Herstory Project Podcast: Ida Annah Ryan

I was honored to be a participant in the Chick History Herstory project. Hear my podcast about Ida Annah Ryan, native of Waltham, Massachusetts, suffragette, and one of the first female architects in the United States.

52 women. One year of history. #HerStory is a project for 2012 in which each week, a contemporary woman shares the story of a historical woman who inspires her.

Videos Introducing "The Unofficial Family Archivist"

I know that I promised you ideas for using your orphan photos this week. Those will come in a couple of days. (I'm busy playing with decoupage and hope to have an image of something maybe a little new and different to share.) In the meantime, I would like to post some videos I made late last week to tell you about my new book The Unofficial Family Archivist: A Guide to Creating and Maintaining Family Papers, Photographs, and Memorabilia. 

Quite honestly, this is my first time filming myself talking directly to a camera. At first it felt very different from making a presentation until I relaxed and really forgot that I was talking to a camera and not a real person. In the end, it was fun. If you have never met me in person, I hope that perhaps you'll enjoy "meeting" me in a new way - connecting my voice and mannerisms to my words. Welcome to my five part introduction:

Promoting Culture - Think Outside of Your Space

This past Sunday I participated in a fun event at the Nashua Public Library here in New Hampshire. I was told that this was the library's second annual local history fair, showcasing local history centers and speakers. I was invited to set up an ArchivesInfo exhibit table. The library event generated an enthusiasm that demonstrated a public desire for more sharing of cultural heritage and more information about cultural heritage institutions.

My fellow exhibitors included: local authors who were there to sign their books about Nashua and New Hampshire History; The Nashua Family History Center, that was demonstrating family-search web site; the Nashua Historical Society; the New Hampshire Historical Society; a local columnist specializing in historical newspapers, photos and ephemera; and the Friends of the Hunt Memorial building, who were looking to restore the city's first library building. Speakers showed slides from the library's local history collection, introduced the institution's genealogy software, discussed local building renovation projects, introduced the topic of researching your house, talked about local baseball and one room schoolhouses, and showed films and of parades from Nashua's anniversaries.

Most of the people who came through the gallery where I was set up seemed to come out especially for the occasion. They were there to celebrate their town and their ties to the City of Nashua. One lady came through with her walker, wearing a nametag that stated beneath, "Member of Nashua High School class of 1929." (Definitely remarkable!) I talked to many long time residents with lots of interesting stories to share. One woman told me that she ran into a classmate whom she hadn't seen in about twenty years. There was definitely a sense of festivity here. Local history professionals and volunteers were able to show how they could help feed into attendees' memories of the past. We aimed to raise awareness about the need and value of preserving those memories.

Though cultural heritage professionals may be available to the public at our institutions on a regular basis, we often remain largely invisible to them. Are our organizations overlooked in favor of downtown storefronts with brightly colored displays? (One representative from an institution chatted with me on Sunday about how a "local history fair" at her institution would not generate the same crowd as the one in which we participated. Though her building was just a five minute walk up the street, it was not right in the heart of downtown, had difficult parking and was more easily overlooked.) Do people bustling through their day rarely take the time to reminisce? What if we offered them more of an opportunity to do so in more convenient environments.

It is important for those involved with cultural heritage to seek connections beyond our traditional institutions. As I listened to stories from enthusiastic residents, I suggested that the town seek to do targeted oral histories. For example, perhaps those seeking to restore the City's first library building could ask people about their memories of it. They were very willing to share them at the fair. Why not ask them to come back and tell us more?  Why not ask people to come to various places throughout the City for recording events. Make it a celebration. I also suggested that the City might try an "Open Doors" history event to encourage residents to explore local facilities preserving local history. Every year the City of Waltham, MA holds such an event in Historic Waltham Days that has grown tremendously in the last fifteen years since I was an archivist there. The short celebration they once created now spans a month. This is something that every town can do with a little planning. My favorite part of Waltham Days was a "passport" that people had to get stamped at each cultural heritage institution they visited. The passport encouraged many people to make a goal of visiting us all and also gave them a souvenir to remember the event (and us) when the celebration was over for the year. I don't know if Waltham still does their passport system, but if they do, it would be fun to identify people who have filled passports for all the years the event has taken place...

Promotion is one key to making cultural heritage a vibrant part of our modern society. I am reading more and more articles about people who consider libraries and museums out of touch with contemporary society. To prove them wrong, be creative about your activities. Hold very visible events, outside of your own space and in collaboration with others to make yourself relevant to the lives of your potential audience members.What we do is fun! Get out of your institution and let everyone know about it.

Community Documentation from a Family Perspective - Part Two

The stories of these two likely brothers parallel a larger  community and social history. From my background in immigrant archives and the familiarity I have with similar images, I believe that these individuals came to work in a factory in the United States. Men like this often saved money to have their photo taken professionally to send home to girlfriends, wives and mothers left in Europe. The image demonstrated that they were doing well overseas and that they hoped to have their families join them in the new country soon.

Photographs, letters, financial ledgers, diaries, school papers, and personalized greeting cards are commonly found in households. Materials are stuffed in kitchen "junk" drawers and thrown in shoe boxes. People may value these personal items for sentimental reasons, but few see them as informational sources that reveal much about the society in which they live. It is a responsibility of archivists and cultural heritage professionals to demonstrate the value of personal archives for a larger culture outside the family. My last blog post discussed the need to do this, today I will discuss how we can do it.

We need to reach out to the communities we serve to show them that the materials we hold in our repositories relate to their lives. Sample collections from our holdings can show how individual stories relate to a larger history. My favorite sample collection is from the Waltham Public Library, where I served as archivist in the mid-1990s. As archivist, I accessioned the collection of Albert Ryan II whose family had strong roots in the community. Ryan family members led "normal" lives for their times. For example, one served in the military. He happened to serve in the Civil War and to write letters home to his mother, which survive over a century later. Another was a suffragette. She and her brother documented her experiences with women's rights that were passed on to her nephews and then on to the library...documentation retained by people like this seem remarkable to our patrons, but we must show them these materials are not unlike letters sent home by family serving in Afghanistan or people rallying for rights of different groups today.

Exhibits in our repositories and at other local institutions can help highlight these materials and make known that our collections are about everyday people. Some institutions arrange to have special exhibit cases put in the town hall, the local mall or the local airport or train station to highlight the history of their community and the stories of individuals within it. Encourage local restaurants and small businesses to use materials from your archives. Offer them the opportunity to use appropriate images that relate to the stories of their institutions and customers. Allow them to make copies for framing or enlarging into large murals to decorate their walls. Images and stories of individuals tied to communities enhances local pride and makes families feel as if they have a strong connection to the place where they live.

Archivists must also offer their expertise in organization, preservation, and general information management beyond the archives. Offer preservation workshops and archives road shows through your institution and in collaboration with other institutions in your area. Offer classes in oral history or begin community oral history projects. Encourage institutions to document their own histories and to record the role that their workers had in their growth. Encourage small scale community documentation projects through local businesses that invite citizens to discuss their place in the community and how the community has supported their family.

Regard reaching out as an opportunity to learn what historical materials are available from your community. Recognize the role you can play in helping individuals preserve a history that may be linked to your mission as a memory institution. This does not mean preserving everyone's family papers in your institution, but it might one day lead to accessioning some of them. Invite people to ask you questions and share information about the documentation they keep. Make yourself approachable and available. As people bring you information, ask if you can keep a record that describes their personal papers to maintain with your administrative files. This will help you better understand and preserve data about existing documentation related to a particular subject.

Show how your institution can play a part in helping a family preserve their heritage. If people learn that their records are valuable to a larger history they better appreciate your role and will offer you more support. One day, your efforts may help families realize that they wish to donate their records to you or to another appropriate related repository. If not, your role as an informational professional who helps to keep information safe within a home is vital. Encourage people to get materials out of shoeboxes and cupboard drawers. Encourage individuals to value family heritage. Demonstrate how communities value individual  stories and each unique person's place in history.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop

This morning, as I was purchasing these photos at the local antique shop, the clerk asked me if I wanted them gift wrapped. I'm not sure to whom I would give these images, but it was a pleasant thought that someone else might appreciate them. Perhaps the first photo shown here could be given on the anniversary of friends with a note that says something such as, "I hope that you are always as happy as this couple appears to be."

Besides the historical aspects of these images I collect, I treasure them for the way they make me feel when I look at them. How could a woman not melt when her husband looks at her as this dashing gentleman looks at the woman beside him? Or, is this a son and mother image? (It's especially hard to tell with the man in profile.) I've talked in my More Finds at the Local Antique Shop "column" before about my trips of the imagination and these three images transport me once again. Also, as I so often lament, none of these photos are labeled. But at least that allows my imagination to take me anywhere.

I suppose that the couple had children. Perhaps they are away on vacation. Maybe grandma and grandpa are watching the kids play on the lawn behind the photographer. Perhaps, this could be a bed-and-breakfast or summer home similar to the one my grandmother occupied in the Catskills. This snapshot was taken quickly in a "wait! Stand there for a second" moment that didn't much rely on a well-formatted picture. But if this image were of me, it would be much treasured just the same. Their expressions and pose filled with warmth are what is most important for the camera to capture in this quick documentation of a moment in their lives.


I'm assuming that picture number two must capture a family reunion. The image was labeled 1890s, NH. I wonder from where all these people came. Was this image taken when everyone arrived? As they departed? Was there a fabulous offering of food in the house or a picnic on the lawn? What games did they play? How far did these people travel to get here? What are their relationships? How lovely would it be to have some archival materials to fill in the missing information? Did someone keep a diary that included mention of this event? Perhaps there was correspondence related to its planning. Were their copies of this image made for the family members and do they still exist somewhere in an ancestor's home?

Picture three brings me back to my archives roots in Waltham, Massachusetts. These gentleman remind me of the Italian families in that city. Immigrants often found work in the United States and sent money home to their families along with letters and photos. Were these men brothers? Did they send pictures home to their mother? Wives? Girlfriends? Families proudly dressed in their finery to record a special moment or relationship. Is that what is going on here? If you look closely at the bottom of the photo, you can see the slightly tattered base of the photographer's backdrop and the rug he must have set out to make the image more "homey." Was this a traveling photographer or did these gentleman go to a studio for this image? Besides my questioning musings, this image is also appealing for the fine mustaches and fabulous three piece suit fashions. I just couldn't resist...

Community of Collaborators

In this blog, I've discussed both communities and cultural heritage collaborators. I want to introduce the concept of a community of cultural heritage collaborators. A community is a group of people who share something - a common interest, a geographical locale, a faith, a relationship...The cultural heritage collaborative community is made up of people who have a common interest or responsibility in protecting cultural knowledge. This group includes professionals such as museologists, librarians, and curators. It also incorporates clerks, secretaries, records managers and others charged with retaining a specific history. Finally, the group should also rely on people the U.S. National Archivist David Ferriero has been calling "Citizen Archivists." (They can be called "Citizen Curators" or "Citizen Librarians" for my cross-professional colleagues.) These are people who may or may not know much about cultural resources. They may have some interest in collecting or preserving materials. Or, they may not be conscious of any personal interest in retaining cultural items, but may possess things that hold importance for historical memory. Materials such as family papers and heirlooms, records of community involvement, personal libraries and the like that have recognized historical value to cultural heritage professionals often remain hidden to us when this special subgroup is not included in our planning and collection development efforts. If we can identify our fellow cultural heritage collaborators, we have a greater ability to preserve our heritage by recruiting their help. Working together, we can identify and protect the resources that shed light on civilization.

1. Who are your potential professional partners? Think about fellow cultural heritage professionals in your geographic region. Think of those across your nation and around the world collecting similar resources. For example, the MacKaye family of Shirley Massachusetts left some family papers with the Shirley Historical Society. While working on this collection, I discovered that Dartmouth College a few hours north also retained a significant MacKaye collection. We exchanged finding aids and compared notes about holdings. We became cultural heritage collaborators.

2. Who are your quasi-professional partners? These are the people who use cultural materials in their day-to-day operations, but may not place emphasis on their historical import. City clerks, local businesses, association secretaries, artists and others can all be part of your collaborative. For example, as a member of Manchester Art Association I volunteered to be their historian, a volunteers Board position that had been left unfilled for many years. Records from decades of the groups operations were spread among members' homes. We organized and centralized them. I made them aware that a local historical society may have interest in their materials one day, which emphasized the group's value to the greater Manchester community and gave them incentive to better care for their materials.

3. Who are your non-professional partners? Consider the citizens in your town who have materials related to your community. Consider those outside of your geographic area who may have an interest in your community. It is most challenging to reach out to this group to convince them of the role they have to play in cultural heritage goals. Many have never considered the value of their personal materials beyond themselves or their families. Many think that they have no interest in history. This is an opportunity for outreach and a barrier that we can break by emphasizing the idea of community. The Waltham Rediscovered project in the early 1990s is a good example of enhancing citizen interest. A series of ethnic celebrations emphasized community pride and encouraged residents and former residents to share recollections in oral histories and to show others their family papers and memorabilia. The effort culminated in a book about the development of Waltham and the immigrant experience and a new collection of materials related to the project was eventually donated to the Waltham Public Library.

We all have an interest in advancing humanity and making our communities the best that they can be. Focusing on our common interests and recognizing that everyone has a role to play in preserving community memory will help cultural heritage institutions fill their missions to retain resources and sustain knowledge. A community of collaborators has a greater opportunity to raise awareness, increase enthusiasm, build support, boost goodwill, fully document a community or place, and encourage pride than any one of us working alone.

Read more about the collaborators in Cultural Heritage Collaborators: A Manual for Community Documentation and share your ideas about ways to cultivate a sense of community and collaboration.

The lovely prized family photo at the beginning of this post evokes a sense of place and can stand as a representation of local pride. A friend allowed me to make a copy when I found it hidden among her boxed photos.

Web 2.0 for Cultural Heritage Institutions and Their Users

Web 2.0 is the term currently en vogue for the facilitation of information sharing across the Internet. The terminology tries to express the evolution of the Internet from a one-sided presentation of ideas to an evolving system of communication. Contributors use various platforms to encourage discussions with individuals in the networks they develop.Some of the most commonly known Web 2.0 tools are blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. New technologies have lots of advantages to the individuals and cultural heritage institutions that choose to use them. I am not an expert in these areas, but I have been exploring the use of this technology for sharing ideas related to cultural heritage and I want to share my views with you.

I began my professional career almost twenty years ago as a sort of “jack-of-all trades” at the Waltham Public Library in Massachusetts. I was hired as an Archivist and Reference Librarian, but my job description quickly grew to that of the library’s first “Internet Coordinator” as well. In the old days (may I call them that?), libraries were racing to get on the “World Wide Web” to stake a presence in the emerging online world where people could access information about you and what you do twenty-four hours a day. Our headiest concern was what sort of information should go on a library web page. We put our address, hours, staff, contact information, circulation rules, a link to our library’s networked catalog, rules for use of the archives and other standard administrative topics that one could get through our telephone messaging system or by viewing the various user handbooks and printed information we had throughout the library.

But the Internet quickly grew and librarians’ ideas about what an internationally networked system could be developed accordingly. Through the library web site, patrons can order books, interact with a librarian, sign up for a class or read the library’s blog. The site is growing (now without me for over fifteen years), seeking new ways to interest people and looking for ways to reach new audiences.

It is interesting to see the many ways institutions are taking advantage of the opportunity to interact directly with their communities and potential audiences. We are still trying to figure out what sort of information we should post about ourselves, but now we have a lot more places to reach out and many more ways to accomplish the task. Cultural heritage institutions are trying to find interested citizens who want their information, while attracting people who may not even know they are interested.

I have been experimenting with online social networking tools and hope that you will share your own thoughts with me about your experiences through them. I have a Facebook page for Facebook group devoted to Cross-Professional CollaborationI also have been Tweeting for a few months and am migrating this newsletter and random thoughts I have during the month to a blog. Based on my experiences, I think that these tools offer incredible opportunities for cultural heritage, but not just for the institutions themselves. Web 2.0 benefits everyone by making institutions more open and accessible to individuals, encouraging dialogues between professionals and non-professionals, and spreading the idea that the collections in repositories embody everyone’s cultural heritage and everyone has a right to interact with our archives, artifacts, and special collections.

One of my favorite uses of “new” technology at the moment is the blog of the Beinecke Library at Yale University.Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities shares interesting items from the Beinecke collections, gives a little history about them, and explains how they fit within the larger collections. Some materials are fascinating, some are funny, some are beautiful, but they all attract me to the work that Beinecke is doing.

Blogs like Beinecke’s are a great way to attract audiences. They offer people an inside look at what an institution does and how it functions. Blogs provide a means to make something that once seemed very formal a little more approachable. Blogs done right make the reader feel like they have a personal acquaintance with the author, encouraging the reader to support the person on the other end whom they come to view as a sort of friend.

Similarly, through Facebook, one can develop a better appreciation for an institution. Facebook was one of my first personal experiences with “social” networking. I began meeting people with similar interests around the world by searching for museums, libraries and archives who were using the platform to promote their work. I became a member of like-minded groups and follow threads of thought related to my work. In fact, as I explored, I realized that there were no Facebook sites spanning the cultural heritage professions of museums, libraries, and archives, so I started one that now has 75 members. I find that I do most of the “talking,” few people respond to my posts or post on their own, but we are a part of a community and I hope we feel we are working to a common goal. This seems to be the case on most of the museum, library and archives Facebook sites to which I belong. There’s a lot of talking, perhaps a lot of listening, but not a lot of interaction. The sites on which most people seem to interact provoke a sense of awe or outrage. I think cultural heritage institutions do not fit this bill in general and perhaps Facebook is not our best networking option.

To me, Twitter has the most potential for audience building and direct contact with potential supporters, but it requires patience and persistence. Twittering since late last year, I have over 250 “followers.” I have made professional contacts across the globe, have been asked to be a guest blogger for an Australian Oral History site, and am “talking” daily to real live people with similar interests and ideas. Furthermore, my work is not just attracting archivists, museum professionals, and librarians. I pick up followers who may be interested in a single thing that I say related to records management, genealogy, sports history, etc. I even posted something today about being a cat person. I’m sure there is a librarian out there interested in cats who will be interested![In fact, one-day after writing the first draft of this newsletter, my cat Twitter post has generated three responses from like-minded cat lovers.]

Twitter is like being in a crowded room where someone overhears a conversation and sidles alongside to hear more. The constant chatter of Twitter offers cultural heritage professionals a great opportunity to attract interest. It offers our patrons an equally great opportunity to find out that we are interesting and approachable. The more we talk in our short 140 character bursts, the more others listen (as long as we don’t talk too much!) We can open ourselves up to the community and encourage them to see collections and better yet, we can encourage them to interact with us directly. The more we all interact, the stronger our networking circle becomes. The more support we have , the better for cultural heritage institutions and culture in general.

Once upon a time, a person sitting in his home after a long day of work would have no reason to be interested in the Beinecke Library, but today, a few tweets from a likeminded friend can steer them to hours of fabulously entertaining resources from the collections that just might make them want to visit. Use the technology available today to explore the possibilities for reaching out.