Check Those Boxes Again & Use In ‘situ’ Where Possible

There may be a box you haven’t even checked at all!

This afternoon my hubby asked me to check on several large plastic tubs plus an old trunk that is part of his family memorabilia. I was sure his sister & I had gone through all of them two years ago. But I was wrong. There was one trunk that we overlooked. Maybe we thought we’d get to it and just ran out of time.

Some of what I found was just a “hodge-podge” of family stuff but really nothing to throw away. At least not until a closer investigation is made. But there were treasures to be found.

What do you do when you don’t have time to deal with artifacts but you cannot leave them the way they are?

Leave bound or boxed things in situ

The bottom layer of the trunk had bound letters except for one batch in the center. That one I kept together because I believe that at some point they were bound together.
Yes, you read right — a whole bottom layer of a trunk FILLED with original letters. Some as far back as the 1920s.

Leave anything in folders or binders in the original

Another plastic tub was filled with correspondence placed in folders. These were also left in situ. The same for postcards.

Temptation! It is tempting to start going through these right then and there. And frankly I would have but my hubby was on site ensuring I stayed focused on the task at hand. We need the space and the old trunks have to go.

The only trunk I won’t release yet for disposal is his uncle’s WWII trunk which was returned to his sister after his death on Malaysia in 1945. The trunk, I believe, may be desired by a member of the family and if not, a local Veteran’s group or museum.

What is meant by leaving things in situ?
Artifacts left “in situ” means the artifacts have not been moved from its original place of deposition.

But are the artifacts REALLY left in situ?

Yes in that the letters are still bound like they were when my mother-in-law did so. Whether she was the one who actually placed them in the trunk is not known but a very strong possibility. No, because the letters are not still in the trunk.
Have the letters been moved since they were placed?
Probably not otherwise they would not still have been bound in bundles
Were the letters always kept in the trunk?
Very doubtful. Is that where you would have kept them? They probably were in a dresser drawer or desk drawer until a move to a different home required the trunk. And they certainly weren’t kept in a trunk while they were arriving.
 Were the various bound letters in any particular order?
I have not checked the letters but that is why you keep them in situ UNTIL YOU HAVE THE TIME TO GO THROUGH THEM CAREFULLY. Knowing my mother-in-law, I expect to find them in the order they were received or close to it.
Would it have been better to leave them in the trunk?
I know a purist would declare “Yes!” but there are practical matters as well. The trunk takes up a lot of space and is no longer in good shape. Items in the trunk, other than the letters on the very bottom, appear to have placed there in random order. As in — does it fit in this space? Yes. That’s where it went. You can tell fairly easily when items are right next to each other and are years apart in dates or use.
I did keep all of the letters together but these are hardly all of them. There were other letters in other boxes that were reviewed last year. Those were also kept in situ.
Will I eventually put these in chronological order?
Yes, but there are hundreds of them so who knows when I’ll get this accomplished.

Is There A Truly ‘in Situ’ Artifact?

I wonder how often one of these is found in artifacts older than 50-60 years. Something that has literally not been moved or touched since the owner did so.
For example, the WWII trunk. Such wonderful treasures. But I know that his sister went through it several times. This was her only brother. The body has never been recovered. These were the last items he touched. Of course, she wanted to handle them. See them.

The trunk might have been packed by the owner but there is a good chance it was also packed by a member or members his squadron.

Care is being taken to not remove anything from a box or a ledger. BUT to actually be concerned that a flight manual was laid horizontal over a box made in India… that is not being maintained. Too many people have touched since 1945.

Plastic tubs – are the artifacts in them in situ?

Had these been packed by my mother-in-law I would have kept them in situ–but they were not. My sister-in-law packed them and told me that she was just trying to get them out of cardboard boxes. She tried to keep like stuff together but really had no idea if she did it or not. Most of that work was done in the late 1980s.
Thus my in situ work was to keep bound things bound, items in their original folders, items in the little boxes used for storage, etc.

And what a concept — label the outside of the tubs so that one doesn’t have to dig into them to find out what they contain.

Best thing I heard all day … my husband said to me, “Well, at least you have a blog article for tomorrow. Tell them to check their boxes again. They might have missed something important.”