An Archivist's Experience of Processing the Bernie Taft Collection at the University of Melbourne Archives

On the 80th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War, I wrote about Lloyd Edmonds for the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) blog. Lloyd's family donated his letters written home, mostly to his father, from the battlegrounds in Spain. Lloyd was studying in London when Francisco Franco invaded Spain, and believed so strongly in the Republican cause, and that Spain should not fall to fascism, that he joined the International brigade, along with 64 other Australians.

Soon after this anniversary, my colleague Katie Wood and I ran a tutorial for a Hispanic Cultures Studies class, introducing students to archives using Lloyd's letters and other material held at the UMA about the Spanish Civil War. A large part of discussion centred on Lloyd's decisions to join the war, and reflection on whether young people today would go so far to uphold their beliefs.

Expanding on this reflection led to discussions about other hard decisions: about female doctors joining the British Army to serve as they were not allowed to enlist in Australia; about the decisions made by young people who left their home countries to fight against ISIL. As I started processing Bernie Taft's collection in late 2017 the same question came back to me: "how far would I go to uphold my values and beliefs?"

The 113 boxes in the Taft collection that are now available for access by researchers illustrate not only the various narratives of the world communist movement, but the commitment of a man to his beliefs. Reaching the span of Taft's career in the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) until his resignation in April 1984, the collection also traces the next period of his life involved with various other social and community organisations, such as the Socialist Forum, Evatt Foundation, and the Australia Jewish Democratic Society.

Before beginning to describe a collection, the archivist must understand how the creator of those records used them, and then arranged them in some kind of system. In archival vernacular, this is "original order," and with Bernie's papers, the original order was at times chaotic. Taft did not separate his CPA documents from those of his other commitments. Whilst it made for a lengthy and sometimes confusing description process from the archivist's point of view, this intermingling makes sense, because his relationships with people and organisations were the manifestation of his political views throughout the decades. Because of this, researchers should utilise multiple, and varied keyword searches of the finding aid, as people, places, and even time, are often interwoven and nonchronological.

Researchers should also allow time for deciphering Taft's notes. Many are handwritten, with a significant amount on the back of CPA ballot papers and loose scraps of paper and cardboard. Folders contain notes to himself about taking documents with him on travels to reread, as well as dates written in bold giving himself a deadline to read and respond to a friend about its content. Rushed commentary on the back of electoral pamphlets strike a passionate counterpoint to the eventual typed report to the National Executive. Scribbled post it notes become breadcrumbs across decades of work.

Researchers are advised to approach the collection as a to-do list. Taft described the folders of material in several filing cabinets in a never-ending register of reading, rereading, researching and reflecting. This is especially true of material written by Taft himself; intertwined with CPA material are speech transcripts and notes, writing for the media and several boxes of drafts and edited copies of his memoir Crossing the Party Line, which refers to CPA material as Taft cross-references fact and narrative for his book.

Taft was committed to the CPA for almost 40 years at various levels of the party, and the collection covers all facets of his career. There is a significant amount of Marx School material including official course material, personal research and preparatory notes for lectures and discussion groups. There are party education programmes and documents retained during his time as director. Historians will find the...