{{Short description|Editing of historic documents for publication}} {{About|an archival process|the editing of documentary films|Film editing|the process of improving writing|Copy editing}}
'''Documentary editing''' is a process involving the publication of documents, selected from archives, museums, libraries and other institutional or private collections. A documentary editor selects documents and also annotates them to add context. The documents are then published, serving as primary source material for researchers. Documentary editing thus enables scholars, journalists and other researchers and interested readers to approach and analyze the contents of documents, without visiting them directly in institutional or private collections.
The specific editorial methodologies for various types of documents are developed and defined by archival science and other auxiliary sciences of history.
== Terminology == The term ''documentary editing'' is often confused with the editing of documentary films. Mary-Jo Kline, the author of a key introductory book on the subject,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cox |first=Richard J. |date=January 2015|title=Lester J. Cappon and the Publishing of Modern Documentary Editions |url= https://utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3138/jsp.46.3.02 |journal=Journal of Scholarly Publishing |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=224–250 |doi=10.3138/jsp.46.3.02 |issn=1198-9742| quote = In the most important practical text on documentary editing, by Mary-Jo Kline|url-access=subscription }}</ref> remarked that she once found her treatise in the "movies and film" section of the bookstore.<ref name = Kline/>{{rp|3}}
Documentary editing grew out of the related field of scholarly editing. Documentary editors support historic scholarship by editing archival primary sources, whereas scholarly editors can support a broader range of disciplines using a wider variety of sources.<ref name = Kline/>{{rp|16}} Some editing projects overlap both terms, especially those related to literary analysis, which can involve both genetic editing of a literary work, and the documentary editing of associated primary sources.<ref name = Kline/>{{rp|16}}
== History == Documentary editing began out of a desire for historians to provide a foundation for future scholars.<ref name=Kline>{{Cite book |last1=Kline |first1=Mary-Jo |title=A guide to documentary editing: prepared for the Association for Documentary Editing |last2=Perdue |first2=Susan Holbrook |date=2008 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-2727-5 |edition=3rd| location=Charlottesville London| url=https://gde.upress.virginia.edu/index.html}}</ref>{{rp|4}} The field grew in the late 1800s, with much of the work motivated by a desire to promote pride in local and national history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Millar |first=Laura |year=1986|title=The Decline of Documentary Publishing: The Role of English-Canadian Archives and Historical Societies in Documentary Publishing |author-link=Laura Millar | url=https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/11367 |number=23|journal=Archivaria |language=en |pages=69–85 |issn=1923-6409}}</ref>{{rp|72}} By the 1930s, documentary editing emerged as a specialization of professional archivists.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Birdsall |first=William F. |date=1975 |title=The Two Sides of the Desk: The Archivist and the Historian, 1909-1935 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40291735 |journal=The American Archivist |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=159–173 |doi=10.17723/aarc.38.2.b2t13026qp667526 |jstor=40291735 |issn=0360-9081}}</ref>
By the late 1970s, documentary editing began using digital automation,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Burke |first=Frank G. |year=1987 |title=Automation and Documentary Editing |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/automation-and-documentary-editing/12423FEEAD58C3433A435BD8AA65AB46 |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |language=en |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=73–80 |doi=10.1017/S0007087400000510 |issn=1474-001X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and by the early 2000s, electronic publication was preferred over printed volumes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ohge |first=Christopher |title=Publishing scholarly editions: archives, computing, and experience |date=2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-72018-2 |series=Cambridge elements |location=Cambridge}}</ref>
== Themes of projects == Documentary editing projects can be classified by the theme of the documents published.
Common themes included: * The papers of an individual, such as ''The Papers of George Washington''.<ref name=Stevens>{{Cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=Michael E. |first2=Steven B. |last2=Burg |title=Editing Historical Documents: A Handbook of Practice |date=1997 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated |isbn=978-0-7591-1753-2 |edition=1st |series=American Association for State and Local History Series |location=California}}</ref> * Diplomatic documents of a country, such as the ''Foreign Relations of the United States'' series.<ref name=Kent>{{Cite journal |last=Kent |first=George |date=July 1994 |title=Editing Diplomatic Documents: A Review of Official U. S. and German Document Series |url=https://american-archivist.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/aarc/57/3/article-p462.xml |journal=The American Archivist |language=en |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=462–481 |doi=10.17723/aarc.57.3.6n823xmm2pg07702 |issn=0360-9081|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * An historic event, such as the University of Maryland's ''Freedmen and Southern Society Project''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Freedmen and Southern Society Project - Welcome Page |url=https://www.freedmen.umd.edu/ |access-date=2025-10-11 |website=www.freedmen.umd.edu}}</ref><ref name=Kent/>
== Process ==
=== Selection === Documentary editors are forced to be selective when choosing which archival documents to edit and publish.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|47}} Although the selection process is key to appraising the evidentiary value of the published documents, later scholars often lack the means to assess the original editor's selection decisions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Preston |first=Richard A. |date=1974 |title=Review of Documents on Canadian External Affairs. Volume 1, 1909-1918; Volume 2, The Paris Peace Conference of 1919; Volume 3, 1919-1925; Volume 4, 1926-1930; Volume 5, 1931-1935; Volume 6, 1936-1939 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1851959 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=79 |issue=5 |pages=1672 |doi=10.2307/1851959 |jstor=1851959 |issn=0002-8762|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Common selection criteria include * Prioritizing documents that establish the significance of the publication's topic.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|54}} * Avoiding redundant documents on routine matters.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|54}} * Emphasizing documents not previously published.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|61}}
Editors must also abide by any terms imposed by the custodian of the records.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|75}} If the records are held in private collections, editors may persuade the owners to allow publication by noting that the originals of source documents can fetch higher prices at rare book auctions, a phenomenon termed "imprimatur value" by Katharine Leab.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|65}}
=== Annotation === [[File:Frus1977-80v09-p235.svg|thumb|upright=1.2 |An annotated document, as published in FRUS<ref>{{Cite book |last=Howard |first=Adam M. |title=Foreign relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Arab-Israeli Dispute, August 1978-December 1980| year=2014 |publisher=U.S. Government printing office |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v09| page =202 |isbn=978-0-16-092101-8 |location=Washington (D.C.)}}</ref>]] Annotation helps readers understand the context of the published documents.
Common annotations include: * Information available to the contemporary audience, such as if a letter was received by the addresses.<ref name = Kline/>{{rp|237}} * Explanations of obscure language.<ref name = Kline/>{{rp|237}} * Clarification of persons or events only partially identified in the original text.<ref name = Stevens/>{{rp|21}} * Cross-references to other documents.<ref name = Stevens/>{{rp|279}}
Typographic errors may be annotated ''sic'', or may be silently emended without annotation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miyamoto |first=Melody |number=29 |year=2007| title=Bringing Method to the Madness: Editing Personal Writings for Public Wonderment |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/docedit/200 |journal=Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979-2011)}}</ref> Older texts may reflect historic orthography, requiring so much annotation that some editors omit ''sic'' to avoid distracting readers.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=December 1984 |first=Carl| last=Prince |title=Communications |url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jahist/71.3.692 |journal=Journal of American History |language=en |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=692–693 |doi=10.1093/jahist/71.3.692 |issn=0021-8723|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''Sic'' may also be omitted when the error is ''passim'', even in more modern documents. For example, a publication of Irish diplomatic documents chose to not insert ''sic'' at each misusage of "England" as "Britain", choosing instead to explain the convention in their introduction.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Documents on Irish foreign policy: Volume III, 1926-1932 |date=2017 |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |isbn=978-1-908997-44-9 |editor-last=Fanning |editor-first=Ronan |editor1-link = Ronan Fanning| location= Dublin |editor-last2=Kennedy |editor-first2=Michael |editor-last3=Keogh |editor-first3=Dermot |editor3-link=Dermot Keogh |editor-last4=O'Halpin |editor-first4=Eunan |editor4-link=Eunan O'Halpin | quote=The authors of the documents reproduced tended to refer to Britain as ‘England’ or made no distinction between the two geographical entities and the Editors have not thought it necessary to insert (sic) at all relevant points throughout the volume.| page=xvii}}</ref>
Excessive annotations can cause a documentary publication to be regarded as secondary source, instead of as a compilation of primary sources.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ward |first1=David C. |author1-link = David C. Ward| last2=Forbush |first2=William B. |date=1990 |title=Review of The Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Vol. 3, 1811-1820, William B. Forbush III |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1181290 |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=297–300 |doi=10.1086/496506 |jstor=1181290 |issn=0084-0416}}</ref> Editors try to strike a balance between "letting the documents tell the story" and providing sufficient context to readers who may lack the editor's subject matter expertise.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Luey |first=Beth |year=2011 |title=The Best Job in the World: Documentary Editor |url= https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/docedit/8 |journal=Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979-2011)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frankel |first=Robert |year=2006 |title=Chronicling the Early Court: A Look Back at Project's End |url= https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/docedit/241 |journal=Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979-2011)|quote=Another reason we wrote these fairly extensive headnotes is that readers, frankly, would be lost without them. In a documentary history, the idea is to let the documents tell the story as much as possible. But these cases tend to be difficult – or downright baffling – and there was no way we could simply lay out the documents, even with ample annotation, and assume readers would understand the cases.}}</ref>
== Manner of publication == === Print volumes === Documentary editors historically published printed volumes.
Printed volumes may contain transcribed documents, necessitating "a fair amount of hack work"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Firth |first=Edith A. |date=1963-01-01 |title=The Editing And Publishing Of Documents |url=https://archivaria.ca/index.php/ca/article/view/12914 |journal=The Canadian Archivist |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=4 |issn=1923-6395}}</ref><ref name =Kline/>{{rp|115}} to copy the text. The texts of documents may be published in full, or be summarized to retain all important content, but to exclude more trivial and incidental matter. An abstracted text of this type is known in British English as a "calendar",<ref>{{cite book |first=P. D. A. |last=Harvey |title=Editing Historical Records |publisher=British Library |place=London |year=2001 |isbn=0712346848 |pages=56–59 }}</ref> although in American English that term is more typically applied to a more basic inventory of documents.<ref name=Stevens/>{{rp|65–69}}
An alternative form of publication is photographic facsimiles. Facsimile editions are traditionally more costly, but allow a closer fidelity to the original documents.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|148}}
Printed books, although less convenient than electronic editions, may help increase an editing project's accessibility and alleviate concerns about digital obsolescence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahlberg |first=Kristin L. |date=May 2008 |title=Building a Model Public History Program: The Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/tph/article/30/2/9/90043/Building-a-Model-Public-History-Program-The-Office |journal=The Public Historian |language=en |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=9–28 |doi= 10.1525/tph.2008.30.2.9 |issn=0272-3433|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== Microform === Microform publication reduces costs,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=McAllister |first1=William B. |title=Toward "thorough, accurate, and reliable": a history of the Foreign relations of the United States series |last2=Botts |first2=Joshua |last3=Cozzens |first3=Peter |last4=Marrs |first4=Aaron W. |date=2015 |publisher=U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs |isbn=978-0-16-093212-0 |location=Washington, DC |page =179}}</ref> while allowing editors to avoid rote transcription.<ref name=Kline/>{{rp|267}} Microform editions typically have minimal, if any annotation.<ref name=Jeffery>{{Cite journal |last=Jeffrey |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas E. Jeffrey |year =1982 |title=Microform Editions of Documentary Collections: Where Do We Stand? And Where Do We Go From Here? |url= https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/docedit/174 |journal=Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing}}</ref>
Microform publication is only suitable for legible documents, and works poorly on handwritten documents.<ref name=Jeffery/> Microform editions are usually accompanied by a printed index, which many libraries store separately from the microform, potentially frustrating researchers.<ref name=Jeffery/>
Compared with printed editions, microform editions are less selective,<ref name=Benner/> and the large number of published documents can make it difficult for readers to find germane content.<ref name=Jeffery/>
=== Electronic publication === Electronic publication allows documentary editors the fidelity of facsimiles, but without the added printing cost.<ref>{{Cite journal |journal=Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing |url=https://www.scholarlyediting.org/2014/essays/essay.pierazzo.html |year=2014 | volume =35|title=Digital Documentary Editions and the Others| first = Elena| last= Pierazzo| issn= 21-167257}}</ref> Further, as the archivist David Ferriero observed, electronic publication relieves library access services of the burden of reshelving heavy volumes.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-06-13 |title=National Archives puts Founding Fathers' papers online |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/national-archives-puts-founding-fathers-papers-online/2013/06/12/abec6828-d2b1-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html |access-date=2025-10-21 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US |first=Michael E. |last= Ruane| issn=0190-8286}}</ref>
The transition to electronic publication began when the United States National Archives commissioned a study on digital preservation in 1984.<ref name=Benner>{{Cite journal |last=Benner |first=Martha L. |date=1996 |title="The Lincoln Legal Papers" and The New Age of Documentary Editing |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30204656 |journal=Computers and the Humanities |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=365–372 |jstor=30204656 |issn=0010-4817}}</ref> The report, which was delivered in 1991, focused on the potential for publication via digital optical media, such as CD-ROM.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hooton |first=William |title=Optical Digital Image Storage System Project Report |date=March 1991 |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |url= https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA242068.pdf}}</ref> The technical standards recommended in the report were used in early electronic documentary editing projects.<ref name=Benner/>
As of the early 2010s, TEI format is preferred for electronic publication because of its extensibility and interoperability with other publishing tools.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Scifleet |first1=Paul |last2=Williams |first2=Susan P. |chapter=Understanding Documentary Practice: Lessons Learnt from the Text Encoding Initiative |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |date=2011 |volume=6966 |editor-last=Gradmann |editor-first=Stefan |editor2-last=Borri |editor2-first=Francesca |editor3-last=Meghini |editor3-first=Carlo |editor4-last=Schuldt |editor4-first=Heiko |title=Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-24469-8_29 |language=en |location=Berlin, Heidelberg |publisher=Springer |pages=272–283 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-24469-8_29 |isbn=978-3-642-24469-8}}</ref>
== Academic role == Documentary editing is foundational to modern historic scholarship.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Documentary Editing Builds Scholarly Foundations |url=https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/documentary-editing-builds-scholarly-foundations/ |access-date=2025-10-15 |website= American Historical Association|language=en-US}}</ref> Primary sources are, after an editing project, both accessible and understandable to broader audience.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Massey |first=Gregory D. |date=2005-02-01 |title=The Papers of Henry Laurens and Modern Historical Documentary Editing |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/tph/article/27/1/39/1764/The-Papers-of-Henry-Laurens-and-Modern-Historical |journal=The Public Historian |language=en |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=39–60 |doi=10.1525/tph.2005.27.1.39 |issn=0272-3433|url-access=subscription }}</ref> A publication can serve to illustrate an historic field, drawing interest to a topic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Millar |first=Laura |year = 1989| title=KLINE, A Guide to Documentary Editing |number= 28 | author-link=Laura Millar |url=https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/11583 |journal=Archivaria |language=en |pages=167–169 |issn=1923-6409}}</ref>
Documentary editing also serves a pedagogical function. Document-based questions, common in secondary school history classes, draw upon edited documents to measure student skills at historic analysis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Conrad |first=Dennis |date=2005-01-01 |volume= 27| number = 4 |title=Presidential Address--A Time to Reach Out |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/docedit/280 |journal=Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979-2011)}}</ref> Editing may also offer undergraduates an opportunity at historic research.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Condon |first=Robin |date=2007-01-01 |title=Healing the Liberal Arts: Undergraduate Research and Documentary Editing |url= https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/docedit/208 |volume=29| journal=Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979-2011)}}</ref>
== See also == {{col div}} * Historical sources * Diplomatics * Nachlass * Text publication society * Textual criticism * Textual scholarship {{col div end}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == *{{cite book| first=R. F. |last=Hunnisett |title=Editing Records for Publication |publisher=British Records Association |series=Archives and the User |volume=4 |year=1977 |location=London |isbn=0-900222-05-0 }} *{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Hunter |author-link=Michael Hunter (historian) |title=Editing Early Modern Texts: an introduction to principles and practice |location=Basingstoke |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-230-00807-6 }}
== External links == * [https://scholarlyediting.org/ ''Journal of Scholarly Editing''], known until 1999 as the ''Journal of Documentary Editing''. * [https://www.archives.gov/nhprc/projects/catalog NHPRC Publishing Projects Catalog]
{{Academic publishing|state=collapsed}} {{Cultural Conservation-Restoration|state=collapsed}}
Category:Archival science Category:Editing Category:Documents Category:Textual scholarship Category:Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage Category:Academic publishing