Donating to the Archives

An aged photo of a family posing in front of a house. — A picture is worth a thousand words. A simple photo of a family in front of a house can also shed light on the era's society, architecture, carpentry, machinery, textiles, glass-making, landscaping, wildlife, photography itself...

Donating to the Archives

Not only is it a goal to preserve our collection, but we also aim to expand it to further empower our researchers. If you have any materials or artifacts related to the history and life of Appalachia, Northeast Georgia, the military, and the communities surrounding the university's campuses, we look forward to hearing from you!

Since the most crucial steps of preservation occur before the first item is touched, we are passionate about assisting donors as early as the thought of donating occurs to them. We will guide you with an overview of our delicate cataloging and transportation process, walk you through common donor considerations, answer frequent donation questions, and provide you with our evaluations of the historic significance and scope of your items.

Monetary donations

Organizing, preserving, and keeping these collections available is an expensive process, so monetary gifts at all levels are also warmly welcomed and appreciated, as are bequests and other planned gifts, endowments, and larger contributions.

To learn more about donating, contact the .

What We Collect

Holiday Postcard — A postcard showcasing an illustration utilizing several sophisticated printing techniques for its time.

Through the endless march of time, those boxes of "trivial photos", "years-old letters", or "dusty documents" in your office or attic will eventually become some researcher's "tantalizing trove of glimpses into a bygone era."

Microfiche Header for Johnson & Johnson — Johnson & Johnson built a company town around their textile mill outside Gainesville and named it after its Massachusetts facility: Chicopee.

The following list serves as inspiration of potentially historical items to watch out for:

Materials of Interest

Video and audio recordings
Scrapbooks/Photo albums
Photographs
Maps
Letters/Correspondence
Genealogical information
Diaries and journals
Financial records
Legal documents
Records of student organizations
Lecture notes
Research notes
Professional files
Administrative records
Reports
Planning documents
Meeting minutes
Governance and policy documents
By-laws and articles of incorporation
Press releases

Subjects of Interest

University of North Georgia
Gainesville State College/Gainesville College/Gainesville Junior College
North Georgia College & State University/North Georgia College/North Georgia Agricultural College
Northeast Georgia
Appalachian History and Heritage
Military History
Local industry (poultry, manufacturing, etc.)
Latino History and Culture
Asian History and Culture

Vinyl Sign Motivating Gainesville Food Workers — What event in history gave cause to print a vinyl sign (and make a hashtag) for appreciating and motivating local food production workers?

Deed of Gift

A Deed of Gift is a formal document declaring that the physical ownership of an item or collection has been willfully transferred to another party. The document will outline:

Details of the original ownership of the item(s)
The new party to receive the item(s) (i.e., the ̨��swag archives)
Which rights are being transferred (physical rights, copyrights)
Additional conditions/requests, if any.

1895 Newspaper: The Dahlonega Signal. Showing advertisements with a Transatlantic-like grammar. — A Dahlonega newspaper featuring marketing efforts from over a century ago. Notice the use of first-person voice and Transatlantic-like grammar structure.

Deed of Gift Considerations

Transferring Copyright

U.S. Copyright Law implicitly grants copyright protection for most created items/works to their original creators/authors, however those rights can be legally/explicitly transferred (e.g. to heirs, publishers, or in this case: archives.)

Along with the physical rights granted by the Deed of Gift, archive repositories typically request copyrights to be expressly transferred as well in the interest of avoiding unforeseen conflicts.

In most cases, the fair use law already permits small portions of copyrighted items to be used in the scope of private study, scholarship, or research without any need of the researcher to contact the copyright holder(s). However, there are some actions that require legal copyright owners to be contacted for written permission to perform those actions (e.g., a researcher wants to take a photo or photocopy of a considerable portion of the item home for further study.) It is easier for all parties involved (the original copyright holder, the archive, and the researcher) when the archive holds the copyright privileges for granting such permissions moving forward. However, if you wish to withhold copyrights, you can alternatively grant the archives a non-exclusive license to exhibit, digitize, and make collection materials available electronically instead.

For more information regarding copyright, refer to or contact your attorney.

Setting Additional Conditions
For the preservation of its artifacts and the privacy of its donors, each archive already maintains its own set of policies and restrictions to carefully limit:

When researchers can access the materials,

How researchers can handle materials,

Which item(s) can be scanned/reprinted,

Whether photography is permitted,

Access to severely damaged or fragile items,

Access to items containing details of individuals alive in the past twenty years,

Which portions of items are allowed for the inclusion in another work.

Before completing a Deed of Gift, familiarize yourself with our policies and discuss any additional concerns or questions you may have with the archivist. Keep in mind, the archives will be limited on which special requests they can fulfill and/or perform. As part of the consideration process, the archives prefer items where access can be offered as simply as possible to their guest researchers. If a donation carries either too difficult or too many conditions/restrictions, the archive may be unable to accept the donation. In this event, if you would still like to offer academic access to the collection while still protecting the item(s) yourself, you may discuss the option of digital surrogates.

Other Common Donation Questions

Should I prepare (clean/organize/pack) my items before you inspect/transport them?

We prefer items to remain as undisturbed as possible. The reasoning for this is twofold: first, our preservation efforts can begin right away before the items are moved, and secondly, a stack of unordered pages can provide additional context clues for future [anthropological] researchers to consider (Perhaps the last person to hold these pages in earnest were comparing these distant pages when they realized their breakthrough! Or perhaps they had reorganized these pages into what would later guide their historical speech! Or perhaps a faded coffee stain on three disparate pages are better explained if those pages remained together?)

Call us as soon as you consider to donate; especially before anyone touches or moves the items of interest.

Is my donation eligible for a tax deduction?

In some cases, a tax deduction can be taken for a donation of items if the collection represents a sizeable financial value, disregarding any historical value (e.g., a deduction on the market price of a pair of scissors, regardless of whose hand used it to cut which ribbon.)

If you believe your collection may have sufficient financial value for a tax deduction, you can consider hiring an appraiser to evaluate the collection before its donation to our repository. (Note: Archivists cannot provide tax advice nor estimates on the financial value of a collection. However, they may suggest an appraiser who can evaluate the monetary value of a collection for a fee.)

Notify the archivist before you donate if you plan on having your collection appraised. In some cases, the appraisal may need to be completed before the items are transferred into the repository as they may not be immediately or easily accessible afterward.

Could the archives take every item in my collection?

While we will carefully consider every item, we are realistically limited by physical space and staffing. If we find items that will not fit (either physically or thematically) into our own collection, we will gladly suggest other archives that will have a strong interest in your items.

Are there any obvious types of items that will not be considered?

We would love the chance to examine your entire collection to determine the compatibility of its items with our archive. Marvelous or mundane, weathered or pristine, big or small: our archivists are on the lookout for items that can balance and enhance the selection to our guest researchers. A ragged item that is unique? A tiny item with a backstory? A previously commonplace item in exemplary condition? And if we find items that would be better suited for another specialized archive, we will gladly suggest them to you and share their contact information.

How soon until my items will be available to archive guests?

It is difficult to determine exactly how soon items will be made available for research. Most archives are processing a varying backlog of items with a shifting priority list as to which items to make available next. Archivists are free to share the expected processing time for your collection, however no guarantees can be made for certain. We do appreciate your eagerness, patience, and understanding as we work to make your collection available to researchers as soon as possible.