From Manhattan to Montana, index update includes new finding aid contributors

One thing some archivists in New York City and at Yellowstone National Park have in common is that their organizations joined ArchiveGrid as new finding aid contributors. Trinity Wall Street archives and Carnegie Hall archives in Manhattan, Queens College in Queens, and Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center in Gardiner, Mont., are among the six new contributors included in our index update this week and we welcome them. Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisc., and New College of Florida in Sarasota are our other two new contributors.

Here are links to their collections:

Circus World Museum – Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center
New College of Florida – Jane Bancroft Cook Library
Trinity Wall Street – Archives
Carnegie Hall Archives
Yellowstone National Park – Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center
Queens College – Benjamin Rosenthal Library

Yellowstone’s presence in ArchiveGrid is also what we hope a start to getting collection descriptions from more national parks archives represented in our system. We also hope the presence of collection descriptions from our other new contributors is a start to more smaller archives getting their finding aids online and available for machines to harvest.

Anyone who has camped at Yellowstone, driven through, or encountered wildlife there may appreciate a nearly 100-year-old photograph collection of sagebrushers (campers), who traveled by train to West Yellowstone, Mont., and entered the park in wagons because automobiles were not yet allowed inside. According to the finding aid, “Images of a black bear include several photographs depicting members of the party feeding the bear.”

However, this collection is also appropriate for anyone who likes historic photographs of views and everyday people. In addition to images of landscapes, geysers and thermal features, and buildings, “Images with people include one image of a Reverend Rice as well as views of hiking, camping, a picnic, and cooking outdoors. There are also views of the tents, a camp stove, the wagons, and a surrey.”

If Daylight Savings Time this weekend prompts people to start making summer travel plans, Yellowstone is a good destination choice. Just don’t feed any bears.