The original manuscripts in the Richard A. Blount Collection are housed in the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama. Georgia College has no knowledge as to how the papers were moved from Milledgeville, Georgia to Alabama; however, it is surmised that Richard A. Blount's daughter, Marianna Sanford, inherited the estate from her mother, Mary D. Blount, and transferred the materials to her home in Alabama. At some point, the collection was transferred to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
In 1939, the Blount Collection was organized for the Alabama Department of Archives and History by Mrs. Mary Dreyspring as a project funded by the Works Progress Administration, Division of Women's and Professional Projects. Mrs. Dreyspring, who was not a trained historian nor an archivist, arranged the collection in an unidentifiable scheme. It is assumed that arrangement is by the order in which the material was received by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
In 1991, Mr. H. I. Bridges, of Sandersville, Georgia, located the Blount Collection through his interest in middle Georgia postal history. He requested photocopies of the collection from the Alabama Department of Archives and History and deposited the photocopied collection in Special Collections, Georgia College Library, for researchers to use.
When the materials arrived at Georgia College in the fall of 1991, processing of the collection began immediately. This procedure included an initial inventory and evaluation of the papers. Once the papers were deemed pertinent to the mission of Special Collections, the collection was arranged in correspondence with to the order established by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
The collection has been organized into two file boxes. The first file box is further divided into books and then into folders; i.e., File Box 1, Book 3, Folder 2. The second file box is divided into folders only; i.e., File Box 2, Folder 18. Some of the documents cannot be placed into the original order due to the lack of detail of the folder inventory; ie, "Several pages containing notes in Col. Blount's hand." Without dates or subjects it is impossible to know how these pages were originally cataloged. All pages that have not been filed into the collection may be found in File Box 2, Folders 28 and 28A.
The processing procedure began with the removal of the Blount materials from acidic manila folders and their placement in acid-free file folders. Each folder was then labeled with the collection's name, the file box number, book number, and folder number. For security precautions, as well as to provide an accurate count of materials for inventory purposes, an item count of the contents therein was added to the folder information.
The handwritten documents in the collection - some that are exceedingly hard to read - were painstakingly "deciphered," and a typed text of the document was produced so that valuable research time would not have to be spent with a magnifying glass in hand. The typed text was placed in the folder with the photocopied original, except in the case of Blount's journal. (This typed text was placed in a separate folder (File Box 1, Book 1, Folder 1A.)) The folders were then placed in acid-free file boxes and the arrangement was completed. (NOTE: As the folders were arranged, labeled, and a typed text produced, a description of each folder was entered into a word processing program. At the same time, the contents of the folders were added to the subject index.)
During the processing of the information and researching of the biography, several original sources regarding Richard A. Blount - such as the "Day Book of Mrs. Mary E. Blount" (wife) - were located in the Special Collections holdings. These materials are cross-referenced in the "Additions/References" section of the guide.