September 25-September 27

I have made very good progress with my processing this week. I have finished all of the first box except for a binder and I have gotten a start on the second box. Unfortunately, I was unable to process the binder because I did not know how. However, with the arrival of my internship supervisor next week I will be able to learn how to do that type of processing. Another I still need to do is reorganize the publications back into the three groups I have discussed in an earlier posting. While retrieving my collection from the archive after Hurricane Irma the publications were disordered. Another thing I would like to reorder is my work in the first box. Now that I have finished that one, I believe it would be beneficial to review my work and see if I can make it more organized. I believe that there are some folders that can be merged with others and certain folders that can be divided into more numerous folders, more specifically titled, folders.  


Speaking of archives, my readings for this week concerned a very fascinating one belonging to the University of Miami. This large archive consisting of fifteen hundred boxes of videos, photographs, publications, documents and many more types of materials that belonged to the now nonexistent Pan American World Airways company. All of this is in a neat and impressive collection organized into themes and subthemes, all this was made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Besides the size, what makes this collection so amazing is that it spans the entirety of the company’s history which lasts from 1927 to 1991. This is nearly an entire century of history and the history of the company ties into the grander history of the world. This is shown by the titles of the folders in the collection which can be seen by accessing the finding aid online. For example, one folder is titled ‘Glenn L. Martin Company, 1935-1965’. This company was an influential aircraft company which would later merge with another company to form the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Another folder is titled ‘History: Berlin Airlift, 1950-1975’. The Berlin Airlift was a dramatic event that occurred in the beginning of the Cold War where the United States airdropped supplies to West Berlin when the Soviets besieged the city. This all goes to show that even collections about a certain company may contain useful historical information about a wide range of subjects. That is why archival work is so important, it is impossible to tell what kind of historical information is stored in material without processing it and putting it in a collection. You never know what kind of information can be hidden away. That is why the Pan Am archive is so important, along with containing information relating to an airline it contains other information that has been used by authors and students from around the world. For example, one student has used material from the archive as a source for his thesis about Haiti being built up as a tourist destination in the 20th century.   

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