How Did You Become Interested in Archives?: A Word on Public History and Undergraduate Education

The second most popular question I get from friends and family when they find out what I am going to school for is “How did you become interested in archives?” Obviously, the first is usually some variation of “Wait, what does archives even mean?”, but alas.  Personally, I come from the History background, which seems to be a popular answer among SLIS students, specifically those of us pursing the Archives and Records Management Track.  Another popular undergraduate degree seems to be English, but I have overheard everything from History of Science to Master’s Degrees in other fields. The variety of previous education got me thinking, why archives? What motivated each and every one of us to choose not only a higher education in Library and Information Sciences, but to place our focus on archives instead of academic librarianship, or take our history degree to a Museum Studies Program?

Originally published in the Marquette Journal, hence the staged factor.

I can only answer for myself, but personally, my archival education began in undergrad. After 3 years of fun questions like “So you want to be a teacher, right?” and comments like “Oh, a history degree… well if you want a job you know you have to go to law school!” I stumbled upon the fact that Marquette had a Public History minor for undergraduates. Yes, it was just a minor, but this was the most academically important discovery and decision of my college career. I then realized that I had always wanted to work in public history, I just didn’t know what public history wasyet, much less how to achieve a career in it! Through classes and internships, I discovered that, gasp!, it was actually possible to go to graduate school for a degree in archives, and put it to use in a museum, historical society, academic library etc. Because of this, working in a university archives has become extremely appealing to me due to the opportunity to get involved with undergraduates (of history or any major) who love their degree, but have no idea how to use it the way they want to. Sadly, the professor who started the public history program at Marquette is retiring, and the future of the program is up in the air.

Watch this documentary that my Technology for Historians class made using the Marquette Archives!  

Did any of you have exposure to public history (archives, museum studies, etc.) in your undergraduate education?

Is it important? Obviously, all of us got here, undergrad exposure or not. Do you think some sort of public history program in your undergrad education would have shaped your educational path at all? 

-Emily Swenson