personal papers
Individual's important records
Personal papers are documents belonging to an individual rather than an organization—letters, diaries, manuscripts, photographs, financial records.
The term appears most often in archives and estate contexts: The library acquired the senator's personal papers.
Distinguished from official records, personal papers reveal private thoughts and correspondence not meant for public view.
- diariesPersonal daily records
- emailsDigital written messages
- compositionsCreated artistic pieces
- draftsPreliminary written versions
- willsLegal inheritance documents
note · deeds · telegrams · handwritten notes · manuscripts · contracts · file · filing cabinet · affidavits · scrapbooks · bank statements · family trees · keepsakes · family secrets · certificates · ledgers · paper trail · letters
- life recordsautobiography, birth records, biography, death records, birth certificate
- literary archivesoriginal manuscripts, special collections, drafts, final drafts, typescripts
- unpublished writingsdraft, manuscript, rough draft, first draft, notes
- manuscriptscodex, codices, folio, folios, papyri
- biographiesbiography, biographies, autobiography, autobiographies, memoir
- family recordsbirth certificates, birth certificate, family trees, death certificate, birth records
personal paperspublic records
Officially filed, publicly accessible documents
public documents · government records · official records · business records · published works
personal papersofficial documents
Verified governmental or institutional papers
legal documents · court records · official correspondence · diplomatic papers · treaties