Effort on to identify, preserve local history

MAT-SU — Cleaning out the attic or basement are chores many dread. For state and local historians, these upcoming acts of spring cleaning can also be a bonanza for preserving Alaska’s historical archives.

Family photo albums, service club ledgers, minutes and saved personal letters and diaries are among those dusty volumes that often find their way into a trash bin, said Frances Field, project coordinator and historian for Juneau-based Archives Rescue Corps. These are some of the archivable items that should be preserved and catalogued.

Archives Rescue Corps and local volunteers like Bethany Buckingham, curator for Wasilla’s Dorothy Page Museum, are mounting an effort to identify and preserve the state’s archives.

“We need to help protect our history, our archives, here in Alaska,” Field said.

The effort is modeled after a national program that catalogued and identified historical archives around the United States, she said. For Alaska, only 29 were listed.

“And we know there are a lot more — a lot more — than 29,” she said.

In addition to personal and family collections, Field said there other local sources of historical archives include churches, fraternal organizations, city and borough governments, newspapers, libraries and museums.

An archive can include bound volumes, books, unbound sheets like maps and meeting minutes, photography collections, moving images, recorded sound and digital material, Field said. And while Archives Rescue Corps doesn’t necessarily want to be the state’s Big Brother of historical information, it can compile where sources of information are and help train people to take care of and preserve their archives.

“We don’t want to look like we’re too nosy,” she said. “One of our goals is not to take these archives out of the holders’ hands. We want them to stay. … (However,) we want locals to have access to them and know how to take care of them. Also, for people to realize the value of their archives.”

Helping with the effort in the Mat-Su Valley is Buckingham and the Dorothy Page Museum.

Buckingham holds a degree in museum science and has a background in archiving, and said Archives Rescue Corps can be an important piece toward helping the museum realize its goals.

“We are trying to build our own researchable archives ourselves, so by becoming our local point of contact (for the corps) we’re trying to save our local history,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realize the history they have in their attics and basements. The more you know about what happened in the past, the more you understand the way we are.”

In many cases, important local history is lost when people or organizations turn up materials they don’t know what to do with or consider junk, Buckingham said. For example, a spring cleaning at a local church or service club could turn up old meeting minutes, bylaws and notes.

Recently, the Dorothy Page Museum received a donation of information from a now-defunct group called the Wasilla Community Club, Buckingham said. Someone found the information and rather than disposing of it, brought it to the museum.

“Gosh, I think our history’s lost every day,” Field added. “First of all, things are rotting in closets because people don’t know how to take care of (historical artifacts). Then, some are just thrown away every day.”

The thrust of Archives Rescue Corps is simply to compile a comprehensive list of local organizations and individuals who have historical archives and provide any help that would be accepted, Field said. How much anyone shares about what’s in those archives is up to them.

“Sharing those archives is a choice everybody has to make,” she said. “As a trained museum professional, I believe that, for a lot of these things, that’s the best place for some of these things. I’ve heard of some fantastic photo collections people have that would be great (to share) with their communities.”

In Wasilla, the need to develop a more comprehensive catalogue of local historical archives became apparent after former mayor and current Gov. Sarah Palin was named to the Republican presidential ticket last August, Buckingham said. Suddenly, people from around the globe were clamoring for historical information about Palin.

Sometimes even a small act of preservation can shed significant light on local history, Buckingham said. This past summer, a tour bus pulled up to the museum and a woman who lived in Wasilla in 1947 got off. Although gone for decades, she brought back a photograph for the museum of two teachers she had and her school building, which is now City Hall.

In addition to placing a couple of teachers at the former school, Buckingham said the photograph shows “how amazing it is how Wasilla has grown by leaps an bounds.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.

Archives can be found where?

In addition to personal and family collections of archival material, Archive Rescue Corps identifies other potential locations for historical information:

• Churches

• Museum and libraries

• Non-profit organizations

• Fraternal organizations

• Native corporations and organizations

• Longtime businesses

• Private collections

• City and municipal offices

• Schools

• Federal offices

• Hospitals

• Newspapers