July 17, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on A Legacy of Canyon Adventure – George Billingsley Collection

A Legacy of Canyon Adventure – George Billingsley Collection

If you haven’t ventured below the rim of the Grand Canyon, you’re missing the best part! For those with a more adventuresome personality (and extra leisure time), the panoramic landscape, geology, as well as unique flora and fauna are waiting to be experienced. Regardless of the time of year and trail or site trekked, the interior Canyon experience leaves a permanent mark on the visitor’s psyche. For a select few, it is a passionate love affair and devotion to the Canyon that leads to numerous adventures and experiences with family and friends. Few have loved or experienced the Canyon to the depth and breath as George Billingsley.

Special Collections is proud to announce the opening of the George Billingsley collection. This collection is the latest in a long list of archival collections documenting hiking and recreation in the Grand Canyon, including Harvey Butchart, Josef Muench, Fred and Margaret Eisement, P.T. Reilly, Tad Nichols, and Emery Kolb collections. The Billingsley collection includes the original research and correspondence for his book, Quest for the Pillar of Gold: The Mines and Miners of the Grand Canyon (co-authored with Earle Spamer and Dove Menkes); professional publications; and published Colorado Plateau and Grand Canyon maps. In additional, Billingsley has donated his annotated trip logs and thousands of photographs documenting his hiking and river excursions throughout the Grand Canyon region (1963-2002). The first series of the Billingsley photographs have been digitized and are now online. Stick around, there’s more to come!

July 17, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on The River Woman – Katie Lee

The River Woman – Katie Lee

Waterfilled Pothole at Llewellyn Gulch, 1958.
Photo Courtesy of the Katie Lee Collection
NAU.PH.99.3.1.15.22

For all the Katie Lee fans out there, check out this great interview with Ms. Katie courtesy of Arizona Public Media.

For the few who may not know Katie, she is a musician, activist, river runner, actress, writer, public speaker, and all round river goddess. She’s still kicking @$$ at 95 years young and she will blow you away with her passion and her love of the river and wild places.

As Katie says, “I wouldn’t be anything like the person that I am until that river picked me up and took me along…”

Check out more of Katie here

July 17, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on The Struggle to Retain History and Culture

The Struggle to Retain History and Culture

It is the anniversary of Srebrenica, the massacre of a people and a culture. The wars in Bosnia destroyed families, homes, cities and factions made a point to destroy their “enemies” museums and libraries. It wasn’t just an annihilation of a people but their writings their histories and their culture. This is not the first time this has happened, World War II took a people then their homes, their goods, it took Countries and their art and sculptures and writings. It was a mass theft to be used by individuals and by a massive planned museum in Germany. Many pieces of art were destroyed or lost. All would have been when Hitler died because of an edict he wrote stating that all stolen art would be torched upon his death. If it were not for a few, the Louvre would not be as it is now, many churches and museum’s would be bereft of irreplaceable pieces.

Writings, documents, letters, art, sculpture, are not very exciting to many, but they show where we have come from, display our past in riots of color, softness and sheen of marble, crinkle of paper that displays words of those gone, but not to be forgotten.

They show us the thoughts of Lincoln, of Harriet Tubman, the humor of Twain, the courage of Douglas, of Grant, of Washington, Lafayette, of Mandela and Gandhii. The display the craft and genius of da Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Picasso, The insane and glorious madness of Van Gogh, and Dali. This is what exists today but so ealily could have been destroyed.

Buddhist statues were blown up in Afghanistan as they did not fit with the regimes beliefs. Currently irreplaceable pieces of the past are lost to war and whoever gets to the town first, if it doesn’t fit they take a hammer or explosive to it. Ruins that show us the past, give us questions and answers give us wonder and joy are gone because they came under the wrong occupation.

Carlos Trujillo, date unknown
Photo courtesy of the Carlos Trujillo Collection
NAU.PH.2010.39.36

Locally we have the same issue. Carlos Trujillo born on January 19, 1906, resided on the south side of Flagstaff during the 1930s with his wife. Carlos eventually moved to Tourist Home on South San Francisco Street in Flagstaff. His collection of information concerning his employment as a laborer and as a member of a workers’ union in Flagstaff along with pay stubs, documentation, war rations, receipts, correspondence and some religious mementos along with 44 photographs were found in the trash, rescued and brought to Cline Library Special Collections. Mr. Trujillo’s documents and photograph provide a picture of life in Flagstaff in the early part of the 1900s. It provides information of a life lived here, working conditions finances a man’s life with his family in Flagstaff almost lost to a landfill.

Carlos Trujillo with a Young Girl, date unknown
Photo Courtesy of the Carlos Trujillo Collection
NAU.PH.2010.39.43

Agapita Encinas Trujillo with Baby, Carlos Trujillo, Reymundo Ceballos, Lauriano Baca (from left to right)
Photo Courtesy of the Carlos Trujillo Collection
NAU.PH.2010.39.26

Preservation and archivists are not very exciting and are considered old dusty people with old dusty things. They are not, they are young and old, short and tall, funny and irreverent, some even have tattoos and piercings, they all share something, a love of the past, and the knowledge that bringing it into the present, entices us with those who seek answers. History gives us a look into other lives, other times other realities that often so match our own, It is exciting and heartbreaking and joyful. So when you hear of an artifact, a geological dig, a painting, a manuscript a family’s history destroyed, think about it, what was lost? Not just a thing but the thoughts, the dreams, the realities of the people attached to it, and that loss can never be retrieved.

To learn more about Carlos Trujillo, please view the finding aid to his collection and see additional images from his collection on our digital archives.

July 9, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Appraisal of Digital Photographs

Appraisal of Digital Photographs

Archivists enjoy good satire.

Click here to access the full story. It is not far-fetched to assume that The Onion has a team of information professionals on staff. Ridiculousness aside, there is intelligent thought (i.e. archival theory) behind this veiled critique of narcissistic Facebook users. One such theory is that of appraisal:

…the process of determining whether records and other materials have permanent (archival) value. Appraisal may be done at the collection, creator, series, file, or item level. Appraisal can take place prior to donation and prior to physical transfer, at or after accessioning. The basis of appraisal decisions may include a number of factors, including the records’ provenance and content, their authenticity and reliability, their order and completeness, their condition and costs to preserve them, and their intrinsic value. Appraisal often takes place within a larger institutional collecting policy and mission statement. (courtesy of the Society of American Archivists’ Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology)

Simply, appraisal is the process whereby archivists determine what should be retained in a new collection/accession with consideration of an item’s administrative, legal, and/or historic value. An excellent web resource from the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) records management unit details this process as it applies to federal records. While archivists strive to be as objective and neutral as possible with collections in their custody, appraisal is often criticized as a subjective process that is the result of one person’s (or a small number of people’s) inherent bias(es) when surveying a collection. However, some relatively easy items can be removed from a collection during the appraisal process. These can include:

Redundant/duplicative material
Photographs that are clearly blurry and/or of questionable quality
Material that is the physical and/or intellectual property of another agency or individual
Sensitive items that contain social security numbers or other information (health, educational) that is protected through federal legislation designed to safeguard the privacy of individuals

Archives and archivists worldwide are currently facing difficult realities with the handling of born-digital materials. Digital photographs, films, documents, databases, spreadsheets, and e-mails–among many other types of electronic records–are beginning to arrive at their institutional doorsteps in greater quantity and many are minimally-equipped to preserve them, let alone facilitate their access and retrieval. Rather than spend this entire post discussing all facets of electronic records, we will briefly focus your attention on one specific aspect of their management: appraisal.

The woman in the above-linked satirical piece would have benefited from a thorough appraisal of her images prior to uploading them in Facebook. Nobody wants to scroll through 12 million images from somebody’s vacation. It can only be assumed that the woman in this fictionalized story was far more concerned with access to the images than she was about their long-term preservation. At Special Collections and Archives (SCA), we would focus our efforts–at least initially–in preserving the images as long as possible. We would remove all digital files from outdated storage devices (floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, portable drives, etc.) and move them onto a centralized server with measures in place to ensure that data is not lost due to corruption from the physical storage medium or potential viruses. Subsequent to this, we would appraise all files and ensure that an appropriate selection for long-term retention is made. With items preserved and a selection made, access to the material is more readily facilitated.

The digital world affords archivists the opportunity to automate portions of the appraisal process. For example, keyword searches across multiple files and folders can quickly isolate anything containing a social security number or other sorts of private information for subsequent redaction or deletion. A hexadecimal number unique to one specific file (known as a hash value) can be created for all items in a series of folders and subsequently compared for the purposes of identifying duplicates. However, digital photography–especially images taken by commercial photographers–can potentially yield hundreds of files taken over a brief period of time that are nearly identical one to another. What is an archives to do?

Some strategies are clear and involve little effort. If shooting in a proprietary file format (Canon’s is .cr2 and Nikon’s is .nef), a photographer’s favorite images (selections) will have been modified in editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop. These changes will not have affected the original file but instead a sidecar (.xmp) file will have been automatically created that captures any/all modifications made to the original file. Simply seeing that a .cr2 or .nef file has an associated sidecar (.xmp) file would suggest that this specific image was of importance to its creator, especially if one can verify that they were the only ones to handle these files after the image was captured. All other items without these sidecar files could potentially be considered for deletion. If the opportunity is available, working with the original photographer on making a selection for permanent retention would be a very useful appraisal exercise, but most institutions will not have this luxury.

Neither of the above scenarios are always available to archivists. Advancements are being made on a regular basis that will help further automate the identification of nearly-identical items that could also be explored as a tool for appraisal. For example, ssdeep is a free program that can be used to analyze context triggered piecewise hashes (CTPH). Also referred to as ‘fuzzy logic,’ ssdeep looks at multiple files and confirms sequences of identical bytes in the same order, but will flag differences between these sequences in both content and length. These subtle changes between files could potentially help in the identification and deletion of near-identical digital photographs in a folder.

No solution will be perfect, but building a solid set of tools and applying archival theory to the appraisal process will help an institution appropriately manage its digital assets. Also important is experimentation and dissemination of efforts. Albert Einstein once said, “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” SCA looks to the broader archival profession for answers and solutions, but often its most successful efforts have been the result of experimentation. We look forward to sharing our challenges and successes about practical digital appraisal–among many others–with our archival colleagues in the near future.

July 2, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Fred Harvey Exhibit under construction!

Fred Harvey Exhibit under construction!

The Fred Harvey Company in many ways defined the American southwest-even though their businesses expand far beyond to as far east as Cleveland, Ohio, and as far west and north as the wine country of northern California. Our exhibit will show the progression of the Harvey Company from small clapboard railroad cafes like this one:

Fred Harvey lunch room. New Mexico–Deming. 1883

We’ll move forward into time with Harvey’s rather grand plans for the Grand Canyon with the rustic and elegant El Tovar Hotel:

El Tovar Hotel, Hopi House, and Navajo hogans, Grand Canyon village, south rim of the Grand Canyon

…Through the period of the elegant Fred Harvey rail-side hotels:

Rear (railway side) garden/lawn area of La Posada Hotel designed by May Coulter, 303 E. Second (east bound Route 66). April 2006.

Along the way you’ll also see the Harvey Company’s forays highway-based enterprises like this California restaurant:

California – Ontario Harvey House – Exterior

…All the way to the more interesting enterprises, like the Fred Harvey service at Ontario Motor Speedway(!)

Ontario Motor Speedway – Victory Circle Club

There will be more- lot’s more to see and learn about Fred Harvey. Meanwhile, consider this just a “taste” of what’s to come.

June 15, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Getting on TRAC: Trustworthy Repository Audit and Certification at NAU’s Cline Library

Getting on TRAC: Trustworthy Repository Audit and Certification at NAU’s Cline Library

Recently, three members (Kelly Phillips, Todd Welch, and Peter Runge) of Special Collections and Archives attended and presented at the Western Roundup in Denver, CO from May 27-30, 2015. The Western Roundup is a joint supra-regional archives conference consisting of the Conference of Inter-Mountain Archivists (CIMA), Northwest Archivists (NWA), Society of California Archivists (SCA), and Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists (SRMA).

Phillips, Runge, and Welch presented on the department’s recent internal TRAC audit, which was conducted to assess the trustworthiness of its digital repository. The investigation, and resulting report, used the Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories standard and checklist (ISO 16363:2012) to collect and examine evidence, record findings and observations, and report on the results and recommendations for each area where compliance would be required to achieve external certification. These areas include organizational infrastructure, digital object management, and technical and security risk assessment. Each speaker will address a different area of the report to summarize the findings of the self-audit, discuss proposed recommendations, and provide an update on the new developments since the report came out in Spring 2014 to improve the trustworthiness of the digital archives and establish a solid foundation and framework for the new institutional repository to be managed by Special Collections and Archives.

Runge presented on the organizational infrastructure perspective, specifically on issues of viability, structure, and staffing; preservation policy and planning; financial stability; and software licenses, deposit agreements, and intellectual property. He reported on the administration’s recent efforts to formulate and align policies and planning to increase support for the digital repository.

Welch presented on the report’s findings from the digital object management perspective, describing the evolution of procedures, practices, and workflows implemented in accessioning, storing, preserving, and making accessible the repository content. He discussed the deficiencies identified in the report and describe steps taken to improve the management of digital content

Phillips reported on the technical and security risk assessment perspective, illustrating the importance of technology and security protocols in building the digital archives. She demonstrated how establishing hardware and software documentation, performing cyclical ‘technology watch’ reviews, and instituting solid security practices are critical to ensuring trust among a repository’s designated communities.

The full TRAC report and recommendations is available on the Cline library’s website:

http://library.nau.edu/speccoll/pdf/TRAC_report_draft_Final.pdf

May 18, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Ordering from the Archives

Ordering from the Archives

Whether for personal use or publication, online or in a book, digital or print, we’ve got you covered when it comes to obtaining reproductions and permissions for the thousands of items within our photograph and manuscript collections. Funds generated for reproduction and use fees are directly reinvested into the preservation and maintenance of our collections.

The Most Request Image is? “Kolb on a Rope”

NAU.PH.568.8690

Ordering in Four Simple Steps

Download and fill out the “Application for Permission” form
Submit completed application form to special.collections@nau.edu
Once submitted form is reviewed by departmental staff, an email containing an invoice outlining reproduction and use fees will be sent — along with a link to a secure credit card payment form.
Once payment is verified, an email will be sent containing requested files, invoice marked “paid in full” along with counter-signed and dated permissions form.

May 17, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Scholarship in the Archives: Route 66…Navigating the Archives

Scholarship in the Archives: Route 66…Navigating the Archives

We have a guest post from an NAU graduate student from the anthropology department, Olivia Charest.

What’s a socio-cultural anthropology student doing writing a blog for SCA, you might wonder. Well, here goes. I am a second year graduate student from the anthropology department working on a thesis about pilgrimage and travel on Route 66. The main goal is to figure out what draws tourists to the road—especially those tourists from, say, the Netherlands, Germany, France…I want to know how they understand America, and how traveling Route 66 preserves the memory of The Road.

My SCA journey has taken me in some interesting directions that I was definitely not expecting. I have had many great conversations with Sean Evans, archivist and perhaps Prince of Route 66 to the King, Angel Delgadillo. Sean has been instrumental in providing me with every resource he knows concerning Route 66. My sampling strategy would be nothing without Sean’s assistance—almost every Route 66 contact I have made has been through Sean. My thesis research and my interest in Route 66 spawned some additional research projects, though.

Angel DelGadillo and Olivia Charest in Angel’s Barber Shop on Route 66 in Seligman, AZ. (note the image of Angel in the background as a young man)

Sean Evans, Archivist, Route 66 Historian, and Clothes Horse Presenting at the 2009 Grand Canyon Lecture Series during the International Route 66 Festival. Photo courtesy of the Sean Evans Collections, Special Collections and Archives.

In my second year, I started a project for a Communications (COM) course on Two Guns, Arizona. Nearly every web page I looked at got the stories about this town twisted around and the facts wrong, often confusing Two Guns with Canyon Diablo three miles away. With Sean and SCA’s help, I had the idea to create a Two Guns web page—with the real story and links to photographs and oral histories held by SCA. The web page is still in its infancy (and currently not accessible), but after my thesis is done, I will be creating the web page and at the request of some friends in the Netherlands, I apparently will write a book about Two Guns. Sean and the SCA provided a plethora of materials for me to peruse, including access to the newspaper articles chronicling the interesting trial of Two Guns resident, Harry “Indian” Miller. I personally love the photographs that SCA holds of Two Guns and its zoos.

Rimmy Jim’s Between Twin Arrows and Hopi House, 1969. Photo courtesy of the Fronske Collection, Special Collections and Archives.

Another project came about when WestLand Resources, Inc. was hired by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to create a visual roadbed survey of all accessible Route 66 segments in Arizona. I was hired as a researcher. I have spent a great deal of time accessing SCA materials—including Engineer Reports, Arizona Highways, and Arizona road maps. We have used the Fronske collection to verify segments of the road, as well as other collections. The ability to use SCA’s online resources has hugely helped us on this particular project!

Route 66 in Arizona, 1953. Map courtesy of the Arizona Highway Department and Special Collections and Archives.

The SCA has served my projects and me well!

Thank you, Olivia, for the update on your research in Special Collections and Archives and your research.!

May 17, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Congratulations Class of 2015 and Class of 1965

Congratulations Class of 2015 and Class of 1965

It’s that time of the year when all the hard work and studying is magically transformed into a diploma. Graduation weekend saw nearly 5,000 NAU students graduate beneath a light blanket of rain, snow, and hail.

The 1965 Golden Graduates on the Steps of Old Main, May 9, 2015. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

Graduation is also the time of year when Alumni Relations invites the Golden Graduates back to campus as special guests of the entire NAU community. The Golden Graduates received their diplomas 50 years ago! This year’s Golden Graduates (Class of 1965) are extra special, as they are the last graduating class of Arizona State College.

The Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives, and Alumni Relations partner to host the Golden Graduates at the library. This year, the Golden Graduates were treated to two days of activities and events. On Friday, the Golden Graduates visited the library after it closed for tours of the new classroom, the Media Lab, and a behind-the-scenes tour of Special Collections and Archives. Georgette Vigil welcomed the Golden Graduates to campus, and they socialized with library and Alumni Relations staff.

Georgette Vigil, Director of Alumni Relations, Welcoming the Golden Graduates in the Presidents’ Room. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

Special Collections pulled out many of its treasures from the 1965 era to share with the Golden Graduates. Included were letter sweaters, the copper ax, yearbooks, student handbooks, photographs of campus, homecoming dedicatee pins, beanies, and much more for the Golden Graduates to enjoy as they socialized and reminisced.

Letter Sweaters, Chain Gang Sweater, and Commemorative Football. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

Homecoming Dedicatee Buttons. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

After Friday’s event, the Golden Graduates were the guests of honor at the 9:00am commencement exercises. They led the procession of soon-to-be graduates into the Skydome and had front row seats for the event.

Golden Graduates Leading the Commencement Procession in the Skydome. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

The Golden Graduates at Commencement. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

President Cheng, Honoring the Golden Graduates at Commencement. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

Following the ceremony, they were brought back to the library where they were treated to a delicious lunch in the Jean Collins Reading Room. During the lunch, each Golden Graduate was introduced and had an opportunity to share some of their memorable experiences with the group. We heard stories about the Latin Quarter, Axer’s Ally, skiing (and skiing accidents), trips to Oak Creek, the early days of the School of Forestry, life long friends (a foursome of ladies who met and have remained friends for over 50 years!), multiple generations of ASC/NAU graduates in families (one family – Mary Beth [’65] and Royce [’64] Moore have 17 ASC/NAU degrees in their family!), just to mention a few of the touching and fascinating stories shared among the group. As you might imagine, many of the stories shared were humorous, entertaining, and quite often reflective of how ASC/NAU shaped the graduates lives.

The Jean Collins Reading Room. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

University Librarian and Dean Cynthia Childrey Welcoming the Golden Graduates at Lunch. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

Gifts Given to the Golden Graduates during their Saturday Lunch. Photo courtesy of David Slipher, Alumni Relations.

This event is a developing tradition that we at the Cline Library and Special Collections and Archives as well as Alumni Relations look forward to and enjoy very much. The feedback from the Golden Graduates is equally positive and enthusiastic, so I’m quite certain this part of their weekend will continue to be part of the program.

From all of us at the Cline Library and Alumni Relations, we wish the Golden Graduates great happiness and a standing invitation to visit to the campus and library anytime they’re back in Flagstaff.

Special Collections and Archives would like to congratulate all the students who graduated this year. We are particularly proud of Ariel Apple and Jackson Klienfelter, who worked in Special Collections and Archives as student assistants. Way to go Ariel and Jackson!

May 4, 2015
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Our New Elizabeth & P.T. Reilly Intern!

Our New Elizabeth & P.T. Reilly Intern!

The Cline Library and Special Collections and Archives would like to introduce the 2015 Elizabeth M. and PT Reilly Summer Intern, Ofelia Zepeda. Ofelia is an NAU graduate (class of 2000) and brings a wealth of experience and insight to the Special Collections and Archives (she taught middle school for 10 years!). She’s excited to return to Flagstaff and NAU for the summer and to start working on the Fred Harvey exhibit. Ofelia is a SIRLS graduate student at the University of Arizona and a Knowledge River Scholar (cohort 13). Ofelia will be joining us on Monday, June 8; the week prior, she will be at the University of Montana to attend a Tribal College Librarians Professional Development Institute (TCLI). Wow, Ofelia knows how to fill her summers with fun and interesting projects. By way of introduction, she volunteered to answer a few question we posed her that we thought might introduce her to NAU…

Ofelia Zepeda, Class of 2000.

Tell us a little bit about your background?

S-keg sialig! Hello! My name is Ofelia Zepeda. I am a proud member of the Tohono O’odham Nation. I am originally from a tiny town called Stanfield in Central Arizona, but I currently reside in Tucson, Arizona with my husband of 15 years and two daughters, Elizabeth and Veronica, ages 12 and 8. I received my undergraduate degree in Extended English, Secondary Education from NAU after which I moved to Tucson and taught for the better part of 10 years between taking time off for our children. I just recently made the monumental decision to quit teaching in order to pursue a master’s degree in library science. I was fortunate to gain admission into the University of Arizona’s School of Information and Library Sciences (soon to become the School of Information) and best of all, the Knowledge River Program.

My husband of 15 years and two daughters, Elizabeth and Veronica, ages 12 and 8

Why did you apply for this internship and what do you hope to get from it?

When I saw the posting for the internship, I knew that I HAD to apply. Cline Library has a wonderful reputation. I have heard so much wonderful praise of Cline Library’s Special Collections and staff consistently that it would have been ridiculous not to apply. Just recently, I happened to be at the Arizona State Museum volunteering for an event and ended up speaking with their photo archivist who said when she runs into an issue, she thinks, “What would Cline Library do?” I hope to gain a wealth of experience from the internship and I am fairly confident that hope will be exceeded.

You’re from Tucson, so what aspect of Flagstaff will you be looking forward to this summer?

Strangely enough, I will miss the heat of Tucson and all of the wonder of the desert, but I know Flagstaff is beautiful in the summer also. My children are especially excited about seeing the sights of Flagstaff and the surrounding areas. Even though I am from Arizona and attended NAU for 4 years, I have never been to the Grand Canyon. We have promised our younger daughter that is where she will be going for her birthday.

Dog or cat?

Both, we have 1 dog and 4 cats. Yes, I know that’s a lot, but my husband and children are soft-hearted when it comes to cats.

How will your skill set/experience make this internship special?

I have been employed as a graduate assistant at the University of Arizona’s Special Collections for both Fall 2014 and Spring 2015. Working at Special Collections has provided me with a wonderful background in archives, especially in a variety of fields. We maintain our own blog as well (archivistapprenticehip.com – check it out!). So far this year, I have worked on the papers of a retired English teacher/poet, a Lunar Planetary Laboratory astronomer, a lawyer/photographer, and the Black Sparrow Press Collection. Additionally, I was fortunate to curate an exhibit highlighting the life and career of our late governor, Raul H. Castro. The variety of material and degree of work I have been exposed to will have most definitely prepared me to work with the Fred Harvey Collection which has so many different facets to it.

What aspect of Fred Harvey most interests you?

I have always wondered how the tourist trade began in Arizona and the Southwest. Also, I have wondered what has helped to shape how the Southwest was perceived and traveled. The Fred Harvey Collection is epic on so many levels. It contains so much variety: architecture, jewelry, business, marketing, travel, dining, trains. . .I could go on and on, but I will not. I appreciate the fact that there is always something new to discover and the potential is there. I will not have to worry about running out of work to complete.

“A woman and a man looking at the Grand Canyon through a viewer.” Collection: Fred Harvey Hotels Collection, courtesy University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections.

Thank you, Ofelia, for the wonderful introduction and we’re looking forward to having you join us this summer!