Source fallback
Repository history or an accepted source archive, without routine build output or dependency copies.
Preservation & succession
The website is an access layer, not the only copy
Public pages can be rebuilt. Family evidence, accession records, rights decisions and custody history require separate preservation and governance.
Preservation layers
Evidence, metadata and presentation travel together—but remain distinct.
- Evidence authority
- Canonical originals, preservation masters, accession records and research governance remain outside the public website repository. An access image does not become the master because it can be downloaded.
- Metadata authority
- Object IDs, provenance, evidence status, uncertainty, credit, rights and treatment notes remain attached to the record and are exported together for recovery and review.
- Access application
- The site code, public derivatives and routing can be rebuilt from a source fallback. Reproducible build output and dependency caches are not preservation records.
- Release fixity
- Accepted source fallbacks receive SHA-256 checksums and a read-back verification. A historical fallback remains separate from the current accepted release fallback.
Minimum continuity set
Enough to identify, verify and rebuild.
A recovery package should be compact enough to test and complete enough to explain what it can—and cannot—restore.
Public catalog export
JSON, CSV or XLSX metadata carrying identifiers, permanent URLs, evidence status, uncertainty, provenance and rights.
Manifest and checksums
A human-readable inventory plus SHA-256 values verified after the package reaches its backup location.
Custody and rights notes
What is family-held, institution-held, licensed, restricted, interpretive or available only as an access copy.
Private recovery record
Domain, hosting, account-recovery and emergency contacts kept securely outside the public package and outside source control.
Succession status
Continuity is a governance task, not an implied museum relationship.
The archive does not publicly claim that a museum, library or memorial institution has accepted custody, succession responsibility or a future deposit. A named successor, emergency authority and access to private recovery instructions require a signed, private governance record. Until that record exists, the public site must describe succession as open work rather than a completed arrangement.
The institutional preparation packet supports a future conversation by inventorying public metadata, rights categories and transfer questions. It is not a deed of gift, accession, loan agreement or transfer of custody.
Acquisition boundary
Contact is not accession.
A photograph, story or file sent to the archive remains a submission for review until ownership, custody, permission, privacy, source, file integrity and the intended public use are recorded. Receipt alone does not transfer title, grant publication rights or establish the account as verified testimony.
- Record who supplied the material and when.
- Preserve the submitted file unchanged and calculate fixity when appropriate.
- Document ownership, custody, publication permission and restrictions.
- Assign an archive identifier only after the record boundary is understood.
- Create any web derivative separately and disclose its treatment.
Materials that remain private, restricted, unverified or outside scope should not be forced into the public catalog merely because a copy was received.
Page citation
If you cite this statement
Reichenbach Family Archive. “Preservation & Succession.” Updated 2 September 2026. https://www.reichenbacharchive.org/preservation.