Johanna Wickman | Research Arsenal

What is the Best Way to Catalog Your Collection?

Posted on April 2, 2025June 18, 2025 by Johanna Wickman

What is the best way to catalog your collection? A catalog system for your collection can be as basic or advanced as you would like, however, there are some key pieces of information that it should keep track of:

What the item is
Its description
Where it came from
Where it is located
Its catalog number

Aside from these major points, it can be helpful (although not necessary) to keep track of:

What did it cost
What is its value
What is its condition
Related items

As we discussed in a previous blog post, the purpose of the catalog system is to keep track of important details about your collection in a way that is easy to access. This second part will determine the best way for you to keep a catalog.

Analog or Digital?

I am a strong proponent of using a digital method to track your collection, but I will concede that the most important point is that you have one—not so much the format it may take. If you prefer to keep a notebook with this information written down, that is better than nothing, and I applaud you for creating a system! However, if I can encourage you to use a digital system, that will be of more use to you in the future. Simply put, a digital system will allow you to search your collection by keyword, location, description, donor, etc. If you are only using an “analog” system, you will only be able to search by your catalog’s filing system. If it’s alphabetical, you’ll only be able to search by that, or if it’s by catalog number, that will be your method of search. It will be impossible to simply do a keyword search for “bayonet” and find every photograph, artifact and document with “bayonet” as part of its description.

If you are dead set on avoiding anything computer based, and analog based system is still better than nothing. There are a couple of ways to do this: you could use a system based on index cards, or a simple notebook. In either case, you would want to give each item its own catalog number (which will get into in a future post on actually cataloging items) and use that as the filing point for your collection. For example, you may choose to use a simple numerical system of your name combined with the year you obtained the item. If Joe Smith purchased a bayonet in 2025, it’s number may look something like JS2025.001 with “.001” identifying it as the first item obtained in 2025. Don’t stress too much over the numerical system as we’ll go over that in a future post!

Computer Based Collection Catalog Systems

If you are comfortable with computers there are a number of options for you to use to create your catalog. Museums by and large use Past Perfect software, which is very expensive, and geared for museums. For the average private collector that is overkill, and now there are even competitor programs to Past Perfect.

If you’re only a small step up from using an analog based system, and the thought of using a dedicated software program is intimidating, then I’d recommend just using Excel. It’s not pretty, but it will let you list everything you would have listed in a notebook or index card set digitally, which will give you the option to at least use CTRL+F and do a keyword search.

If you’re willing to learn a new computer program, there are a couple of options:

Recollector

Cost: $49 one-time fee

Recollector is by far the most cost effective catalog system available for private collectors. It mimics the well-known Past Perfect but is stripped down to run on a budget. It is easy to install and their website includes a number of training options from videos to manuals, so it is easy to learn.

Screenshot of single entry in Recollector — Here you can see the important information that a catalog system tracks in a single entry for Recollector. All of the key information is easy to find, searchable, and in one convenient location.

It will track all of the key information above, is searchable, and lists the information in an intuitive format. In addition, it has a companion app so that you can view your collection on your phone. How handy would this be the next time you’re at one of those big Civil War collector shows and wondering if you already have a photo, document, or artifact similar to what you’re considering buying?

If your collection is sizeable—we’re talking over 1,000 items, many of which are related, then you will likely want a more robust program. In this case, I would recommend CatalogIt.

CatalogIt

Cost: $150/year for 2,500 items and 3 users

This software has all of the components of Recollector, and a whole lot more. One of the key features is the ability to relate items together and to share your collection online in virtual galleries. Both of these features are included in the subscription cost. Another key difference with CatalogIt is that it is cloud based with a fully functional phone app, meaning that not only can you see your collection from your phone, you can edit from your phone. You can create an entry on your desktop, snap a quick photo on your phone, and upload the image straight into CatalogIt from your phone. Easy peasy!

Screenshot of CatalogIt entry for the Grand Army of the Republic — In this screenshot from the author’s personal collection taken from the mobile version of CatalogIt, you can see how the Grand Army of the Republic is listed as “GAR” and “G.A.R.” showing that a search of any of those three terms will result in Grand Army of the Republic items.

CatalogIt also allows you to create related organizations and people. This is HUGE. Let me explain why: If you’re a Civil War collector, chances are you may have a GAR item, right? Or is that Grand Army of the Republic? Or is it G.A.R.? Now if you do a search in Excel or Recollector for “G.A.R.” you won’t bring up “Grand Army of the Republic” or “GAR” because they are not the same text values. They are purely searching based on that information. Or, if someone is “John Michael Smith” and is sometimes referred to as “J.M. Smith” or “JM Smith” or “J. Smith” you have no way to indicate that they are all the same. CatalogIt allows you to create an organization or a person when you are tagging information in your collection. When you create that person or organization, you simply type in any of their AKAs and the software will remember that. In addition, if you suddenly discover that a person named “Amos” also went by “Dale” you can edit the person you created, add “Dale” and it will automatically update that for all of your entries. This is a fantastic feature to make searches way more useful and accurate, and excellent if you wish to share your collection online for people to search through.

Take a good look through all of these options, and it’s important to note that both software programs offer free trials, so that you can see which one is right for you! We’ll start going over how to catalog in the next blog posts! In the meantime, feel free to check out the Research Arsenal database for ideas of information to track in your collection.

How Are You Keeping Track of Your Collection?

Posted on March 26, 2025June 18, 2025 by Johanna Wickman

Collections of items in Riker mounts (like this display of GAR medals) can benefit from having all of the background provenance tracked in a database.

Why You Need to Inventory Your Collection

Keeping track of your collection is one of the most important things you can do as a collector. We all know how it starts: You are going through life minding your own business when suddenly you get bitten by the collector bug. Now you find yourself scouring eBay, Facebook Marketplace, flea markets, antique stores, garage sales, and greasy dumpsters for your latest finds. Don’t worry, there’s no shame in that. Although if you’re a regular dumpster diver I’d definitely make sure that all your shots are current….

Once the collector bug has struck, you may find your new collection quickly spiraling out of control with more and more additions. Whether it’s a plethora of general Civil War memorabilia, a hefty photographic collection, firearms, buttons, badges, or ribbons, it can get overwhelming fast. Are all of these finds still on display? Or has that beautiful new sharpshooter tintype you found on your latest dumpster diving trip (hey, it could happen!) taken center stage on the mantel and relegated those other old CDVs to a drawer or a binder? Do you have all of the information of where you got these things, who you got them from, what the significance of them is, where they are stored, what you paid for them, who’s in the picture, and more, written down somewhere, or is it all in your noggin? If it’s the latter, it’s high time to start getting this information down on something concrete.

And if any of you are out there saying, “But I can remember all this! I know all this information in my head!” I’m going to tell you right now, STOP. Once your collection ends up with more than a few things, you won’t be able to remember the exact date you got something, the exact price you paid, the name of the person who sold it to you, the random funny story the seller told you about the person it used to belong to, etc. That information will fade. It’s a simple fact of life. The second issue with this mentality is what if something happens to you? We all know someone who has passed unexpectedly or has been severely debilitated by a stroke or freak accident. We all think it won’t happen to us, but the truth of the matter is that it absolutely can. One last thing to consider is what happens to all of your stuff when you pass on? Are your kids taking it? Do they have the encyclopedic knowledge of your collection that you do? Will it be sold? Does your family have the encyclopedic knowledge of your collection to sell it for a fair price? We all love those deals we find where someone is selling something that they have no idea the actual significance or value of. We’ve all made scores like that, but that’s probably not something any of us would like to see happen to our collections.

How Can I Keep Track of My Collection?

Pen and paper is better than nothing, but for a truly functional catalog system, you'll want to use a computer database. — Pen and paper is better than nothing, but for a truly functional catalog system, you’ll want to use a computer database.

At this point, you may be asking, “Well, this is wonderful information, but what can I do?” I’m so glad you asked! May I present to you, the idea of (drumroll) CATALOGING!” You may say, “But I’m not a museum! I don’t need that!” Well, my friend, once you’ve crossed the line into a large collection, you may as well be a museum. You’re in the big leagues now and you’re going to need to start using some sort of catalog system to track and store information about your collection. This is not as overwhelming as it may seem, and chances are, many of you are already doing something like this.

Over the next few blog posts, I’m going to walk you through creating and using a museum catalog system. I will take you through the basics of creating a trinomial numbering system, how to number your items (spoiler alert, it’s not with ballpoint pen. Didn’t you read last week’s article?), enter them into a database, and store your collection. The goal of all of this is to ensure that your collection itself and the information associated with your collection, all stays together in perpetuity. It’s frustrating to think that we may own an unidentified photo that maybe just one or two owners back, was actually identified, but the information was lost when the collection was parceled out on eBay. This happens far more often than I like to think about. Having all this information together in a single database will help alleviate those concerns. Not to mention, this also becomes a fantastic way to track your collection for insurance and appraisal purposes.

As someone who has worked in museums, ran museums, designed exhibits, and served on museum boards for the past 17 years, there are a lot of museum practices that would be of tremendous benefit for private collectors. A catalog system is high on that list because the value of keeping information with artifacts is priceless. So, pull out your notebooks for next week’s post as we dive into this. This is also a wonderful time to assess your collection and really take the time to inventory it, even just on a cursory level. How many items do you have? Do you know exactly which items are in which boxes for storage? Which items are on display? Can you pop quiz yourself on where, when, how and for how much you got each item? And for those of you who have a catalog system in place, how does that system work? Is there anything it’s not keeping track of that you wish it was? We’re going to go over all of this in the coming weeks and I sincerely hope that the information in these upcoming articles will help you find a system that works perfectly for you!

In the meantime, hop over to the Research Arsenal and look through the database to see what sort of data points it tracks. Then take a look at the Library of Congress (or any other inventoried database) and get a feel for how these sites organize information and what they keep track of.

Angry Archivist: Tracing Civil War History With a Ballpoint Pen

Posted on March 19, 2025May 22, 2025 by Johanna Wickman

This letter was written by Lt. Horatio Graves of the 10th Massachusetts Infantry in June 1864. At some point in recent history, the original writing has been traced over in spots with a modern ballpoint pen.

Working with archives and artifacts, you are bound to come across things that make you cringe or outright cry. I have been working in museums and with historic material for over 16 years now, and the things I see sometimes still shock me. No one wants an “angry archivist” so I am going to share some of the more unfortunate things I’ve encountered in this (and future) blog posts in the hopes of offering solutions so that these things can be avoided in the future.

One thing that is important to get straight right off the bat: If you are a collector of anything historic (ANY item of historical significance) you are not its owner, you are its caretaker. Bluntly, this means that this item should continue to exist long after you have kicked the proverbial bucket. Which also means that it should continue to exist in its purest form. It should not be modified in any way from its original form. Anything done to archive material or artifacts should be reversible—or in the case of conservation, be done by professionals to avoid irreversible damage. Tracing Civil War history with a ballpoint pen causes irreversible damage to documents.

The Ballpoint Pen

Civil War letter traced with ballpoint pen — This original Civil War letter written in pencil has been traced over by a modern hand with ballpoint pen.

Take a look at this wonderful original Civil War letter. Look at that lovely blue ink it is written in…wait, why is it in a mixture of pencil and ink? Why does that blue ink look like ballpoint pen ink? They didn’t have those in the Civil War, did they? No, no they did not. This letter was written in pencil, but at some point in its lifetime, a former owner of the document decided it was hard to read. So, what did they do? They busted out their trusty ballpoint pen and TRACED OVER THE ORIGINAL WRITING WITH PERMANENT BLUE INK.

Folks, I cannot stress this enough, please, please do not do this. I understand that 160-year-old pencil writing can be difficult to read, but tracing over the original writing on a period document is an archival crime.

Here are some alternatives:

Rewrite the letter onto a separate sheet of paper. Or, better yet, type it on your computer!
Scan the letter and use a photo editing program to enhance the contrast and make the writing more readable.
Literally anything that does not deface the original document.

The Tape

Civil War letter with acidic tape — Here you can see how acidic old cellophane tape is. Even where the tape has crumbled off, the yellow stain remains on the document.

As you can imagine, documents from the Civil War are extremely fragile. Some are even falling apart. Unfortunately, for this document, not only was the pencil writing difficult to read, but it was tearing along the creases where the letter had been originally folded. But not to worry! The former owner of it knew just what to do! TAPE IT. Sigh.

Crumbly acidic yellowed tape is something I see far too often on archival documents. And I understand why people did this. The paper was old, it was falling apart, and they tried their best to keep it together. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Unfortunately, tape is not archival—it is extremely acidic. Especially that old transparent cellophane tape from the 1960s and 1970s. Over time, it turns a beautiful shade of yellow, gets super crumbly, and begins to eat the paper. Lovely, isn’t it? And once it’s on there, much like the ballpoint pen, the damage is irreversible. In fact, if you look closely at this photo you can see where the acidic tape has actually eaten through the paper and dissolved it.

Here you can see how the acidic tape actually ate through the paper of the letter causing irreversible damage.

This is a quandary though. If you have historical documents like this, it’s important to preserve them. But if they are falling apart, what can you do? I’ll give you a hint, the answer is not to tape them back together. The first option I would recommend are archival sleeves. Specifically, polypropylene sleeves that are side locking. These are perfectly clear, durable, and archivally safe. This means no yellowing! Or slow acidic eating of documents! What’s better is that they are side locking. This means that you can easily open the sleeve, gently place your document inside it, and then “lock” it with the folding flap. The sleeve then safely holds your paper with a small bit of static and pressure of the top flap to ensure that it does not slide around inside. These types of sleeves come in a variety of sizes so that you can put everything from CDVs to oversized parchment certificates in them. Archival Methods is a great place to purchase some if you are interested: https://www.archivalmethods.com/product/side-loading-print-sleeves

These side-locking print sleeves from Archival Methods will keep your fragile documents safe without causing further damage and degradation.

When shopping for sleeves, I recommend the side-locking type, although there are other varieties that seal on two or three sides. I discourage using the ones that are sealed on three sides because that only allows one side to insert the document, and if it is fragile (as all Civil War era papers are) there is a much higher chance it will be damaged trying to place it in the sleeve. Because the side-locking ones are only sealed on one side, they open easily allowing you to place the document inside gently, and then fold it back over, minimizing stress on the document.

Digitize Everything

The second thing I would recommend is to digitize your documents. In museums, we always try to minimize the amount that any original document or artifact is handled. The more it is handled the more it starts to degrade. Tears on paper get bigger, edges can start to crumble, the leather on artifacts starts to deteriorate faster, etc. Once something is digitized it reduces the need to handle the original object. This is especially true with papers because they can easily be read on a high quality scan (300 dpi). Once the document is scanned, it can be stored safely in a sleeve inside an archival folder and box.

I understand that most collectors are not trained in museum and archival best practices. And I hope that sharing some of the suggestions above will help prevent more incidents like what I’ve discussed. I’ll continue to post and share helpful hints and tips on this blog and share resources of other sites that may be helpful for you in managing your collections. The most important thing to keep in mind when storing or working with your collection is: Is what you are doing permanent? If it is, do not do it. Don’t write on original documents with permanent pen, don’t cut them with scissors to better fit that neat frame you bought, don’t tape them back together, don’t hang them up in sunlight to fade, etc. You are the proud caretaker of these items, and if treated well, they will continue to last for future generations whether in private collections or museums. Once they are permanently ruined, there is no going back.

Where Can You See These Letters?

To see the letters referenced in this post visit the Research Arsenal database.

The first letter pictured can be found here: https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/130324

An example of tape destruction can be found here: https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/130294

The rest of the Horatio Graves letter collection can be found by searching by “Individual” and typing in “Horatio Graves” on the Research Arsenal database.