Brent's points are well taken!! It is the recovery for the public that should come first. Perhaps I expressed a view based more on a philosophy that we must all honor our public trust than a practical approach that seeks to recover the records in a reasonable manner from holders who may well not be aware of the legal ramifications. Peter -----Original Message----- From: Brent Tarter [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, 13 July 2001 6:54 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Lost Virginia Records The report about the Prince William County documents is certainly interesting, and every such recovery is good news. The Commonwealth of Virginia has been gradually recovering estrayed records (as they are termed) for more than a hundred years. While it is true, as Peter Bergstrom has pointed out, that knowingly receiving or selling estrayed public property may not be legal, it has always been in the commonwealth's interest to try to recover the documents in a way that does not drive other estrayed records deeper into hiding. I am writing this without recourse to the legal documents, but I have done some research on this topic, and this is how I understand the process has usually worked. The state government has often paid the holders of the documents the amount of money that the holder had paid to obtain it with the understanding that the payment is for the safe keeping and safe return of the records to proper public possession. This does not reward the person who provides the records to the commonwealth, but it recompenses those who are willing to surrender them to their proper owner. To threaten prosecution or replevy without compensation might seem like a tempting procedure, considering that the person is in possession of records that we might reasonably presume were once stolen, but that would certainly make other holders of other records more reluctant to part with public records in their possession. As the state librarian described the policy in 1928, the library's and the state's objectives were to recover the records and the information they contain rather than "to drive such things to cover and thus add to the improbability of their ever being heard of by the State Library authorities." Original thieves, of course, are excepted from this process. See Sandra Gioia Treadway and Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr., eds., THE COMMON WEALTH: TREASURES FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA (Richmond, Va.: Library of Virginia, 1997), 19, 31-32. Brent Tarter The Library of Virginia [log in to unmask] Visit the Library of Virginia's web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html