Chronicling America One Newspaper at a Time
by Shana Scott Above photo from neh.gov Newspapers are unique cultural artifacts that give a broad sense of the world at the time of their printing. The articles may show what was considered important to people, but ads, classifieds, and comics all offer a window into the lives of the public. Newspapers become a snapshot […]
World Digital Preservation Day
by Shana Scott The first Thursday in November is World Digital Preservation Day (WDPD). This year that falls on November 3rd. WDPD is a way to celebrate digital preservation’s contributions to the archival community. If you’d like to join in the celebration, the Digital Preservation Coalition has lots of suggestions and ways to participate and […]
Hit by Flooding? Here Are 3 Things You Can Do Now
by Marcia Spicer Plus: two ways you can prepare for the future to conclude National Preparedness Month The summer of 2022 has been a season of unexpected flooding for many areas, including our own here in St. Louis, Missouri. Many of our friends and neighbors experienced damage and loss—placing this particular natural disaster at the […]
Preventing the Worst-Case Scenario
by Marcia Spicer Ask any archivist, collector, or researcher who works with historical materials what their worst nightmare is, and you’ll probably get a few variations of the same answer. Total loss and destruction of a collection, history, language, people… you can’t get much worse. Yes, recovery techniques have dramatically improved over the last 100 […]
Practical Tips for Document Longevity
by Marcia Spicer Are you a proud owner of historical material written by or to famous individuals? Perhaps your collection isn’t recognizable to the public but impacts your family or community. Preserving these documents for future generations can be a daunting task for the new or unprepared collector. Too often, collectors inheriting these materials are […]
Don’t Lose Your History
Recorded history is an irreplaceable treasure, but physical historical records are constantly under threat. Books, records, photographs, and hand-written letters are meant to be passed on to future generations, but the more they’re used, the more likely they are to sustain irreversible damage. Over time, the valuable information recorded on paper can become indistinguishable from […]
Backgammon and Bronze Age Toilets: Preserving the Mundane
by Shana Scott Gas station receipts, junk mail catalogs, and notepad doodles aren’t exactly what we imagine future researchers studying to learn about our time in history. And yet, that’s not solely up for modern-day archivists to decide, is it? We’ve written before about the importance of preserving “everyday history,” but what about the stuff […]
Freedom and Flexibility Through Digitization
by Marcia Spicer I recently heard from a curator whose exhibit had been prematurely removed from display. They were understandably upset; detailed work had gone into carefully selecting items from their larger collection, creating displays, and editing placards. They also knew that the history the collection conveyed was important. But a decision-maker who saw the […]
Threads of Connection: An Interview with Mark Anderson
by Marcia Spicer In the busyness of our daily routines, it isn’t often that I get to sit down with one of Anderson Archival’s Founding Principals Mark Anderson. But we recently met to discuss our clients, favorite solutions, and what makes history so important to the present. Mark, thanks for taking some time to chat! […]
The Journey to Digitization
by Marcia Spicer Last weekend, my family was invited to dinner at a restaurant. Shortly after food was served, my youngest began melting down. Then, earlier this morning, I had to reschedule a meeting with a potential client. When we made the plans, everything looked great, then life happened. Just like planning a meeting or […]
