Robert Giard papers

2005 and 2011 Acquisitions: The 2005 and 2011 acquisitions received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and in some instances minimal organization, at the time of acquisition. Further organization, rehousing, and description were carried out in 2013.

These acquisitions are comprised of material formerly classed as: Uncat MSS 765 and Uncat MSS 1274. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, according to month and year of acquisition.

Description of the 2005 and 2011 acquisitions is compiled from individual preliminary lists for each acquisition that were created at or around the time of receipt by the library. The preliminary lists were migrated to comply with current archival descriptive standards and merged into a single file in 2007-2008. As part of the migration, modifications were made to the formatting of individual lists; however, the content of the lists was neither modified nor verified. Box 271 contains print-outs of original inventories of 16" x 20" photographs. These inventories contain detailed information not found in this finding aid and originate from a data export of a FileMaker Pro Database acquired with the collection.

As a rule, descriptive information found in the Collection Contents section is drawn in large part from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.

2018 and 2019 Acquisitions: The 2018 and 2019 acquisitions were arranged, rehoused, and described in winter/spring 2023-2024. The negatives, contact sheets, and slides that Giard housed in binders have been removed from binders and foldered. Folder titles for these materials are derived from the original binder labels. Many negatives from the 1960s-1970s are housed in original negative booklets. Most slides were removed from their original deteriorating plastic sleeves and rehoused in archival sleeves.

The 2018 acquisition was accompanied by a digital spreadsheet export of Giard's Filemaker Pro database which cross-references negatives, contact sheets, and prints of his portraits and some landscapes and sites. This spreadsheet includes negatives and contact sheets from the following subseries: Portraits, Series A, Series B, Series C, and Winifred. The spreadsheet includes prints from the following creator-imposed series: Gay and Lesbian Writers, Gay Sites, Nudes, and Portraits. Links to the Excel spreadsheet and to a Word document with instructions for interpreting the spreadsheet are included in the relevant scope and content notes for negatives and contact sheets.