The Archives

by Jessica Brody

Today's task between hosting cruise ship visitors: assembling the archives. Tiffany and I spent August through December arranging and creating order in the museum's paper collections. We sifted through governmental reports, church records, salt industry ledgers, and personal accounts of the islands. After separating them into categories, we started entering them into the database. To complete that task, however, we needed to give them permanent homes in the storage room. We couldn't do that without ordering the proper archival supplies so we know how they fit on the shelves. We were able to do this through a grant from a US Foundation.

Last week the order finally arrived after much delay (oh the joys of shipping to these islands!). I've never been so excited to see an archives box. It was like Christmas! These acid-free containers will keep the collections safe for hundreds of years. It's nice to know the work we are doing here will keep our stories alive for the TCI's next generations.