Overview

Due to 19th to mid-20th century naming conventions, womens' names are often subsumed in documentation under that of their spouse, if recorded at all. Examples of this practice can be seen in various architectural drawings records in the Alexander Architectural Archives (AAA).

In 2022, a pilot program was created by AAA staff to find unattributed female clients' names within architectural drawings and add them to their records (contributor and title field.) This work was conducted with students from the INF 385S Digital Libraries course. The workflow below is adapted from these individuals' work as well as initial research by Devon Murphy, Metadata Analyst. The workflow is meant to be adaptable to any metadata schema.

Workflow

Identify what fields contain name data that you would like to change:

• Track this information in a spreadsheet. Common data points include contributors/creators, subject names, titles, and descriptions.

Identify name prefixes/patterns:

• Create a list of all name prefixes in your data. These could be variations on Mr./Mrs./Sra./Señora, etc. 

Verify and disambiguate individuals' names:

• Search name authorities if the person is well-known, or has a presence in name authorities.

  • Getty Vocabularies' ULAN

  • LCNAF

  • VIAF (useful for international terms/names)

  • Wikidata

• Search Census records, city directories, or genealogical resources if the person is lesser known/not in name authorities.

  • Portal to Texas History 

  • Heritage Quest Online Ancestry

• Review birth/death dates, occupations, and residences to ensure correct names.

Make your changes:

• Utilize tools like OpenRefine, regex, or Python to make global changes across datasets. 

• Ensure changes are tracked on original name prefixes spreadsheet.

Table of Contents

Works Cited

Pierce Meyer, Katie. 2022. Drawings Metadata Workflow . Alexander Architectural Archives.

Brewer, Celeste. 2020. “Eleanor Roosevelt Speaks for Herself: Identifying 1,257 Married Women by Their Full Names.” News from Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Columbia University Libraries. 2020. https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/rbml/2020/09/09/eleanor-roosevelt-speaks-for-herself-identifying-1257-married-women-by-their-full-names/.

Carpenter, Brian. 2019. “Finding Mrs. Mahone and Other Indigenous Experts in the Archives.” Blog APS Library. American Philosophical Society. 2019. https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/finding-mrs-mahone-and-other-indigenous-experts-archives.

Wilson Special Collections Library. “A Guide to Conscious Editing at Wilson Special Collections Library.” UNC Libraries, 2022. https://library.unc.edu/2022/06/conscious-editing-guide/ specifically the section "Revealing the Woman Behind Mrs. Husband's Name"

Yale Library. 2022. “Reparative Archival Description Working Group: ArchivesSpace Agents Reparative Task Force for Women’s Names.” Yale University Library Research Guides. Yale Library. 2022. https://guides.library.yale.edu/c.php?g=1140330&p=8319100.