Archives for Everything

My friends over at the American Association for State and Local History regularly tweet about unusual museums. They say that there is a museum for everything and the museumforeverything  hashtag proves that. Archivists can follow our museum colleagues lead on this one because there are  also #archivesforeverything.  Of course that makes sense because no matter the activity, records need to be kept for organizational purposes and #everythinghasahistory. Once again, we need to take a page from the promotional work of our museum colleagues. Can we make #archivesforeverything a "thing"? Let's get started with just a few archival institutions I came across this week that one may not immediately consider when thinking about homes for historical records.

1.

I always grow very curious about the places I visit. I read the historical signs. I look for vintage photos showing the place's past. I wonder if they have an archive or library. While visiting the zoo with my family yesterday, I began wondering about Zoo documents. What's it like to be a zoo archivist? Curious? Check out this fascinating archivist's presentation -  Bronx Zoo archives.


2.

My tweets revealed a couple of not-too-common Archives this past week:
Police archives
Social Activism archives

3.

How about hobbies? Here are some that we practice in my home along with corresponding archives I stumbled across this week:
Gardening archives
Aviation archives
Kid stuff


What interests you and where can you find the historical records that shed light on that subject? Tweet #archivesforeverything. Publicize the prevalence of archives. Get more people thinking about the role of archives in their lives. Generate support for the profession. AND,sShare knowledge about some great collections.