By Alison Leonard, MA, MLIS
“What’s an archivist?” and “what does an archivist do?” These are questions a lot of people could ask because it’s not a common job title, and archivists don’t do a very good job of promoting themselves. They are usually the quiet type.
An archivist is someone who maintains and an archive. Ok, great, but what is an archive and how does it differ from a library or a museum? Simply put, an archive is a collection of historically important documents written by someone about a person, a group of people or an institution. Typically, or at least until computers came along, archival materials were usually manuscripts, which means someone wrote them by hand. So if an archive had a set of manuscripts, they had a one-of-a-kind collection. You would have to go to a particular archive, wherever it might be in the world, if you wanted to see a specific set of manuscripts. For example, the Declaration of Independence is a one-of-a kind document that is held by the National Archives. If you want to see the original, buy a plane ticket.
Sometimes an archive is housed within a library or a museum. In fact, there is almost always cross-over in any library, museum, or archive about what they collect. Most people think of museums as having “stuff” like paintings or a suit of armor; libraries typically have books and DVDs; and an archive would house the speeches of Fredrick Douglass. But in reality many, many libraries, museums and archives have all of these things if you search their collections long enough. Take for instance the Library of Congress. They have posters, photographs, and maps like a museum, books and DVDs like a library, and the personal papers of numerous famous people like an archive. And the wonderful thing about every library, museum and archive is that their total collection is unique in the world. No two collections are exactly alike.
And the wonderful thing about every library, museum and archive is that their total collection is unique in the world. No two collections are exactly alike.
All this brings me to the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum (MCLM). It was my pleasure to serve as an Archives Intern at MCLM. They have it all! In November 2010 I toured MCLM with fellow San Jose State University MLIS students. Although I had already completed two library internships, the maximum allowed for credit, I began volunteering right away in January 2011. Even though I would not receive credit, I knew this opportunity was too exciting to pass up. There are so many things that make the MCLM collection special from an archivist’s point of view.
For starters this is a collection created by one person. Mayme Clayton, a librarian, had the forethought to see that this kind of collection would be important future generations of researchers. Think about that. One person, just one person, took the time to create this collection. And it took her over 40 years! To me, that’s astonishing.
I also think about the collection she assembled. While the collection is African American in focus, it is broad in scope. Many archives focus on one subject. For example, a company archives would house the papers of employees as related to the mission of the company. But at MCLM, Dr. Clayton collected materials on varied individuals and topics of all kinds. That makes for a fascinating and varied collection.
In 1976, Dr. Clayton founded The African American Cinema Society; therefore, many of the photographs and promotional materials in the collection are from individuals in the entertainment industry, many of whom Dr. Clayton interviewed for her film series. That makes it a very personal collection.
All of these opportunities to “touch” the collection let me form my own personal connection with the spirit of Mayme Clayton, and with the institution, and the people who work there.
Every time I came in contact with an item in the collection, whether it was sheet music, a book of poems, a movie poster, or even a game, I knew that it was a selected by one individual so that “children would know that black people have done great things,” as she stated. This makes it such a positive collection to make available for researchers.
I’ve also worked at archives where the collections or the institution itself was huge, and I only had the opportunity to work on a small part of it. Perhaps the greatest thing about working at MCLM was that I had the chance to lay my hands on so many items in the collection such as books, posters, movies, sheet music, historical documents, African American newspapers, and other publications. All of these opportunities to “touch” the collection let me form my own personal connection with the spirit of Mayme Clayton, and with the institution, and the people who work there.
Thanks MCLM, it was my pleasure.
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Alison is the Instruction Librarian at Husson University in Bangor, ME. She has a background in fundraising with Haiti Democracy Project, Meridian International Center (a contractor for the U.S. Department of State) and WNVC International Public Television. Alison holds a B.A. in History from Virginia Tech, a Masters in International Transactions from George Mason University, which included study abroad at Oxford in England and a Master in Library and Information Science from San Jose State. She enjoys swimming laps, biking and hiking. She has visited over 90 national parks in the U.S. She has run into bears on the trail but thankfully no mountain lions.