Using Digitized Microfiche in Avery Library's Frank Lloyd Wright Collections: Locating letters within a fiche sheet

Microfiche works in a grid system. The "FicheID" of each letter gives you the coordinates (rows and columns) to locate the letter on the sheet.

The rows start with row A on the top, down to row E on the bottom. The columns count the number of items in the row, starting with 01 on the left and ending with 11 on the right. Sometimes not all coordinates on the sheet are used.

>>> Click here <<< to access the digitized microfiche correspondence on JSTOR.

Image: Diagram showing microfiche grid comprising rows A-E and columns 01-11.

For example:

FicheID A001A01 refers to >>sheet A001, >>row A counting from the top of the sheet, >>1st item from the left edge of the sheet. The letter is three pages long, so the FicheID of A001A01 refers to all three pages. The subsequent letter on the sheet has the FicheID of A001A04.

Another example:

FicheID C192E06 refers to >>sheet C192, >>row E counting from the top of the sheet, >>6th item from the left edge of the sheet. The letter is one page long, so the FicheID of C192E06 refers to that single page. The subsequent letter on the sheet has the FicheID of C192E07.

For incoming letters sent to Frank Lloyd Wright, the microfiche sheets are organized by the first initial of the sender's last name, e.g., "A" for sender C. R. Ashbee in the first example above.

For outgoing letters sent by Frank Lloyd Wright and his staff, the microfiche sheets are organized by the first initial of the recipient's last name, e.g., "C" for recipient Tess Callaway in the second example above.

Following the sender or recipient's initial, sheets are organized chronologically from earliest to latest. Sheet A001 contains letters dated from April 1901-December 1917. Sheet A178 contains letters dated from January-April 1959. The collection includes letters throughout Wright's career from the 1880s to his death in 1959, with the bulk of letters concentrated from the 1930s onward.