After Nelle Womack Hines' death in 1963, her son and daughter-in-law, Emmett Womack Hines and Frederica Boatright Hines lived in the home, "Greenacre," on Tatnall Street, Milledgeville. Emmett died in 1975 and Frederica died in 1992. The grandson and granddaughter of Nelle Womack Hines, Emmet Womack Hines II and Martha Hines, sold the home and donated the Nelle Womack Hines collection to hte Museum and Archive of Georgia Education. In June and July 1992, the Hines collection was arranged and described by Georgia College student at MAGE. These papers were transferred to Special Collections in June 1999.
The current arrangment is two series (Biographical and Publications) into which the papers were split. Each series is split into sub-series.
Upon original arrangement in 1999, the original arrangement was kept. Books were removed from the boxes and placed in a separate container. Some papers noted in the original accession sheet are missing. In arranging the collection, it was found that the order placed on the records, initially by accession number, was changed. Materials were moved from box to box and sometimes papers were moved from one folder to another. An attempt was made to maintain both the accession number provenance and the provenance of the boxes. Any changes made to rectify the double arrangement are noted in the finding aid. Additional material from the Vertical Files and the Presidents' Correspondence to supplement the collection was added to Boxes 1 and 2 and noted as not part of the original provenance in the finding aid.