Historian as Archivist: History, Archives, and Outreach at Colorado State University

Abstract

During the past half-century, an increasing number of American academic institutions established archives, and numerous academic archives owe their existence to efforts by dedicated historians to preserve and document their heritage. Although public interest in safeguarding heritage materials continues to grow, recent economic challenges confront twenty-first century academic archivists. The story of the origins of the Colorado State University Archives illustrates the influence of historians on the preservation of archival records and offers examples of archival outreach activities that support the institution's mission while building the repository.

KEYWORDS:

• historians
• archivists
• archives history
• academic archives
• Colorado State University
• land-grant institutions
• outreach

Notes

1. Clifford K. Shipton, “College Archives and Academic Research,” American Archivist 27 (1964): 395.

2. This committee became the SAA College and University Archives Professional Affinity Group in 1978, and its name was changed in 1983 to the College and University Archives Section. See the “Chronologies of SAA Units,” part of the online finding aid of the Society of American Archivists Records at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries at http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/arch/findaid/uwmmss0172/appendix01.cfm.

3. Nicholas C. Burckel and J. Frank Cook, “A Profile of College and University Archives in the United States,” American Archivist 45 (1982): 410–412.

4. Ibid., 420.

5. Society of American Archivists: “Guidelines for College and University Archives,” Section I.C.1.a, accessed May 23, 2011at http://www.archivists.org/governance/guidelines/cu_guidelines.asp.

6. Burckel and Cook, “A Profile,” pp. 426–428. Princeton provides a notable exception to the conclusion that archives in private colleges tended to be established much earlier than those in public schools. In 1996, Princeton University Archivist Ben Primer stated that during its first 213 years his own institution “functioned without an official archives or a paid archivist,” a situation remedied in 1959 when the trustees created the Princeton University Archives and hired M. Halsey Thomas as the first archivist. Despite lacking a formal archival repository, Princeton managed to preserve nearly all of its early vital records because of “a combination of good fortune and wise care of the documents by administrators who were often uncertain of their mission and without adequate means to fulfill it” (Ben Primer, “Princeton University Archives: Notes for a History,” Princeton University Library Chronicle 58 [1996]: 11, 25.)

7. Mattie U. Russell, “The Influence of Historians on the Archival Profession in the United States,” American Archivist 46 (1983): 279–280, 283.

8. Marcus C. Robyns, “The Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives,” Michigan Historical Review 26 (2000): 137.

9. Christopher J. Prom and Ellen D. Swain, eds., College and University Archives: Readings in Theory and Practice (Chicago: The Society of American Archivists, 2008), vi.

10. Sandra Roff, “The College Archivist as College Historian: Baruch College Celebrates Its Historical Roots,” Journal of Archival Organization 8, nos. 3–4 (2010): 252. Roff expressed hope that visiting the campuses of the City University of New York to request archival materials would motivate administrators to action, and in fact, in the years following her visits, “all of the CUNY campuses have an assigned College Archivist, and there is an active CUNY-wide archival roundtable that meets regularly to discuss issues concerning archival management.” (p. 256).

11. Except as otherwise noted, the source of biographical material presented in this article is the James E. Hansen II oral history interview recorded July 14, 2009, preserved in the Colorado State University Archive.

12. The university traced its origin to legislation signed by the Colorado territorial government on February 11, 1870, designating Fort Collins as the site of Colorado's land-grant college, although the first classes would not be offered at the new institution until 1879. Thus, celebrations of the centennial would commence in 1970.

13. Minutes, Colorado State Board of Agriculture, January 19, 1968, p. 469.

14. “Hansen Begins Preparation of CSU History,” CSU Comments 3 (October 19, 1972): 1, 3.

15. Ibid., 3.

16. Ibid., 3; Paul Miller, “Historian James Hansen Documents Colorado State's Colorful Heritage,” CSU Comment (February 29, 1996): 2.

17. James E. Hansen II and John Newman, “The Status of Archival Education in the West: The Colorado State University Experience: A 25-Year Retrospective.” Unpublished paper read at the joint meeting of the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists, the Society of Northwest Archivists, and the Council of Intermountain Archivists, Boise, Idaho (May 23–25, 2001), 2; Papers of James E. Hansen, II, Colorado State University Archive.

18. Minutes, Colorado State Board of Agriculture, June 20, 1975, p. 83.

19. James E. Hansen II and John Newman, “History Students in Working Archives,” The History Teacher 13 (1980): 211–221; Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board, “Who We Are and What We Do,” http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/CHRAB/who.html.

20. Miller, “Historian James Hansen,” 2–4.

21. As the twentieth century drew to a close, Hansen was invited to participate in the organization of one more collection of historical records affiliated with Colorado State University, which would be called the Water Resources Archive (WRA). Aware of Hansen's role in creating the University Archives and the Colorado Agricultural Archives, Robert Ward (director of the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute at the university) asked Hansen join him and archivist John Newman in the early organizational meetings of the WRA. Hansen soon found it necessary to devote his full attention to a second volume of the university history, so his role in the founding of this new entity was minimal, but evidence of his contribution can be seen in some of the collections that were later transferred to it from the Colorado Agricultural Archives.

22. James E. Hansen II, “Final Narrative Report: Colorado On-Site Outreach Project” (Grant No. 90-035), 1991 (Papers of James E. Hansen II, Colorado State University Archive). This project sought to address deficiencies identified earlier by the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board. Hansen, assisted by project archivist Ann Hilfinger, conducted workshops for curators of local historical records and made follow-up visits which helped participants resolve difficulties, solidify their collections policies, and create donation policies, forms, manuals, and procedures.

23. Hansen and Newman, “History Students,” 8.

24. Collections lists and online finding aids may be accessed at http://lib.colostate.edu/archives/archives.

25. Dorothy T. Frye, “Linking Institutional Missions to University and College Archives Programs: The Land-Grant Model,” American Archivist 56 (1993): 45–46. Frye conducted a survey of 84 colleges and universities. Of the sixty-two respondents, nearly 90% reported having archives, with dates of creation ranging from 1928 to 1986. For most (85%), the archives was housed on campus in the library, and 93% were combined with manuscript collections. Colorado State University reflects this pattern, with its Department of Archives and Special Collections located in Morgan Library. Frye contrasted the high percentage of archives found in land-grant institutions with the results of the 1966 survey by the SAA College and University Archives Committee, in which only 48% of the 1156 respondents (representing a wide cross-section of private and public universities and colleges) had archives. (Frye cited Robert M. Warner, “The Status of College and University Archives,” American Archivist 31 [1968]: 236.) However, the statistics provided in her article do not indicate the number of land-grant university respondents whose archives were established after 1966. Based on the general trend, it is likely that the land-grant percentages were much less in the mid-1960s.

26. Frye, “Linking Institutional,” 50.

27. Roff, 256.

28. Eddie Woodward, “The Case for a University Archivist: Preserving Institutional Memory,” College and Research Libraries News 72 (2011): 226–228.

29. John R. Thelin, “Archives and the Cure for Institutional Amnesia: College and University Saga as Part of the Campus Memory,” Journal of Archival Organization 7 (2009): 6–7.

30. E-mails, blogs, social network pages, and virtual exhibits showcasing archival items of interest can be tailored to specific audiences among the university's alumni, students, faculty, and external community. Although records curators seven decades ago may have criticized the addition of manuscripts and memorabilia to official university records, some archivists of this century insist that “memoirs of classroom experiences … are central—not peripheral—sources of data” (Thelin, 11)

31. For examples, see the collections of Auburn University (http://www.lib.auburn.edu/sca/manuscripts.html#ag), Purdue University (http://www4.lib.purdue.edu/archon/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=508&q=agriculture), the University of Idaho (http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/special-collections/primary.html), and the University of California at Berkeley (http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/landcases.html) and at Riverside (http://wrca.library.ucr.edu/) and Davis (http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/specol/manu-collections/manuscripts/index.php?subject=2).

32. Daniel Tyler, Silver Fox of the Rockies: Delphus E. Carpenter and Western Water Compacts (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003).