Most of the collection consists of correspondence, reflecting Kelsey's interests in a number of areas. These include his involvement with professional societies, especially the Archaeological Institute of 'America (AlA) and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South; his involvement with various schools of Classical Studies here and abroad; acquisitions for the University such as the Papyri collection, the Dattari Coin Collection and the De Criscio Inscriptions; University sponsored activities inspired and led by him such as the Humanistic Series and the archaeological expeditions to the Near East; the academic and physical growth of the University of Michigan: work with the Belgian Relief Committee following World War I and discussions with his esteemed colleagues on a number of professional and scholarly topics. Correspondents include Charles Freer, Mitchell Carroll, Arthur Fairbanks, Walter Dennison, H.I. Bell and Langdon Warner.
The papers were stored in specially made "library boxes", each one carefully labeled by its contents. Archivally, this appeared to be an ideal collection: material placed in logical series, organized in individual folders, and for the most part, arranged in chronological order. At first, it appeared that Kelsey himself had done all the organizing and record keeping since many "see also" references in his hand were jotted on letters or folders. However, files from the later years bore a different handwriting and others included a few letters from colleagues written after his death in 1927. Conversations with Louise Shier, retired long-time curator at the Kelsey Museum led to the indication that Orma Butler, who worked with Kelsey for many years, may have supervised the maintenance and final form of those records.
The Correspondence series had already been arranged in alphabetical order, by chronological series, each series covering a span of approximately three years; the entire period covered is from 1911 until 1927 although some correspondence predates 1911. In some cases, correspondence with people such as Mitchell Carroll, Secretary of the AlA, had been placed in this series even though AlA files contained his correspondence also. In order to make this series more cohesive: 1) All correspondence with individuals was arranged in one series in alphabetical order; 2) Correspondence with the same person over a period of years was arranged in chronological order under that individual: 3) A "Miscellaneous" category was created for single items or groups of items that were not particularly noteworthy: these items were grouped together alphabetically and in chronological arrangement with the names of all correspondents listed on the outside of each folder: and 4) Certain correspondence were removed from the Correspondence series and put under the following series: Organizations, Societies and Meetings, General Business Correspondence, Publication Correspondence and the University of Michigan (under Educational Institutions).
In addition to Kelsey's Correspondence series, he had filed certain correspondence and other material under the following: the AlA, Archeological Schools, Freer Manuscripts, Expeditions, Latin Department (e.g., courses and plays), Resource Materials (used in research for Kelsey's writings), Belgium Relief Correspondence, and Teachers. These sections were preserved.
A Joint Projects/Special Projects series was created to contain certain broad subject subgroups already arranged by Kelsey but which had no common theme to bind them to existing sections. This series encompasses the Humanistic Series (Freer Manuscripts), Expeditions, Frieze Diary, Belgium Relief Correspondence, and Papyri.
A word is in order about the Papyri. This subgroup contains a set of transcripts completed in 1931, of portions of Kelsey's letters concerning the acquisition of the papyri together with most of the original letters from which the transcripts had been made. Although the transcripts focus only on the subject of papyri, the complete letters may touch on other matters as well. Almost all the letters from which the transcripts had been made were found in yet another carton in the Museum attic. In 1959 Arthur E. R. Boak wrote an article for the Michigan Alumnus Quarterly Review; evidently he had used the correspondence in this carton as research material for his article. Since this correspondence deals directly with the papyri collection, it was placed intact in the Papyri subgroup. This grouping had also included several folders marked "Freer Manuscripts", and these were left at the beginning of the "Papyri" subgroup as they were found. (It also appears that other files from Correspondence had been removed and placed in the Carthage Expedition files.).
Although material pertaining to the Archeological Schools (e.g., the American Academy in Rome) technically falls under the 'AlA, such material had been boxed by Kelsey under each school. In order to make accessibility easier, all papers pertaining to schools were assigned to the Educational Institutions series in the following subgroupings: AlA Schools, University of Michigan, and Other Schools. The Expeditions grouped under Joint Projects/Special Projects were dealt with in a similar manner; Cyrene had been under the auspices of the AlA and the Near East Expeditions under the University of Michigan, but all expeditions were grouped together to facilitate accessibility. The material that Kelsey used for research was placed under a section titled "Printed Material".
At first it was felt, that the Teachers files should not be included in the Kelsey papers, as these appeared to be departmental files only. However, after conversation with Louise Shier and upon closer inspection, it was decided to include them but to place them as a series at the end of the collection. Letters in these files from students who had taken Kelsey's Latin Teacher's Course in 1894-1895 and later, as well as those from candidates for advanced degrees, added further insights into Kelsey's character and personality. The letters also revealed more intimate portraits of young scholars such as John Winter, Orma Butler, Walter Dennison, Ralph Magoffin, Richard Norton, Henry Sanders and George Swain, the photographer whose work did so much to enhance the Humanistic Series. Aside from the correspondence, the collection includes reports from the professional organizations, University Committees and archaeological expeditions. The resource material is in the form of pictures, articles, and newspaper clippings. Much of this material focuses on Pompeii, a subject Kelsey studied for years and which he was putting in manuscript form at the time of his death. This section also contains twenty-six books published before 1880, the earliest dated 1810.
A subject index (see Appendix A) was created as a result of queries from the Museum staff on a variety of topics: this index should help provide easier access to the collection especially the correspondence files. Appendix B contains a list of photographs in the collection.
