EWGS
Tours the Archives
Did you know that between 1863 and 1879 there was no
Spokane County? The area was all part of Stevens County; the dispute over the
separation and boundaries stalled in the courts for all those years.
That was just one small factoid that fifteen EWGS
members learned when we had a personal tour by Lee Pierce of the Eastern Washington
branch of the Washington State Archives, out on the EWU campus in Cheney. Lee
has been an archivist there for 17 years and he really knows his stuff and the
collections under his jurisdiction. He sticks to the rules: we all put our
purses in a locker (except for David J) and could only
take in our phones. He encouraged us to take photos, especially in the stacks.
Lee began our tour by explaining that “our archives
is most unique in the archives’ world. China, Germany and Australia have come
to learn from us. And no other state in the U.S. has an archive that is as totally
geared for citizens’ access.”
The Washington Digital Archives collects both state
and local governmental record groups. Lee explained that he spends most of his
summers officially traveling to county courthouse archives in Eastern Washington
discussing the state of their record holdings. (He then spends the winter
processing said acquisitions.)
This archives is scanning their holdings as fast as
funding and people allow. Some 4,000,000 documents have already been scanned
but “that’s barely 1% of what we hold,” said Lee. “The county is under no legal
obligation to give their records over to us, but as time passes and shelves get
full, they’re more agreeable to let us house their records forever while they
keep digital copies.”
The tour progressed into the stacks, where the
temperature is held to 60o and the humidity to 40%.....yes, it was cold in
there. The stacks have 33,000 feet of shelf space and 28,000 feet is already
full. “We hope to give back to western Washington some of their records that
take up our space,” Lee quipped.
Lee showed us examples of some of their holdings; he’s
holding an 1898 book of Spokane Jailhouse records. “Spokane was a rowdy town
then and people were stupid enough to do things in public and get themselves arrested.”
It would take paragraphs and pages to outline just
what all records are housed there in the “Cheney archives.” To see just what is
there, first go to the main Washington Archives website and see the list there
was his advice. The website we’ve all used (www.ditalarchives.wa.gov) also has
such a list. Lee explained that authors wanting to write narratives or
historical fiction about Spokane or eastern Washington come first to the “Cheney
archives” to do local research.
SPECIAL
NOTE:
This was not just a tour of our Washington Archives but a reminder that while
no state has quite what we have, all states do have an archives and are making
strides to make their records accessible to citizens. You may not have
ancestors in Washington, but realize that you do need to dig into your ancestral
state’s archives to completely find your ancestor. Don’t give up!
We fifteen were all glad that we’d made the effort
to come take this tour on a sunny fall October day. Most said that yes, they
wanted to come and do some real research. (Mondays-Thursdays-Fridays, 8:30 to
12:00, 1:00 to 4:00, with an appointment.)
Lee finished his time with us by saying, “I don’t
care why you want a record; I’ll just help you get it …… and make copies!”
(Unless the records are restricted and some are.)
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