Archival Science

If there's one thing I've learned during my time at the WLA its that archivers are incredibly patient! Event going through my small collection is pretty painstaking. The amount of paper and information is a little overwhelming; I can only imagine the difficulty in managing a larger collection!

Even though its a little tedious and monotonous going through this material, its still interesting. I've learned a lot about the history of Mundelein College and the spirit of feminism and social justice that pervaded it. There a bunch of pictures from Mundelein at WLA's new facebook page:

While going through the materials in this collection, I've also learned about archival science. There is actually quite a bit of chemistry that goes into the process of archiving. Folders and boxes must have a pH of 7 so avoid acidification, photos must be kept in enclosures, and all metals (including staples and paper clips) must be remove to avoid oxidation/rusting which would damage the material. As a science major, I thought this was very interesting and it was nice to be able to see a bridge between science and history.