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Margaret Jerrido oral history.
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- speakerTake off my archives, smile.
- speakerToday is the 27th of September 2016.
- speakerMy name is David Staniunas and this is an interview of Margaret Jerrido,
- speakerarchivist and archives consultant and first chair of the Delaware Valley Archivists
- speakerGroup, we're in the archives of Mother Bethel
- speakerAME in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- speakerHow are you? Good, thank you.
- speakerDid you watch the debate last night? I did.
- speakerWell, some of it some of it was watching me, but yeah, I did see some of
- speakerit. I did not. I waited for Twitter this morning to tell me how to feel.
- speakerSo I.
- speakerI haven't researched your biography extensively, so that's my mistake.
- speakerAre you born and raised in Philadelphia?
- speakerYes. Born and raised in Philadelphia and went to school in Philadelphia.
- speakerAnd where did you go to school?
- speakerI went to Temple for undergraduate and then I went
- speakerto Drexel for a master's in library science.
- speakerWhat sort of led you into a career in archives?
- speakerI started working in a library branch of the free library
- speakerwhen I was about 14, 15, I guess, really loved.
- speakerWell, I always like to read my mom, you know, had lots of books around.
- speakerAnd I was one of my Christmas gifts was a book of some kind.
- speakerAnd just to get a little spending cash, you know,
- speakermy mom got me working papers for the kid to be 14 to get working papers
- speakerat that time. And she says, well, where would you like
- speakerto work? And I said, well, I think I'd like to work in the library.
- speakerAnd that's what I did in the children's section.
- speakerThen I got then from there on, I just continued
- speakerto work in some kind of a library and I went from there to
- speakerwhat library did I go to where the Muda Museum is and work in
- speakerthat library.
- speakerAnd then from there I went to the medical
- speakercollege in Pennsylvania and worked there for 20 years, I guess.
- speakerAnd that's where I met Frank Miller, who
- speakerwas at that time the archivist at Temple University,
- speakerFred Miller.
- speakerWas he organized the urban archives?
- speakerYes. I'm over here betraying my ignorance.
- speakerNo, no, no, no, no, no. He actually was,
- speakerI guess, hired by the Urban Studies Department
- speakerat Temple University to collect
- speakerinformation about Philadelphia.
- speakerAnd that's how the Urban Archives, I guess, was created,
- speakerformed.
- speakerAnd so from from MCP, you began work at the
- speakerUrban Archives.
- speakerYes. And then from from MCP.
- speakerFred was promoted, I guess is the word he thought it was
- speakerto win any grant reviewer in D.C.
- speakerSo his position became open and he strongly
- speakerencouraged me to, you know, apply for it.
- speakerAnd I said, oh, OK.
- speakerAnd so I applied and got the job.
- speakerSo what year was this?
- speakerOh, good question. Nineteen
- speakermust have been 1990, 1990.
- speakerAnd your title at that point was head of
- speakerthe Urban Archives and
- speakersort of the core of the collections from the like
- speaker1967 and 1990 period.
- speakerThose were labor archives to begin with.
- speakerThe AFL-CIO collection. Yes.
- speakerWhat were some of the first collections that you
- speakerwent out and tried to bring in with collection development like?
- speakerWell, from the labor collections, which of course, Fred
- speakerbrought in, we expanded to community organizations,
- speakerwhich is became a strength. So we collected
- speakergroups of materials such as the local NAACP.
- speakerJust these are just local groups now,
- speakerthe Mount Airy Learning Tree and
- speakerother collections similar.
- speakerBut they just had to be related to Philadelphia and be organized
- speakerby an executive director or something like that.
- speakerBut the organization had to be based in Philadelphia.
- speakerAnd so what were some of the nuts and bolts of doing that?
- speakerI mean, would you would you enter a place you had connections
- speakerin the community?
- speakerWould you make house calls and invade basements
- speakerand.
- speakerYes, yes. To all of the above. OK,
- speakerI was never one to be dressed in dresses and heels and things
- speakerlike that that just did not apply to the job.
- speakerNot at all. And that was fine with me.
- speakerSo, yes, I don my jeans and whenever I came into work looking like that,
- speakerthey'd say, oh, she's going out on it on a visit.
- speakerSo yeah, I did.
- speakerI went to people's homes, went to basements of,
- speakeryou know, any kind of organization, if indeed they were so lucky to have
- speakera place to put their stuff.
- speakerBut most of the time it was the executive director or the head of the organization.
- speakerThat's where the materials were usually kept in somebody's home, in a basement or the
- speakerattic and.
- speakerWhen it comes to having connections, I guess the
- speakerword sort of spreads around like a disease, you know, it's just sort of spreads and they
- speakerall say, oh, gee, I understand that Temple Urban Archives is collecting
- speakermaterials that I, you know, maybe fit with your collecting policy.
- speakerNo, they didn't exactly say collecting policy, but, you know, may fit in with your
- speakercollection. And so that's that's really how it really got started.
- speakerOnce they knew when somebody knew that we were collecting that kind of material,
- speakerthen they would just say, well, you know, Margaret Gerardo at the Temple University
- speakerarchives, they're collecting things like that.
- speakerAnd as I said, that just sort of spread that way, which was good for me.
- speakerAnd you really have to go out and bang on too many doors and say, you know, I want your
- speakerstuff. They sort of just came to me, which was good.
- speakerDo you have any any favorites, anything greatest hits as far as collections go,
- speakerdare I say, the Delaware Valley archivist group Presbyterian.
- speakerYou know, that collection is there. I really should have went there, you know, because
- speakerwhen you come to the part where you're going to ask me, when did we begin?
- speakerI had to think about that. I say, oh, God, when did we begin?
- speakerAnd who were the members? The beginning members.
- speakerI don't remember all the beginning. Remember, this is awful, but the the
- speakerarchives will have it. You so so that's one of my favorites.
- speakerThat's my next trip actually to go to temple this year.
- speakerWe need to do some work.
- speakerYeah. Yeah.
- speakerThey have a lot of the materials that I collected
- speakeras well as materials for some of the other chairs.
- speakerSo they should be there.
- speakerBut you asked me some of my favorites. There's the Pennsylvania Mandi's Council, you
- speakerknow, and as I said, the NAACP
- speakerlocal chapter.
- speakerAnd then there were also collections of individuals.
- speakerAnd those individuals just happened to be the directors
- speakeror the executive director of a particular organization.
- speakerNot necessarily did we have the organizational records, but we had the individuals
- speakercollection, which was just as good some time
- speakeron Divac.
- speakerSo per our website, the organization is created
- speakerin nineteen eighty. Yeah.
- speakerCould you tell me a little about the, the sort of origin story.
- speakerAnd yeah I was working at the medical college in Pennsylvania and
- speakerFred Miller came by and this
- speakerwas like this I guess it would be seven or eight years after
- speakerMaric was formed because they were formed in 72 and I
- speakerwas there when they were formed.
- speakerBut Fred came by and said, you know, not everybody
- speakercan really afford to go to the regional
- speakermeetings. We really need to have something that's a little more local for those,
- speakerbecause at that time, these were just all small mom and pop shops.
- speakerWe're not talking about the universities. You know, even though I was at the medical
- speakercollege in Pennsylvania, it was still a small place, a small archives.
- speakerAnd Fred was saying, you know, we really need to have something that will allow
- speakerthose of us who are in the area to go around and visit other
- speakerplaces and see what they're doing and how they're, you know, how they're making out,
- speakerbecause we were all struggling at that time. I mean, you know, mind you, this is 1980,
- speaker1892 that it's like 30, 40 years ago.
- speakerAnd I said, I'm not a bad idea.
- speakerHe says, what do you think about he's talking to me.
- speakerAnd Sandra Chaffe, CHF was
- speakerthe director of the archives at the Medical College in Pennsylvania.
- speakerAnd I just, you know, was one of the staff members at that time
- speakerin the archives.
- speakerAnd so he was talking to the both of us and he was saying,
- speakerwhy don't we just call some other people and see if they would mind
- speakera meeting? And we actually met at the Historical Society, Pennsylvania, and I'm
- speakeralmost sure these following people were there.
- speakerBob Plowman.
- speakerMyself and Sandra Chaffe.
- speakerPeter Parker.
- speakerBeth Carroll Horrocks, I think.
- speakerMark Lloyd from University of Penn
- speakerand I know on.
- speakerI know I'm missing some people, but because even though the room wasn't crowded,
- speakerthere are a number of people there.
- speakerI think of them, you know, send them to you.
- speakerThat's not bad for thirty five years, but I know that
- speakerthey were there and so we were there and we said, well, here we
- speakerare.
- speakerExcuse me. Here we are.
- speakerWhat do we want of this group?
- speakerAnd so that's when Fred said, well, I really think that talking to
- speakerthe group, not just to me, that we really need to
- speakervisit other places and if they need
- speakerhelp, we can help them in whatever way we can,
- speakeryou know, with resources.
- speakerWe never had any money, but, you know, maybe suggestions or
- speakeranything that would give them a little hand up.
- speakerAnd we said, well, that doesn't sound like a bad
- speakerthing.
- speakerYou know, it would allow people to
- speakeractually see, you know, what the shopping looks like, you know what the staffing
- speakeris. And as I said, most of the time, most of these archives at that time were
- speakerrun by one one and a half, if you're lucky, two people
- speakerat the medical college. We were fortunate to have Sandy and myself.
- speakerAnd then there was another part time person who worked there.
- speakerSo we were kind of rich in terms of having, you know, assistance and help.
- speakerAnd we didn't meet their first, though.
- speakerWe actually, as I said initially at the Historical site in Pennsylvania,
- speakerand I think we actually met there first as a group
- speakerand then we haggled over what are we going to call ourselves.
- speakerYou know, the usual thing about, oh, what should this group be and what
- speakerare our goals and should there be a fee, you know,
- speakermembership fee and if so, how much?
- speakerNobody can afford this amount of money.
- speakerAnd, oh, it was your first meeting was pretty long, but we finally came away
- speakerwith some suggestions of names.
- speakerAnd then finally we decided on the Delaware Valley Archivists Group because we didn't
- speakerwant to only include Philadelphia, but other small
- speakeroutside of Philadelphia groups, because Bob Plummer was actually
- speakerfrom and of course, this was his push.
- speakerHe was from the Delaware County archivist archives.
- speakerAnd so he was outside of the Philadelphia area.
- speakerAnd he says, well, we just can't make it the Philadelphia group.
- speakerWe have to, you know, broaden broaden the term.
- speakerAnd that's sort of how we came up with the Delaware Valley Archivists Group.
- speakerWhat are we going to do? Well, we can go to the other
- speakerrepositories and see how they are being run.
- speakerAnd then while we're there, we just going to have a tour
- speakeror we're going to have milk and cookies, you know, snacks.
- speakerAnd then but initially all we did was really just went to other repositories
- speakerto see what they were like and who was there.
- speakerAnd then it kind of blossomed and, you know, went to wine and cheese.
- speakerAnd in addition to the tours, you know,
- speakerand then, of course, you know, the guest lecturers, that kind of thing.
- speakerSo they said this is at the first meeting.
- speakerWho's going to be chair of this, Fred?
- speakerSo they looked at me and I said, oh, no, not me.
- speakerWhy not? Says he.
- speakerI said, oh, OK.
- speakerSandy was really too busy in the archives, you know, with the Medical College of
- speakerPennsylvania. And so she bowed
- speakerout. You know, I said, I really don't really have the time.
- speakerI said, I don't know either. But anyway, so I said, sure.
- speakerSo there I was. Yeah.
- speakerAnd at that point, did you have the same kind of
- speakerchair, vice chair model that we currently know?
- speakerOK, so you would have served for two years?
- speakerI knew. Well, you know, no, it was just for one year and then it was after
- speakermy term that they decided they really need to have something like a chair,
- speakervice chair. Because to tell you the truth, I know there was a chair
- speakerfor me and then there was a secretary and a treasurer, that was it.
- speakerI mean, we didn't have any kind of a membership coordinator or anything like that.
- speakerIt was nothing like that.
- speakerBut after that, after my term, they said, well, you know, who's going to step aside?
- speakerWe're going to do this and who's going to step in for that for the next year.
- speakerAnd that's when we actually put together some sort of a ballot.
- speakerI mean, the first time was you're doing this and you're doing this, you know, with that
- speakerkind of thing, there's no ballots.
- speakerBut after you know, after a year, I knew I couldn't do any more, you know,
- speakertime wise, because I was also director of the Blackman Physicians
- speakerProject at that time. And so I was literally traveling around,
- speakeryou know, talking to various women physicians throughout
- speakerthe United States, literally. That was really a I think that was really the best
- speakertime of my career.
- speakerI would say I should say that because I really had good time since then.
- speakerBut it was there the opportunity to go out and
- speakertalk to older African-American women physicians
- speakerabout their experiences. And that was just phenomenal.
- speakerBut anyway, I'm getting off the track here.
- speakerI was going to move along into precisely that.
- speakerThat was the one thing that I managed to do some research.
- speakerOK, yeah, that was really an
- speakerexperience that I wish a lot of people had an opportunity to do
- speakerto to listen to these women who the criteria was.
- speakerYou had to be a certain age, so you had to be over 70 for me to come out and talk with
- speakeryou, because, again, mind you, this is the
- speaker1990s. So you can imagine how long what
- speakerit what it was for African-Americans to even go into the medical field.
- speakerSo if they were 70 at that time and they went to medical school.
- speakerSo we're talking like 40 years prior to that.
- speakerSo it was just.
- speakerSome of the stories that are on those tapes are just phenomenal,
- speakerand I hope people are using them as a research tool nowadays because it has
- speakerto be a good place to start.
- speakerFor researchers, yes.
- speakerSo this is an extension of
- speakerthe Black Women Physicians Project that you started at Medical College in Pennsylvania
- speakerin 77, 78.
- speakerAnd so that's developed in the 90s with
- speakera grant funding, with grant funding.
- speakerAnd it became an oral history project. I see.
- speakerSure was. Now, there was a person there.
- speakerOh, goodness. And I am really blanking out on her name, Ruth, that
- speakersaid they Sandrich have.
- speakerAnd I'm sorry, I really can't think
- speakerof her last name, but they put together Women in Medicine
- speakerbook.
- speakerAnd from that, really, the
- speakerBlack Women's Issues Project was an outgrowth of that.
- speakerAnd that's when they got funding to do this.
- speakerSo that I was able to travel around and, you know, actually take this
- speakerbig clunky, you know, machine.
- speakerYeah, much smaller, much bigger than that to do the oral histories.
- speakerSo, yeah, that was an algorithm. Yeah.
- speakerHow far how far flung did you travel?
- speakerOh, I went to New Orleans.
- speakerCalifornia didn't go to much to the Midwest.
- speakerThey just didn't settle there.
- speakerAfrican-American women at that time.
- speakerI didn't go there plenty in the South Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
- speakerdidn't go to Tennessee, didn't go to Texas.
- speakerBut, you know.
- speakerCalifornia to, of course, you know, places like
- speakerNew Jersey and obviously Philadelphia here and as
- speakerfar north, let's see, didn't get to Washington State.
- speakerIsn't that something didn't go too very far, far north either.
- speakerAnd then, of course, definitely in the south, who was
- speakerwho was the oldest among the women?
- speakerI guess it might have been.
- speakerDr. Moorhead, and it was right here in Philadelphia,
- speakershe initially started she was about 82,
- speaker83.
- speakerBut was Dr. Dickins older?
- speakerOh, dear. You know what, Helen of Dickens, I believe she may have been
- speakera little older.
- speakerHelen Moorehead was a school physician, one of the early
- speakerearliest school physicians where they were, where they when they actually
- speakerhad physicians in schools. Now you can barely get a nurse.
- speakerBut she was actually rotated
- speakeraround Philadelphia schools.
- speakerAnd I believe she was younger than Dr. Heleno Dickens.
- speakerDr. Heleno Dickens was one of the first
- speakerAfrican-American women physicians at the University of Penn, and she brought
- speakerin the program of Planned Parenthood.
- speakerGreat woman.
- speakerI know her daughter real well, Jane.
- speakerShe's a physician as well.
- speakerBut I think Dr. Dickens was about 86, 87
- speakerat that time.
- speakerI know she's been dead quite a few years, but
- speakerit was it was a wonderful it was a wonderful project.
- speakerI enjoyed it. Where did the grant funding for it come from?
- speakerYou know, I didn't write the grant.
- speakerThat doesn't answer your question.
- speakerI, I think it was a
- speakerAppu Foundation grant.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerI'm not real sure about that.
- speakerIt wasn't much money. You know, they they didn't give a lot of money for it.
- speakerBut I'm pretty sure with Pew and these oral histories are
- speakerhoused at, uh, well now they're, you know,
- speakerMCP gobbled up by Hannaman.
- speakerSo I do believe they're at Hahnemann.
- speakerAnd Hanmin, of course, has a lot in archives.
- speakerHahnemann had a really good archivist and I don't think she's
- speakerthere anymore. Barbara Williams was her name and she was the archivist
- speakerthere for many, many, many, many years.
- speakerAnd I think she was still there when Honeyman took
- speakerover MCP.
- speakerSo I think that's where they are. I think that the archives.
- speakerSo you've worked with a lot of archivists.
- speakerYou've met a lot of different people. Yeah.
- speakerI wanted to ask about the sort of
- speakertaking up personality inventory of the archival profession.
- speakerDo you think there are things in our emotional toolkit
- speakerthat we need in order to be good archivists?
- speakerOr is there something that as a class
- speakerwe lack and need to work on?
- speakerWell, now that the whole world has become a profession,
- speakera real profession, because
- speakerin the 70s and 80s, even though
- speakerHistorical materials have always been around, there's always been a caretaker of those
- speakerHistorical materials.
- speakerI think at that time in the 70s and 80s, we were just
- speakerconsidered just that, just caretakers
- speakerand and not like a librarian.
- speakerYou know, librarians always seem to have had the
- speakerstatus because they were they were librarians, for heaven's
- speakersakes. And they had libraries, schools.
- speakerThey didn't have walkable schools.
- speakerI went through a class that Fred Miller
- speakerdeveloped, and I was fortunate enough, as I said,
- speakerto know Fred Miller. And he offered it as a as a one of the classes
- speakerthrough Drexel University so that I was able to take the class at
- speakerTemple under him.
- speakerBut that, to me, was the first real structured
- speakerclass for archivists to attend New York.
- speakerOf course, you know, has there there school, you know
- speakeror. Well, I guess you have a it's not a course.
- speakerIt's actually a curriculum.
- speakerAnd of course, Drexel did, too, for a while.
- speakerI don't know that they still do. I don't know that they still offer give specific
- speakerarchives. OK, they do. OK, see, that just goes to show.
- speakerI don't keep up with that. But anyway, and it developed, you know, at
- speakerDrexel so that it became the classes became bigger and bigger, which
- speakeris a good thing. Our curriculum became bigger, which is a good thing but.
- speakerArchivists have never traveled down the same route as the librarian.
- speakerYou know, we may do some of the same things, but we don't cross paths
- speakerbecause of the different different ideals
- speakerfrom the librarian. They're very structured.
- speakerArchive is a kind of Lucy Goosey people, that's what I call it.
- speakerBut to answer your question directly, I think that to me,
- speakeran archivist needs to be a very personable person because
- speakerwe, unlike librarians, deal with the books.
- speakerWe actually do deal with people.
- speakerI mean, we have to go out and talk to them and be
- speakernice to them. Otherwise you may not get the collection.
- speakerSo I think really one of the things that archivists really need
- speakerto have is a good personality and to be able to listen
- speakerlike you're doing, which is very good, to be able to listen to somebody and,
- speakeruh, but then be convincing that.
- speakerI want something from you, and we really
- speakerneed this because it's going to be good.
- speakerDown the line for some other people, librarians don't necessarily have to do that.
- speakerYou know, as I say, they just deal with a lot of books and, you know, they check in and
- speakercheck out whether it's a stamp or on the computer.
- speakerWe don't do any of that. You know, we don't check in and check out once we get it.
- speakerIt's it it's there. You know, we don't, you know, allow things to go out.
- speakerSo I think the key thing to me is that an archivist really does need to be
- speakervery personable.
- speakerThat's interesting because the sort of
- speakerthere's a lot of ferment surrounding the so-called future
- speakerof the future of libraries and libraries, lending out suits
- speakerand ties and libraries, putting out musical instruments and stuff the free library
- speakeris doing really, really in that regard.
- speakerSo it seems more right now like librarians
- speakerare sort of cracking that mold, the kind
- speakerof check in check out thing.
- speakerAnd I ask about archivists personalities because it's a
- speakerit's a hobby horse, my own. Oh, we have a lot of personality tests
- speakerat my institution. We have tons of personnel records.
- speakerAnd I always like to see the kinds of people who get drawn into a into a particular
- speakerdiscipline. You talked about the kind of professional divide
- speakerbetween librarians and archivists.
- speakerYou see that persisting now or do you see that see any changes
- speakerin.
- speakerOh, no regard? No, I do see change.
- speakerAs I said, you can see that the archival world is becoming
- speakera strong profession, just like the librarianship, which is
- speakerthe way it should be. I mean, we've worked just as hard as they do and we should be
- speakergiven the same opportunities as they have
- speakerand not have to struggle so much.
- speakerI think archivists still have to struggle.
- speakerFor instance, I think of being a university archivist
- speakerwhile I was not a university archivist, that's something different.
- speakerWhen you're a university archivist, you're collecting the university stuff.
- speakerBut when you're a small collection within a university,
- speakerwe always had to battle and fight to get even a budget.
- speakerAnd librarians don't have to do that.
- speakerThey just automatically get a budget. And I never thought that was quite fair,
- speakerbut whatever.
- speakerBut I think particularly within the university setting,
- speakerthe the powers to be know that
- speakerarchives are an important tool, which means that an archivist
- speakeris just as important as the library itself, because all
- speakerwell, to my knowledge, most archives within a university are
- speakerin the library setting, always in the basement.
- speakerBut who cares?
- speakerAnd so that's a good thing. So that's a good thing, you know, sometimes.
- speakerBut when it came to the budget, it was always the librarian who got the bigger
- speakerchunk when it came to the department as the archives, because we were never
- speakera separate entity. We were always a department within the library.
- speakerLet me here I do believe that, as I said, they are recognizing the fact that a
- speakerresearch institute or a research department within a university is a very important
- speakerdepartment and they are recognizing that and giving more attention
- speakerto an archives.
- speakerNow when it comes to historical societies and
- speakersmaller groups there still to me, I think they're still struggling.
- speakerBut there are things and and help,
- speakersuch as NASAA, you know, Maric and
- speakerthe dbag groups, which can help these smaller groups
- speakerto figure out what they need to do and how they can do it.
- speakerI think I have one more question that's it's been terrific.
- speakerSo another another one of my personal hobbyhorses is archival ethics.
- speakerI'm right now on essay's committee on ethics,
- speakerbut which is a treat.
- speakerThe SO say I went through a revision of
- speakerthe Code of Ethics in 2012 and established a set of core values
- speakerin addition to the ethics which are like the core values or the
- speakerlofty goals and ethics, are the boots on the ground instructions.
- speakerThere's a National Archives Code of ethics written in the 50s,
- speakerlike designed for the staff of the National Archives.
- speakerAnd I think the first sentence is that is archivists have a duty
- speakerto Society and SSA has never
- speakerembraced that. Really what's interesting to
- speakerme personally and do you have thoughts about how an archivist
- speakerdischarges her duty to Society?
- speakerBoy, he really caught me off guard here.
- speakerI you know, I don't know how I could be truthful with you.
- speakerDo we have a duty?
- speakerAnd I suppose we do as an archivist.
- speakerI think we.
- speakerWe need to make the public aware
- speakerof the necessity of having.
- speakerResearch materials or materials for research use.
- speakerThat's the way I want to see that.
- speakerAnd so I think it's our duty to
- speakertoot our own horn and say this is what we're here
- speakerfor and we're here for you so that our
- speakerlegacy or the legacy of anything can be
- speakeraround for future use.
- speakerI think that's the way to answer that.
- speakerI think probably you've answered it just in talking about work
- speakerat the urban archives, going and seeking out materials from folks who are
- speakerfrom community organizations doing work.
- speakerYeah, exactly. The city.
- speakerYeah. It's like working here.
- speakerI've been here eight years, I guess.
- speakerWell, the CPS child has been hired came that came into a week, so
- speakernot quite eight years.
- speakerAnd it's it's a great.
- speakerIt's a great archives.
- speakerIt was fortunate prior to me there was a group of
- speakerof concerned peak members who wanted to make sure that
- speakereverybody knew that Mother Bethel Church had some Historical materials.
- speakerAnd Ruby Boit was the, bless her heart,
- speakera librarian that was she still alive?
- speakerShe's 96, I think.
- speakerBut she collected materials.
- speakerAnd I actually came here on a grant in the 90s to help.
- speakerDeveloped the formally developed the archives, and he had things in boxes and things, and
- speakerso they got money from the Pennsylvania Humanities
- speakerCouncil to bring me on board for a short while to instruct
- speakerthem on how they should be organizing, what sort of supplies
- speakershould they have, that kind of thing.
- speakerAnd then, of course, she got Ruby got sick and
- speakeris in a nursing home right now.
- speakerAnd I when Reverend Tyler came on board, he says, oh, I understand
- speakeryou're retired.
- speakerAnd I said, yes.
- speakerHe says, well, wouldn't you like to come and help?
- speakerWith the archives, I said, oh, sure, and I really was happy to do that and
- speakerI knew what a great archives this was.
- speakerBut to get back to sort of your question here about ethics,
- speakerI know it was hard for people to turn over materials
- speakerto the archives here.
- speakerAnd I and you have to
- speakerconvince the membership here that
- speakerit's important that you don't keep the materials in your home,
- speakerthat it should be housed
- speakerin a safe place.
- speakerWell, my house is saved my to walk through my doors.
- speakerWell, not the same thing as being stuck in boxes and things.
- speakerSo you really have to really talk to the people here.
- speakerAnd I'll tell you this, African-Americans are very reluctant to turn
- speakerover their Historical materials.
- speakerNo matter where you want to go, they have to be able to trust you.
- speakerAnd and you have to make sure that
- speakeryou are trustworthy.
- speakerSo I've been able to convince some of the senior members here to turn over some of their
- speakerHistorical materials, which is the reason why now we've got a pretty, pretty decent
- speakercollection now.
- speakerBut again, that that's what an archivist needs to do,
- speakeris to go out and be able to talk to people and be able to bring that material
- speakerin so that it can be saved for future use.
- speakerWe build on trust. Absolutely.
- speakerI think another thing and in addition to being personable, you had to be trustworthy
- speakerand the donor or the person you're talking with needs to
- speakerknow and see that and understand that.
- speakerWell, that's great.
- speakerThank you. Quite welcome. Thank you very much for doing this.
- speakerThis is the will I get a copy of.
- speakerWe're going to publish it. OK, yeah.
- speakerGood. All right.