Hare and Hare Project Grant Request

Address: Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City
302 Newcomb Hall, UMKC
5123 Holmes Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64110

History of the Landscape Architecture Firm of Hare and Hare

Importance of the Project for Program Development:

The Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City is the largest agency collecting regional history materials in the Kansas City area. Among its strengths is an emphasis in urban history and the built environment. The acquisition of the records of the nationally prominent landscape and city planning firm of Hare and Hare this year has greatly enhanced that emphasis. This Kansas City firm was one of several companies which, though primarily regional in its work, substantially influenced the development of urban design in the United States.

WHMC-KC’s holdings on the built environment include the architectural files of such nationally known Kansas City firms as Hoit, Price, and Barnes; Wight and Wight; Voskamp and Gentry; and Kevitt and Myers. In addition to the files of other smaller offices, we also have blueprints originally filed with the Kansas City Building Permit Office as part of the application for city building permits. In total we have in excess of 250,000 sheets of drawings dating from the 1880’s to the present. These include original linens and tissues, perspective drawings, and modern reproductions on paper and Mylar. The scope of the collection focuses upon the work of Kansas City architects and engineers, but because of Kansas City’s importance as a regional, national, and even international provider of architectural and engineering design, the collection has a wide geographic reach.

Besides the work of architects and engineers, we also have collected the files of allied professionals including interior designers, detail fabricators, and mural artists. We have acquired the records of real estate developers such as J.C. Nichols and his company. As indicated, the Hare and Hare Records complement and reinforce our holdings with an important dimension for the evolution of the urban experience.

Need for Funding:

This Project should be viewed as an opportunity to preserve and make available a rich collection requiring special treatment in the shortest possible time. The nature and scope of the work required is extensive and is reflected in its cost. The annual budget of WHMC-KC is roughly equivalent to the cost of this Project. As the budget indicates, the major expense of the Project will be for the staff and materials for the processing and arrangement of the records, including the conservation and inventory of 50,000 sheets of drawings and making photographic prints for 4,000 negatives. We undertake this Project because of the importance of the material and in response to the demand we already have had and anticipate for access to it. WHMC-KC is committed to the ongoing preservation and availability of the papers as part of its collections. Assistance from NHPRC will allow the work to proceed more quickly and fully than if we were to attempt the Project within our normal operating budget.

Though we have no commitments at this time, we are pursuing third-party donations for the accomplishment of this Project. Further, we anticipate the review and conservation of the materials will allow us to market reproductions of selected items from the collection which can serve as a source of revenue for future related projects.

Description of the Records:

As indicated in the Summary, this collection measures 219 cubic feet of foldered material and 150 cubic feet of 12,000 sheets of drawings in 1,000 rolls. Included in the folders are an additional 38,000 sheets of drawings. The documents date from circa 1904 and end with the firm’s sale in 1980 to Ralph Ochsner who continues the office under the name of Ochsner, Hare & Hare.

As part of our initial evaluation of the records in late 1994, we produced a 250-page preliminary inventory of the collection (selected pages attached). That work was funded with a $9,500.00 grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation and included the boxing of the collection and its move to the University. In addition to this review, a professional appraiser, Wilbert R. Hasbrouck of Hasbrouck Peterson Zimoch & Sirirattumrong of Chicago, evaluated the collection providing his estimates of its quantity and quality for tax purposes. His figures, though admittedly conservative, have been accepted for this description:

An outline of the contents of the collection follows:

I. Administrative files

A. Financial

B. Personnel

C. Legal documents

D. Public relations and histories

E. Internal finding aids and office manuals, etc.

F. Miscellaneous

1. Lectures by Sid and Herbert Hare

2. Personal and business related correspondence (mainly found in the pre-1959 job files)

II. Research files

A. ‘Idea’ files (vertical file of clippings, photos, etc.)

B. Legislative data (zoning, codes, etc.)

C. Descriptive reports on specific geographic and political regions (census, reports compiled by other firms or government agencies, etc.)

D. Books on planning, landscape architecture, etc.

E. Journals and magazines

III. Project files

A. Job files, pre-1959, without project numbers

1. local

2. ‘foreign’ -- non-local

3. Fort Leonard Wood

4. Texas

B. Job files, post-1959, with a year designation (i.e. 60-xxx)

C. Reports

1. pre-ca. 1945 typescript with photos tipped in

2. post-ca. 1945 near-print copies

D. Photographs

E. Drawings and plans

The bulk of the boxed collection consists of project files. Included in them is a large number of folded drawings, notes, correspondence, photographs, and financial information regarding the jobs. Often earlier material was pulled and filed with later working files when the company undertook revisions or new work for an old client.

Photographic prints and negatives are interspersed throughout the collection, but the main body is about 3,500 negatives in two series dating from the 1920s and 1930s. These are 2x3 nitrate negatives of projects done by the firm and a series of images of architectural and landscape details photographed by Herbert Hare during a visit to Europe. The only prints for these negatives seem to be contact prints tipped into the reports for their respective projects. In addition, there are approximately one thousand 2x2 color slides of more modern (but pre-1979) projects.

The preliminary inventory required 3 FTE employees approximately two months to complete. No attempt was made to process or conserve the records at that time -- we simply wished to get intellectual control over the material in its current state. The records generally remain in the order and condition in which they were found. There has been some attempt to box like material sequentially recreating the original order of the files (i.e. the first fifteen boxes contain pre-1959 local job files). Similar materials, however, may be found throughout the remaining boxes. Though a contents note has been assigned to each box (such as, Box 1 pre-1959 local job files), these guides should be used with caution. The rolled plans and drawings are indexed separately in a database in Microsoft ACCESS. This will serve as the base into which the remaining folded plans will be integrated. Selected pages from our preliminary inventory of both the foldered material and the rolled drawings are attached to this proposal.

As indicated earlier, the condition of the materials is generally good. Many of the folders, most over 50 years old and of very poor quality, are brittle and broken but the documents inside them are reasonably stable. Our single greatest challenge is that folded into the files are many -- an estimated 38,000 sheets -- drawings on tissue, linen, and paper. These items will require special attention and care to humidify and flatten them, and perform whatever repairs may be necessary to ensure their long-term preservation.

Plan of Work, Techniques, and Personnel:

Because we have already worked with the collection and have a good grasp of what would be needed to create an effective work-flow, we are confident of our time-table for the work. The most time consuming aspect of this Project will be the humidification and flattening process. We intend to construct a passive humidification system based upon the design recommended by Diane Alper-Rollie (conservator with NARA) into which we will load two batches a day. A similar program with the Olmsted Project (on which Ms. Alper-Rollie worked) yielded about 600 sheets a week processed. This figure does not include time for repairs and identification. Learning from their experiences and our own in working with architectural drawings, we believe that we can meet or improve upon the Olmsted pace and that the 50,000 sheet collection can be worked in about a year.

Processing the remainder of the collection -- documents in the job files, reports, vertical files, books, and photographs -- would be accomplished concurrently with the work on the drawings.

We will establish a work team consisting of the Project director, David Boutros (Associate Director, WHMC-KC), and a yet-to-be-hired staff including a manuscript specialist and two half-time graduate research assistants. David Boutros has 20 years archival experience -- 15 of which has been with WHMC-KC (resume attached). He was one of the primary processors of the aforementioned architectural holdings of WHMC-KC. His responsibilities will be to administer, train, set policy, and determine procedures for the handling and description of the records. Twenty percent of his time will be devoted to the Project. In addition, WHMC-KC’s Senior Manuscript Specialist, Jennifer Parker (resume attached), will work with the team for ten percent of her time. She will give additional support and direction to the working staff. Both Mr. Boutros and Ms. Parker will be hands-on participants in the work of the team. The percentages reflect approximately the contribution of their time to the preliminary work on the records. The manuscript specialist will work primarily with the broad organization and arrangement of the collection, providing continuity in the day to day operations of the Project. The graduate students will assist in the processing work, particularly data entry.

We shall advertise the manuscript specialist position locally, regionally, and nationally using the publications of the Kansas City Area Archivists, the Midwest Archives Conference, and the Society of American Archivists. We expect to draw the graduate students of UMKC’s History Department or from UMKC’s joint architectural program with the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. Tentative discussions with faculty in those departments suggests that candidates will be available.

Additionally we wish to hire two consultants to provide expertise regarding the materials: a professional conservator, Nancy Heugh of Heugh-Edmundson of Kansas City, and an architectural historian, Cydney E. Millstein of Architectural and Art Historical Research, Kansas City. These individuals will advise us on both routine and special problems we may encounter in the preservation and organization of the records. In addition, the conservator will train the staff to identify problems, perform the flattening procedures, and make simple repairs. The architectural historian will assist in establishing procedures for identifying drawing types and techniques, and outlining issues to consider regarding the significance and arrangement of the records. Most of the allotted six days each for the consultants will be used at the beginning of the Project with the remainder reserved for ‘spot checks’ over the course of the work.

Hare and Hare began using a consistent filing system early in its history based loosely upon the American Institute of Architects guideline for maintaining office files. They did not, however, adopt a job number system until 1959. Moreover, the order of the records has been disturbed by several moves of the records and reorganizations of the office. We have made a modest attempt to bring like materials together during our preliminary inventorying and assigned broad categories to each box. However, this effort requires review and reworking. Because the pre-1959 files lack a controlling job number, we intend to assign one to which the disparate materials, regardless of medium or format, may be linked -- in essence adapting the numbering system used after 1959 to the earlier documents. As an example, a job may include drawings, photographs, financial and other support documents, and a final report -- all of which would be filed and stored separately. A job number would intellectually keep these materials together. Included with the two page summary is a description of the kind of work which will be done and the approximate order in which it will be accomplished.

Generally the work for the 15 month Project breaks into four phases: the conservation work will take about one year. The processing, overlapping the conservation work, will take about 13 months. The photographic work will be hired out and will require about six months. Lastly, we will do the final work on the inventory and filing, publish the inventory, and advertise the availability of the collection during the final two month of the grant.

A tentative time-table for the work:

The photographic work will be contracted to a local photographer, Jack Denzer, who is experienced in working with historical materials, particularly glass and nitrate negatives. He currently does much of the photographic work for WHMC-KC, the Harry S Truman Library, and several other local historical agencies. We will have archival prints made and the 3,500+ nitrate negatives will be sleeved and stored away from other photographic materials. We will make new copy negatives on demand from the prints when requested in the future by researchers.

All photographs will be filed in their own series, linked to the job files if appropriate, and catalogued into a photo database. This allows us to insure special access and conditions for the medium. Negatives and slides will be similarly stored in their own series. Nitrate negatives are segregated from the other materials.

We store our plans rolled -- a method which is debated among archivists of architectural drawings. Part of our reason for doing so is practical: we can not afford the cabinets or space to store our 250,000 sheets. Beyond that we also believe, and have had confirmed from our experience, that maintaining the file as it was created and stored by it originator has value. One item on the list of supplies may merit special note: 20 rolls of plastic sleeves at $90.00/roll. This product is a clear polyester sleeve (4 mil.), uncut on 1,000 foot rolls in 6 inch and 12 inch diameters. The drawings will be rolled and tied using cloth tape with an identification sheet attached. The roll will then be inserted into the appropriate diameter sleeve and the ends tied. This procedures will provide effective protection for the drawings from dust, moisture, and snags while allowing the identifying tags to be visible. We believe this is a significant improvement over the practice of wrapping the plans in acid-free paper. We store plans in a specially designed box that measures 13"x10.5"x36" and accommodates drawings under 36 inches wide. We are careful not to fill it too full and to insure that heavier rolls are at the bottom of the box. Rolls longer than 36" are stored horizontally in bins on shelves, again with care given to the heavier items not crushing lighter rolls. Tubes are used on the inside of the rolls when needed.

Having said this, there are oversized items which need to be stored flat, such as large format photographs and presentation drawings mounted on cardboard. These items will be placed into flat boxes in ‘folders’ made from acid-free wrapping paper.

Processing of the correspondence, reports, and other files will be done in a traditional manner, respecting the original order of the records whenever possible. Deteriorating paper, such as newspaper clippings and brown paper carbons, will be photocopied. Items of greater value will be sleeved, and in some cases repaired and deacidified using Bookkeeper solution. We anticipate this activity to be rare.

Repairs, when made, will be done with heat release tissue. Linens and tissue drawings present special problems for mending -- the linen is too thick to fix, and the tissue too thin. Heat release tissue is a reasonable compromise for both which requires minimal time and expertise to apply. Again, we intend to be very conservative in the mending we perform, only undertaking it to insure the long-term integrity of the item.

Products, Standards, and Copyright:

The transfer of ownership of the Hare and Hare Records was somewhat unusual because, though we have full possession of the material and have been assigned full copyright for the whole of the collection, for tax reasons legal ownership of only about one-third of the materials has been given to the University. We anticipate a second third will be transferred before the grant begins, and the remainder of the collection transferred prior to the completion of the grant. Again, the University of Missouri has possession and owns the copyrights to the whole of the collection. Any products, including the inventory and any reproductions of items from the collection, will be copyrighted. The Western Historical Manuscript Collection’s policy is that all its published materials and microfilm meet appropriate standards for archival permanence.

Whenever practical and possible, we use archival materials for processing and storage, and other generally accepted archival practices. Where non-archival materials are used, such as our three-foot storage boxes, we are careful to provide a buffer for the documents.

We look forward to providing several products from the collection, but only one of which -- the inventory -- will be directly associated with the grant. We propose to publish 200 copies of the anticipated 250-page inventory for distribution to archives and scholars nationally. In addition we will place the inventory on the World Wide Web, along with inventories of our other collections.

Even before we received the Hare and Hare Records we envisioned a multiple phase project to care for and use the materials. The first phase was completed with the production of the preliminary inventory and the physical transfer of the records to our possession. This grant represents the second phase: the processing and conservation of the materials and the publication of a final inventory. As indicated, the purpose of this phase is to provide intellectual integrity and control for the material so that it may be readily used while insuring the long-term conservation of the documents. The third phase will involve microfilming the drawings for preservation and access. Our experience with architectural materials clearly shows that use of microfilm as first access, and in some cases only access, greatly improves the availability of the materials and saves the original documents from unnecessary abuse. Our last phase will be to produce exhibits and publications from the collection. In anticipation of that phase we have already discussed possibilities and procedures with a major exhibit distributor, the Mid America Arts Alliance, who has expressed an interest in developing one or more exhibits with us.

As an aside, we have just recently been contacted by the Building Museum in Washington D.C. requested drawings of the Civic Center of Oklahoma City (a 1930 Hare and Hare project) for an exhibit they are planning.

Currently several large repositories of architectural drawings are exploring, if not actually pursuing, programs of selling selected quality reproductions from their holdings. Following that practice we shall review the Hare and Hare Records for such items. These fall into two categories: items reproduced upon demand, and items we select to market in multiple copies. Please note that this activity differs from, and will not be allowed to interfere with, our mission to provide research access for information and publication focused on the historical value of the materials. Rather, reproductions from the collection would center upon the artistic value of the items and the desire by purchasers to have an image for display. Again, we do not intend to undertake this activity as part of the grant beyond noting potential items as we perform the routine review of the collection.

Finally, once the materials are fully identified we expect that sections of the records may lend themselves to special publications. An example of this is the articles and lectures of Sid and Herbert Hare. In discussing these materials with landscape and planning scholars, several have suggested that reprints, or in some cases first publication of such documents, may be very valuable to understanding the development of the profession. There are also indications that the collection contains exchanges of correspondence among prominent innovators in the field which will shed new light upon old issues.

Evaluation of Project Results:

This Project is a fairly straightforward effort to stabilize and provide access to a significant collection. Perhaps the true measure the Project will be the new insights that flow from the availability of records. As indicated earlier, throughout the life of the firm Hare and Hare has been an influence and innovator in the design and planning of sites and cities. An example of this is the recent research in the collection undertaken by a student from the University of Minnesota who questioned the development of a closed community outside Minneapolis. Critical to her inquiry was the role of the planners at Hare and Hare in guiding the developer in making his community ‘environment friendly’. A significant issue for today, the planning for that development occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s -- a time not generally known as environmentally sensitive. In fact we guided the scholar to an earlier project by the firm to provide evidence of an evolution of thought. This and other research that has occurred since we took possession of the papers in January 1995, clearly indicates that the records will be used and that we need to do all we can to make them easy and safe to use. Attached are several ‘testimonials’ to that effect. This is why we are working to place our preliminary inventory on the World Wide Web at the earliest convenient date and why we wish to expedite the processing of the collection with the assistance of this grant.

Attachments:

A. Resumes for David Boutros, Nancy Heugh, Cydney E. Millstein, and Jennifer Parker.

B. Job descriptions for the Manuscript Specialist and Graduate Research Assistants.

C. Brochure and information relating to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City, including:

1. Mission statement

2. A selected list of Collections in WHMC-KC

D. Selected pages from the Hare and Hare Records preliminary inventory.

E. Selected photocopies of items in the Records.

F. Sample of forms used in processing of drawings

1. Two forms used with the processing of the Hare and Hare Records

2 A thesaurus and rules for entry of data into the WHMC-KC architectural database.

G. Letters of endorsement.

© WHMC-KC, University of Missouri

updated: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City
(816) 235-1543 WHMCKC@umkc.edu