| AdminHistory | This section was previously divided into three series (A, B and C). When the collection was first assessed in the 1970s, library staff decided to arrange all the correspondence in chronological order. However, they discovered that a very large quantity of material had no date, or the date was given using the Hebrew or Julian calendars and the staff had difficulty converting it to the modern Gregorian calendar. Therefore, around half of the letters were arranged alphabetically and half were arranged by date.
The collection is no longer arranged in this order. For reference. the three series were:
Gaster A was incoming letters to Gaster from others except his family, arranged alphabetically by surname of correspondent.
Gaster B was incoming letters to Gaster from others except his family (described in this series as 'strangers'), arranged chronologically by year / month.
Gaster C was incoming letters to Gaster from others except his family (described in this series as 'strangers'), arranged chronologically by year / month. It is not clear why Gaster B and C were two separate series.
Work to merge all three series into a single catalogue is ongoing and not all of the letters are available for consultation. Please enquire for details. It is not currently possible to search by subject, but Special Collections staff can search for the names of specific correspondents. |