One of the new collections available at the Champaign County Historical Archives is Collection 383: Urbana Wheeler Dealer Board Game. Donated in October 2018, it is a Monopoly-style board game personalized with different Urbana businesses. It was sold in the fall of 1982 and marketed for the Christmas season. The Urbana Chamber of Commerce, chaired by E. Phillip Knox, created and funded the board game. This collection contains pieces for the game as well as pieces for a different version of the game. It was processed by Sarah Peck, an Archives Summer 2024 Processing Practicum student.

How does the Archives handle processing this type of collection? Sarah wanted to give you an inside look at the work of archival processing for unusual collections with a focus on how we store the objects. Let's check in with Sarah to see what they did to process this collection!

A photograph of the Wheeler Dealer Urbana board game.

Step 1: Look over the Collection

The first step of processing is looking over the collection. I looked for damage to the game and other information in the physical objects that could help us find more information about the collection. This process involved counting and making an itemized list of every board game piece. These findings are written down in notes, as are different ways the collection can be secured within its box.

Step 2: Research

This collection had two modes of research, and the first was finding more information about the collection. The only information the board game had that could easily tie it to a time period was that it was sponsored by the Urbana Chamber of Commerce, and included in the game was a Brief History of Urbana that dated to the 1980s. The Archives has a vertical file containing information about the Urbana Chamber of Commerce. That folder had a newspaper clipping with no dates but information about who was in charge of the Urbana Chamber of Commerce when the board game was created. This led me to research through our newspaper microfilm collection and our physical News-Gazette Subject clipping files. I found the article again in the clipping files, but this time with a year attached to the game's creation, 1982. A scan of the article was then added to the collection to help date it in the future.

The second part of the research was finding a way to secure all of the loose pieces of this collection together. I went over ideas with the Archives staff and decided that the best course of action was to create housing using labeled breakaway boxes for the collection of pieces so that there is less of a chance to mix up pieces between the two game versions. The reason for breakaway boxes over more traditional boxes is that, over time, the collection will become brittle. Being able to freely grab the pieces from the sides rather than just the top like a traditional box would allow future archivists to have more dexterity and care when handling them.

Step 3: Finding Aid

Now that I have figured out its origins and how it will be cared for, I wrote the finding aid that future researchers will use to find the collection and learn about its contents. This finding aid is also used to create the MARC record in the Local History Online database.

Step 4: Securing the Collection

For some patrons reading this, the amount of math and measuring needed in the Archives may be surprising. This math helps ensure we can fit these collections in our storage and if the housing ideas are feasible. The first measurement for this collection is of two boxes: the archival-grade box that holds the entire collection and the board box with the collection's papers and board. I measured to see if the breakaway box idea could fit in the space between these two boxes. The measurements were also used as a diagram to map out which pieces would be able to fit where inside the box. The diagram measurements worked out, and it was time to start the breakaway box measurements.

I first needed to cut out a large base piece of cardstock to create the breakaway boxes. The formula to figure out how large to cut the cardstock is (L+H+H) x (W+H+H). This works for any unit of measurement, and I used inches. The example formula will be the red pieces included in the game, and the formula was (0.5+1.25+1.25) x (0.5+1.25+1.25), which equaled a 3 x 3-inch square of cardstock to start out. I then did the math for all the additional pieces and wrote them down. Doing this math all at once saves time, allowing the collection to be done together and faster. Creating all the housing for the pieces in one session helps to prevent potential damage from the loose collection hitting the housing. For the pieces that stack shorter in the collection, the height of the archival box (2.25 in) was used to help prevent the pieces from falling out of the housing.  

A photograph of some math I did to help construct the breakaway boxes.

Now, it was time to start creating the breakaway boxes. I assembled the supplies needed: card stock, ruler, X-ACTO knife, cutting board, string, pencil, eraser, paper, weights, and a calculator. These breakaway boxes can be made with any material, but for the Archives, archival-grade cardstock and string were used. The main difference between regular and archival grade is that there is less acid in archival-grade materials, which means that as materials break down, it won’t affect the collection as much.

Photograph of the above-listed supplies.

Now, it was time to start the assembly process. Using the formulas, I cut out the individual bases to create the boxes. In all four corners of the base, I marked out smaller squares whose length and width equaled the height needed for the individual housing. For most cases, this equaled 2.25 inches. Cut these smaller squares out of the base. With these squares gone, I have the flaps for the walls of the boxes. I then scored the cardstock vertically, new corner to new corner. This helped to define the base. With the base scored, I folded the flaps up to the center of the base. I picked a side facing the front of the box and wrote down the label for the pieces housed in it.

String cutting is one of the easier tasks when creating boxes. I used the formula for each box of (L + W) x 3 so there was enough string for easy release and tying up the box again. The main point of a breakaway box is that the box is re-tied by the pressure of the string. When the strings are cut, they are placed around the box and tied up, with the objects placed inside.

A closed and labeled breakaway box for the red pieces.

An open and labeled breakaway box for the red pieces.

After cutting and assembling, I created a unique storage solution for the board game.

A photograph of the completed storage for the Urbana Wheeler-Dealer game.

When working on storage, consider how you can mitigate the amount of waste that can happen when creating these boxes. One significant thing is the ability to reuse cut pieces- which was done with this collection. As you can see in the above photo, the top left-hand corner of the box has spacers to help prevent the boxes from shifting around. These square pieces can be used like this in future processing endeavors and are kept in the same spot as the rest of the cardstock.  

-Sarah Peck

Archives Practicum Student