What Belongs in the Provincial Archives
The archives are the repository of the history of the Province and its members. It provides a climate-controlled atmosphere to facilitate the preservation of the records of the Province. Just like the archivist, all the confreres and collaborators should have a “sense of history” so that they might select what they think has archival value, or material that has continuing use after its original purpose has been fulfilled. As a rule of thumb, what you consider might have historical interest fifty years from now.
In the practical order what might that be? What you might consider can be divided into two categories: what pertains to the individual confrere and what pertains to the house or the local community.
The first aspect pertains to a confreres personal file:
- Obituary notices, obit card (picture), other pictures;
- Articles about a confreres (living or deceased);
- Publications by a confrere, articles in periodicals, etc.
As the occasion arises, this might involve fifteen minutes at a copy machine or a scanner.
What pertains to the history of the house/apostolate would be another area:
- Minutes of house council meetings and domestic assemblies — historical records which have no present use for the house, material which is twenty to thirty years old.
- Published histories of the house of apostolate;
- Information relative to the closing of a house (articles in local or area newspapers).
These ideas are not all encompassing. If you are creative, you might send materials that the archivist never considered but which might lend themselves to the history of the Province and its members. With a telephone call or an email we might be able to answer your questions, provide you with some guidance on how to proceed or what to save or not to save.
Ms. Honey Jane Rodgers, Associate Archivist