Documenting diversity: developing special collections of underdocumented groups

This article explores the theoretical and practical developments in documentation planning for acquiring archival manuscript material of under-documented topics. The author examines the emergence of documentation planning theory in the 1970s and 1980s as a response to historians’ and archivists’ calls regarding the lack of historical records related to racial and ethnic groups, women, the working class, and the lives of ordinary people. Heeding this call, archivists initiated programs to assist repositories in identifying and selecting materials that present a more balanced historical record. The author concludes by assessing one repository’s experience with collecting records on under-documented topics and suggesting a model for other special collection libraries and archival repositories.