GU Library Trip, Treasures Viewed & Lessons Learned

Way back in early February our paper carried a small story about an exhibit at Gonzaga University, in the Archives & Special Collections in the Foley Center Library. "GU library unveils hidden treasures," was the enticing headline. So Bev Vorpahl and I managed to set a date to go visit this exhibit before it closed next week. And to do lunch of course!

We had wondered if Bing's pipe was still around and not on somebody's trophy shelf. Good to know that it rests safely in this collection. All three of them!

The lesson learned was viewing this artifact, a portion of the typed records of the postwar trials in Japan........... and learning that the only other known copy is in our National Archives.

The lesson is this:  imagine that this was a unique family history of your brickwall ancestry family, and one of only two known copies, and would you EVER have guessed that it would be in Gongaza University Library in Spokane Washington? A million miles from where the event was or where the family lived???

If you assumed that some such was "out there," (maybe, hopefully) where would you look to find it???  Is there an index to every single item in every single archive and museum nationally??? Yes, there are some but not a complete, comprehensive index of such to my knowledge.

Maybe that's part of the reason why searching for our ancestors is such fun.......... the unknowing!