Marking the Tally Board

Welcome to ANLA's new blog!

Here in the ANLA office we have decided to move into the 21st century. The hope for this blog is that it will allow us to be more interactive with our members -- you can post too! or you can ask me to post.

I'm sure that you are all wondering about the name of our blog -- perhaps you think that a tally board doesn't sound very archival. I wanted a name that referred to archives or archival functions, but I wanted something with specific relevance to Newfoundland and Labrador. In these situations I usually turn to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. References to archives, documents or records any kind are, I'm afraid, pretty rare in our vernacular tongue, but I did find this:

tally 1 In keeping account of the number of seal pelts, dried cod, etc, being handled, the last of a sequence of numbers, esp five, forming a single group.
[c1830] 1890 GOSSE 58 One of the crew that has climbed up begins to lay [the seal pelts] one by one, fur downward, on the barrow; singing out, as he lays down each, 'One-two-three-four-tally,' I at each one making a mark on my paper ... instead of the word 'five,' the word 'tally' is used, for then I am to make a diagonal line across the four marks, and this formula is called 'a tally.' 1924 ENGLAND 275 ... For each tub [of fish] salted a stroke would be marked on the stage wall. When five tubs had been dipped out, this would warrant a tally. You would then hear two or three men sing out at the same time. 'Tally.' C 71-130 When it came time to 'take up' the potatoes, [he] always prepared to keep tally. As each bucket of potatoes was brought to the cellar door he would make a stroke with a pencil on a piece of paper or on a board. Four parallel strokes would be crossed with a fifth stroke.
2 Cpd, comb: tally board: (a) plank or wooden table on which dried cod-fish are placed for counting and grading', CULLING BOARD (P 40-78); (b) flat board on which the count of fish caught by a Bank fisherman is marked (P 2-82)

That sounds like a record, doesn't it? As we know, records come in many formats -- textual records, photos, maps, sound recordings, video, trophies and medals, annotated books, electronic records -- this is just one more form (although whether a tally board would have enough administrative, fiscal, legal, intrinsic, evidential, and/or informational value to justify its preservation might be a good question for an appraisal exercise -- what do you think?)

At any rate, here I am, recording the first tally of archival activity on our board.

What will you see here? Well, I will be posting the usual notices and local archival news ( don't worry -- you will still get email!), but you will also see snippits of national and international archival news from listservs and blogs, short reviews of books, articles and archival tools -- and maybe a bit of archival sermonizing from time to time. My intention is to post at least one entry a week -- more if the spirit moves me. You can tally too! (comments will be moderated)

Regards,

Mary Ellen