The month of October is American Archives Month, a month in which the Society of American Archivists raises awareness of the work and impact of archivists and the collections they steward. At the Historical Society, we are fortunate to currently have three archivists working on our team to manage, preserve, and share the rich archives that capture the history of the Stone-Campbell Movement.
To celebrate American Archives Month, we thought it would be enlightening to interview our Senior Archivist, Colleen McFarland Rademaker, to learn more about the field of archival work and her work specifically in the Disciples of Christ Historical Society archives.
Q: Let’s start with the basics, I know you shared at General Assembly this summer, but what is an archive?
A: “Archive” and “archives” have several different meanings. An “archive” can refer to a person’s or organization’s entire preserved body of historical records; for example, one might refer to the Eva Jean Wrather papers as the Eva Jean Wrather archive. “Archive” may also refer to an organization that preserves historical documents or a building that houses them. In North America, “archives” signify historical records preserved because of their enduring historic, administrative, or legal value. The Society of American Archivists Dictionary of Archives Terminology provides many more nuanced definitions of these two words at the heart of archival practice.
Q: What is the difference between a collection and an archive? Are there items that belong in an archive and items that don’t? How does one prioritize items when beginning a processing project?
A: The word “collection” is slippery! It can mean the entire holdings or a subset of holdings in an archive. A single set of papers or records in an archive may also be called a collection. Its meaning is context-dependent. That said, the verb “to collect” is essential to understanding the noun “collection.” Collections are deliberately assembled and shaped by their stewards. A board-approved collection development policy directs archivists’ collecting work and guides the difficult decisions that archivists must make when considering new materials to add to the collection.
Q: Technology advances are impacting a wide range of professional fields. What are some technology advancements that have changed how archivists do their work in the past 10 years?
A: Finding aids (descriptive guides to sets of papers and records in an archive) used to be considered prose. Archivists now understand finding aids as prose and data, readable by humans and machines alike. As a result, the archival profession has developed many structural and content standards for archival description that help ensure the longevity and integrity of our descriptive work. This shift also brings more consistency to archival descriptions across collections and repositories, making it easier for researchers to find what they seek.
Archivists have also made a lot of headway towards solving vexing born-digital records problems, like preserving and providing access to email. Email is complicated because it contains both digital content (the text and images in an email message) and context (transmission information, ”conversation” threads, attachments, etc.). Additionally, while some email messages are vital, most are mundane. How can archivists efficiently and effectively find and preserve only the messages of enduring historic value and safeguard confidential information within those messages? We now have some answers to that question.
Q: What are some of the more surprising items you’ve found in the Historical Society’s archive?
A: I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of collections documenting women in the Stone-Campbell movement, particularly in missionary service. Gertrude Shoemaker’s Remington rifle, which she used in the Congo to hunt antelope and monkey for meat, tells us a lot about how Disciples women brought themselves to missionary work! Even more important than the rifle are the rich diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and photographs that Shoemaker and other women missionaries entrusted to our care.
Like every repository, we also have some “weird” items in our collection, like the teething ring used by James T. Barclay, the first commissioned Disciples missionary. The collection also includes boar teeth from the Congo, the branding irons used to mark cattle on the Southern Christian Institute farm, and a box of bubble gum cigars branded with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s likeness.
Q: If someone was interested in pursuing a vocation as an archivist, what would you tell them is the best and most challenging part of the vocation?
A: The best part of being an archivist is facilitating human relationships across time. I enjoy being a “matchmaker” between researchers and collections, and most researchers are touched or changed by the people they meet through the historical record. It’s a privilege to play a role in that process.
The most challenging part is keeping up with technological changes and implementing new technologies to improve access to our holdings. Technological change is time- and resource-intensive, and archivists too often must choose between addressing today’s problems and taking strategic action to implement technologies that will help us better serve the research community.
Q: What is one thing that might surprise people about archival work? Or one thing you think people get wrong about what archivists do?
A: A good archivist not only knows what to preserve, but also what not to preserve. Many think of us as “horders,” but we are not. Most records created by individuals and organizations lack the enduring historic or administrative value archivists look for.
When an archivist declines a records donation or accepts only a small portion, the archivist is doing their job – assessing the materials offered against the archive’s collection development policy and selecting only those that fall within the scope of collecting. We regret that this can feel unkind, and we ask donors to remember that our judgment does not lessen the personal and emotional value of the materials.