This project is fully funded thanks to Joe and Lana Batts.
The writers, interpreters and scholars who tap Glacier National Park’s archives can discover an inspirational treasure trove of photographic images, historic maps and architectural drawings, and a rich documentary record of the park’s century-long history. The museum staff receives about 100 to 125 requests for research, photographs and information from the park’s collection each year. This project focuses on facilitating that access – connecting archives patrons with the material they seek.
Past support of the archives through donations to the Glacier Conservancy has established an online presence for the park’s collection, allowing the park to make more archival material available online, but the bulk of the collection still remains only accessible by a site visit or an email/regular mail inquiry. Due to the sheer volume of material in the collection, that will continue to be the best way for research to be completed. It is also anticipated that the launch of some of the online photographic images on the Montana Memory Project website may stimulate more requests from the collection.
This project will fund a part-time NPS museum technician that serves as the primary contact for collection researchers, producing books, articles and various educational materials. As research demands permit, additional duties of the technician will include nuts and bolts-type of museum work such as environmental monitoring, integrated pest management, rehousing collection items, assisting with required inventories and cataloging.
