The Williamsburg Project

The Bowen family continues to work with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to define the processing plan for the Williamsburg Collection. During 2018, family members, assisted by volunteers, completed inventorying and rehousing Murray Bowen’s personal property. They photographed each object, gave each a catalog number, developed an excel program and entered data, including object description, date made, and condition. In addition, Dr. Joanne Bowen, worked with volunteers to record books in Murray Bowen’s personal library. She, with volunteer assistance, developed a metadata system to record titles, publication dates, publishers, inscriptions. and notes left in books. When completed, it will become, much like the list of Thomas Jefferson’s library, a permanent record that chronicles the growth of Bowen’s theory. This database will serve several purposes. First, a list from which NLM will be able to select books for accession, and second, a digital record of Murray Bowen’s library of books that date from as early as the late nineteenth-century until his death in 1990. Working with Rebecca Warlow, NLM’s Head of Images and Archives Section, Dr. Joanne Bowen has developed and will continue to refine the processing phases with associated costs needed to prepare Murray Bowen’s professional papers and family letters for their transfer to NLM, where they will join the rest of the collection.

Thank You to the Bowen Family. TMBAP also thanks the Bowen Family for providing TMBAP’s new logo. The logo is Dr. Bowen’s ex-librīs (bookplate).