![]() ![]() It is easy to dismiss the object: a rectilinear stack of four drawers, usually made of metal. The shift from bound volumes to filing systems is a milestone in the history of classification the contemporaneous shift to vertical filing cabinets is a milestone in the history of storage. His response was swift: he demanded that a vertical filing system be adopted soon the department was using a numerical subject-based filing system housed in filing cabinets. ![]() For Root, the breaking point came when a request for a handful of letters resulted in several bulky volumes appearing on his desk. As was then common in American offices, clerks used press books or copybooks to store incoming and outgoing correspondence in chronologically ordered bound volumes with limited indexing. But not long after he arrived, the prominent corporate lawyer described himself as “a man trying to conduct the business of a large metropolitan law-firm in the office of a village squire.” 1 The department’s record-keeping practices contributed to his frustration. A lawyer whose clients included Andrew Carnegie, Root became secretary of state in 1905. I soon discovered that I had Elihu Root to thank for making my research easier. The filing cabinet is a milestone in the history of storage. ![]() Rather than scrolling through microfilm images of bound pages organized chronologically, I could go straight to passport-relevant information that had been gathered in one place. Suddenly, every American diplomatic office began using the same number for passport correspondence, with decimal numbers subdividing issues and cases. That year, the State Department adopted a numerical filing system. passport, and had spent weeks at the National Archives, struggling through thousands of reels of unindexed microfilm records of 19th-century diplomatic correspondence then I arrived at the records for 1906. I was researching the history of the U.S. The subject of this essay emerged by chance. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |