The Archivist as Detective; Or, the Case of Ledyard v. William Morgan

Abstract

The discovery of an apparent theft of documents from the Connecticut State Library in 2000 provided a challenge of detection for archivists. This article discusses the steps taken to identify the possibly stolen documents and to prove that they were once part of the collections of the Connecticut State Library. Cooperation with the Connecticut State Police and negotiations with another repository ultimately returned the missing documents to the state library. The experiences provide numerous lessons for other archivists on the questions of identifying and protecting documents at risk.