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- Generally, the creator for an archival item or collection is the person, family, or corporate body “predominantly responsible for the creation assembly, accumulation, and/or maintenance of the materials.” (DACS 2.3.4) Note that this person may not always be the donor, and in this case the creator should not be the donor but rather the person most responsible for creating the materials. For example:
- Creator: Gerson, Tove Gertrud Mueller, 1903-1998
- Title: Audio letters from Tove Gerson to Elena Dodd, 1985-1995
- Provenance: Gift of Elena Dodd, 2021
- See catalog record at http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99155361320003941/catalog
- Where the materials are collected by an individual about another individual or a topic, the collector should be the creator. If the collection is about a person, that person should be a 600. For example:
- Creator: Yamaguchi, Mamoru, 1953-
- Title: Mamoru Yamaguchi Collection collection on Ida Pruitt, 1986-1997, undated
- Subject: Pruitt, Ida
- See catalog record at http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99156257967903941/catalog
- There may be cases at Schlesinger where we choose to bend this rule to center the person who was the focus of our acquisition decision. For example, letters to a wife from her spouse about their divorce. Because we are interested in the woman’s position in the relationship we may choose to identify her as the creator. For example:
- Creator: Jones, Bertha Howland, 1882-1978
- Title: Letters to Bertha Howland Jones from Hugh Findlay, 1909-1914
- See catalog record at http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99155365108603941/catalog
- The creator (as indicated in the 1XX) should almost always match the creator segment of the title. One example of when that rule has consciously been broken is in the case of the bill of sale for women and girls who were enslaved. Although the enslaver was named as the creator, he was not listed in the title. For example:
- Creator: Pouncey, James (Enslaver)
- Title: Bill of sale for Phillis, Lizzy, Jenny, Laura, Esther and Leah, enslaved women and girls, 22 February 1833
- See catalog record at http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99155256318003941/catalog
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