2.6 Name of Creator(s) (Required, If Known)

Purpose and Scope

This element identifies the corporate bodies, persons, and families associated with the creation, assembly, accumulation, and/or maintenance and use of the materials being described so that they might be appropriately documented and used to create access points by which users can search for and retrieve descriptive records.

Commentary: For archival materials, the creator is typically the corporate body, person, or family responsible for an entire body of materials. However, a creator can also be responsible for the intellectual or artistic content of a single item, as in the writer of a letter or the painter of a portrait. A collector or compiler of materials (e.g., Vietnam War memorabilia, letters of presidents of the United States, or materials relating to suffragettes) is considered the creator of the collection.

This element provides rules for determining which entities need to be documented as creators. The names selected in this process can also serve as access points—index terms by which users can search for and locate relevant archival materials. The use of the names of creators as access points enables researchers to gain access to an institution’s holdings and provides a means of linking all records created by a particular person, family, or corporate body. The selection of access points is discussed in the Overview of Archival Description.

Repositories should standardize the formation of creator names to ensure that the name is identical each time it is used in a descriptive system and that each person, family, or corporate body has a heading that applies to it alone. Repositories are encouraged to employ recognized standardized vocabularies (e.g., Library of Congress Authorities) and formulate nominal access points according to established rules, such as those found in AACR2 or RDA.

Exclusions

2.6.1 The rules for creating archival authority records are found in Part II.

2.6.2 Record information about entities that held custody of the materials being described but are not responsible for the creation, assembly, accumulation, and/or maintenance and use of the materials in the Custodial History Element (5.1).

Sources of Information

2.6.3 The source for the name of the creator is usually the name element in the devised title (2.3.4–2.3.17). Take the information from any reliable source, including the internal evidence of the materials being described, an external source such as a records schedule or communication with a donor.

Commentary: When describing the records of a person or family for which there are several creators, the devised title may contain all of the creators’ names. However, it is much more likely that the repository will choose to include in the title only the name of the person or family around which the collection is formed. Names of other creators can appear in other parts of the description (e.g., the Administrative/Biographical History Element, 2.7) and be recorded as access points. When devising a title for the records of a corporate body, only one creator can be named in the title. Other creators can be mentioned in other parts of the description (e.g., the Administrative/Biographical History Element, 2.7) and recorded as access points. Rules for formulating the name segment of devised titles are found in rules 2.3.4–2.3.17.

General Rules

2.6.4 Record the name(s) of the creator(s) identified in the name element in the devised title of the materials using standardized vocabularies (e.g., Library of Congress Authorities) or with rules for formulating standardized names, such as those found in AACR2, ISAAR(CPF), or RDA.

Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804

Title: Alexander Hamilton papers

Lyon, Phyllis

Martin, Del

Title: Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin papers

Richardson, James Burchell

Title: James Burchell Richardson family papers

Schramm family

Title: Schramm family papers

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937

Fullerton, William Morton, b. 1865

Title: Edith Wharton correspondence with Morton Fullerton

Bollingen Foundation

Title: Bollingen Foundation records

United States. Bureau of Insular Affairs

Title: United States Bureau of Insular Affairs records

Irvine Company

University of California (System). Regents.

Title: Land agreements between the University of California and the Irvine Company

2.6.5 Optionally, describe the nature of the relationship between the entit(ies) named in the creator element and the materials being described (e.g., creator, author, subject, custodian, copyright owner, controller, or owner). Where possible, terms should be applied from a controlled vocabulary (e.g., Resource Description and Access, Appendix I, or the MARC Code List for Relators).

Wisdom, William B., 1900-1977, collector

Title: William B. Wisdom Collection of Thomas Wolfe

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882, recipient

Title: Letters to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2.6.6 Optionally, indicate by codes or text whether the entity named is a corporate body, person, or family name.

100 3b ‡a William Smith family

Note: MARC 21 encoding, indicating that the entry is a family name

<corpname>Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation</corpname>

Note: EAD encoding, indicating that the entry is a corporate body

Personal name: Norton, Margaret Cross, 1891-1984

Note: Text label, indicating that the entry is a personal name

2.6.7 Where the names of all creators are not included in the devised title, in addition to those named in the title, record in the authorized form the names of other persons, families, or corporate bodies identified in the Administrative/Biographical History Element as creators of the materials being described.

For "Pettigrew family papers" record as creators:

Pettigrew family

Pettigrew, Charles, 1744–1807

Pettigrew, Charles Lockhart, 1816–1873

Pettigrew, Ebenezer, 1783–1848

Pettigrew, James Johnston, 1828–1863

Pettigrew, William S., 1818–1900

2.6.8 Optionally, if the name(s) of the creator(s) of series, files, or items is included in the devised title for that level or in an Administrative/Biographical History Element, record a creator element for it at that level of description.

Collection title: Eugene Loring papers

Series title: H. N. Clugston and Mary Ann Maudlin dance scrapbooks

(Record in creator element at the collection level: Loring, Eugene, 1914-1982)

(Optionally, record in a creator element at the series level: Clugston, H. N. and Maudlin, Mary Ann)

Collection title: Alexander Graham Bell family papers, 1834-1970

Item title: Biography of Gardiner Greene Hubbard

(Record in the creator element at the collection level: Bell family)

(Optionally, record in a creator element at the item level: Hubbard, Gardiner Greene)