Club Archives Query? plus Valuation of Old Golf Books?

[James Boon]

I've just spent an interesting afternoon going through our club archive whilst listening to Open coverage on Radio 5 

There are boxes and shelves full of random collections of papers, letters, notes, photos, old pamphlets or tournament programmes. There are books full of old committee meeting minutes and also a few folders full of some of this stuff put in some sort of order from when someone has obviously tried to bring a sense of order. However its generally chaos!

Have any of you any experience of being a clubs archivist or historian that you would be willing to share? Or any tips on how to go about going through all of this and organising everything, chronological, alphabetical, topic etc etc? Any ideas of how this could be done in the 21st century with the possibilities of getting a lot of this digitised or is that a later step once a sense of order has been managed?

My own personal interest in this is to look back through all this information to see if there is any more information regarding the architectural history of the club and also of Tom Williamson and his work as a golf course architect while he was the clubs secretary. However there is clearly more in there that may be of interest to others, so it would be good to get everything sorted? Also, it would make a good basis of an improved display of historical material in the club house and perhaps also some sort of club library?

Talking of which, there are a few old golf books, possibly first editions, buried away in there. Any ideas of how we can get these valued? I've done an initial search on the internet to get a bit of an idea, but it might be worth getting this done properly?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

James

[James Boon]

And after posting I remember to search for previous threads!!! Sorry

I found these:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,44275.0.html
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,39485.0.html

The idea of contacting a local university to see if some of the history students are interested in helping out (perhaps one with an interest in golf already) seems a great idea? Especially as its not like I've tons of free time to put into this!

Anything further? Thanks again.

Cheers,

James

[David Lott]

You might want to consider donating the archive to an institution like a library or museum that could preserve them for the long term. This of course would come after you understand what you have. Even the best run private organizations usually lack the skill, facilities and long term commitment to preserve interesting or important archival materials. You would want to place some limits on the institution, the principal one being that they may not sell the collection. If they no longer desired to maintain it, it should be returned to your club.

It's great that you are looking into all of this, and that a decent body of material has been preserved. That is often not the case.

[Adrian_Stiff]

James I collect quite a lot of varied historical golf pieces. If you write down what programmes you have I can give you an indication of their value (condition is important). Books are much more easier to find their values. Other aspects of ephemera are worth lots to the right person and almost zero to another. I really do not know what you have found but I suspect most will be important to the club rather than outside.

Give me a fbook message

[Niall C]

James

I've done a bit of looking through club archives and it can be a mixed bag. One club had all the minutes bound which was handy while other stuff I've looked at comprised handwritten notes. If it's all loose I'd suggest gathering in chronological order by Committee in case of Minutes and then have them bound. It's amazing how easily loose sheets get "lost". David's suggestion of lending them to national archive isn't a bad one either and of course digitising everything is the best yet, however that's probably a much bigger project.

BTW, what have you found so far re the architecture of the course ?

Niall
 

[Adam Lawrence]

When preparing our course evolution report at Woking, I spent a few hours searching through the attics where the club stores its documentation. The most interesting discovery was the first minute book, the most interesting thing in there Bernard Darwin's application to join the club...proposed by John Laing Low!

[Neil_Crafter]

Adam - you didn't manage to take a phone pic of BD's application by any chance did you ?? 

[David Stamm]

Adam - you didn't manage to take a phone pic of BD's application by any chance did you ?? 

I would really like to see this if there is a pic. What a wonderful find!

[James Boon]

Thanks everyone,

Adrian,

there were quite a few programmes for past professional or top amateur events at the club, and I'd not considered they might have some value until you hinted at the possible value of such ephemera.

I also found a few copies of a nice little brochure produced by the club with text by Henry Longhurst, though I cant recall the date of its publication, but it was pre 1950.

Niall,

As Adrian says, lots of stuff that the club would find of interest but perhaps not anyone else. No hidden treats yet regarding the architecture but you never know.

Adam,

A very cool find. I can only hope we find something close to that!

David,

An interesting idea. I guess once we've at least got a better idea of what we have it might be worth contacting one of the local museums?

Cheers,

James

[James Boon]

Thinking further, does anyone know if there is a suitable computer program for recording or listing what we find? I'm sure we can use an Excel spreadsheet of some kind, but I thought there might be something more specific?

Cheers,

James

[Mark_Rowlinson]

James,

As someone who has been involved in the centenary books of a number of clubs all I can say is that you might be very lucky in finding the sort of information we all seek, and, all too often, you'll find that the information you most want to find simply isn't there.

It can be very frustrating.

Mark.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Thanks everyone,

Adrian,

there were quite a few programmes for past professional or top amateur events at the club, and I'd not considered they might have some value until you hinted at the possible value of such ephemera.

I also found a few copies of a nice little brochure produced by the club with text by Henry Longhurst, though I cant recall the date of its publication, but it was pre 1950.

Niall,

As Adrian says, lots of stuff that the club would find of interest but perhaps not anyone else. No hidden treats yet regarding the architecture but you never know.

Adam,

A very cool find. I can only hope we find something close to that!

David,

An interesting idea. I guess once we've at least got a better idea of what we have it might be worth contacting one of the local museums?

Cheers,

James

James with regard to programmes, Open championship pre 1964 everything is worth more than £100 (1961 is £500) in the 50s everything at least £150 (1950 and 1951 are £1000) (1952 -£300) (1953 - £400) 1946 is about £1000 47 and 49 £500 48 is about £300. Pre War everything is close to £1000, though some might make a lot if they come up I have never seen a 1934 and only 1 1931. 1930 because of Bobby Jones is £4000; pre 1930 they are £5000 upwards though 1929 is commonish (£800). Amateur championship programmes are not worth as much maybe 50-60% of Open ones, which does not make sense as they are rarer and at some stage the market will realise there is probably only 3 or 4 1932 Amateur Championship programmes. Ryder Cup programmes are 1965 (£40) 1961 (£65) 1957 (£90) 1953 (£150) 1949 (£200) 1937 (£650) 1933 (£1000) 1929 never seen one
Walker Cups are not so valueable same with Curtis Cups. Anything exhibition pre war is worth £20-£30 and even 1920s exhibition are not worth lots....signatures add value also.

[Phil Young]

James,

I've done a good number of course evolution histories for clubs. What I would recommend is not concentrating on what has been found until the search for things has ended. To place everything into a main timeline combining information from documents, board minutes, letters, newspaper/magazine articles, photographs, etc... with a main one detailing all things found. This should NOT include anecdotal emmories/stories that are unsubstantiated. From this main document a number of specific inidvidualized sections that cover things such as individual hole-by-hole, sprinkler systems, trees, property purchases/sales and course/club/individual member histories from the information found.

Let the timelines tell the story...

[James Boon]

Thanks again Adrian and thanks Phil,

I will try and get a message to you both when I've a little more time / have delved deeper...

In the mean time, any further input is greatly received.

Cheers,

James