm just afraid these valuable articles are becoming damaged by being handled by so many people.

Funny you should mention that. I work at a university and the archives of both the University and of the local Catholic Diocese are down the hall from my office. From time to time I have occasion to search in the archives, and both the former and present archivists were/are absolute sticklers about researchers wearing white cotton gloves to handle anything in the collection, explaining that it was to prevent damage from skin oils, etc. I often felt that fumbling with fragile paper while wearing cotton gloves was hazardous to the material. Nevertheless, wanting to be professional on my first visit to the Pennsylvania State Archives to look for CW material, I asked the curatorial assistant for a pair of gloves. He gave me a very funny look, then said that they don't permit the use of gloves, feeling that fragile documents would suffer far more physical damage from clumsy handling by researchers wearing gloves than ever they would from researchers with dirty hands.

"All employees must wash their hands after using the restroom."
Comforting, ain't it. :nerd:

Ron Myzie

[ScottCross]

Re: Quartermaster returns in Frankfort, Ky

Ron,

That is quite right. The preference now is to have patrons wash there hands prior to examining historic documents, because those clumsy white cotton gloves make it difficult to turn pages and can be more damaging (I've actually seen pages torn using gloves). I recently changed my policies in our museum archives just for that reason.

I wish I had known that Frankfort had quartermaster returns when I was doing research on the 'Louisville Legion', 5th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry (Union) years ago. It sounds like a great research source.

Archivist,