Posted in Academic Life, Archives, Rhetorical Methods, Teaching

Trip to the Utah State Archives

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Last Friday, the students in my “Rhetoric in the Archives” seminar and I traveled downtown to the Utah State Archives, where we were treated by state archivists Ken Williams and Jim Kichas to a fantastic tour of the beautiful facilities there and a peak behind-the-scenes to see a range of astounding artifacts being stored, processed, catalogued, and more.

The entrance to the beautiful new building, which–amazingly–was able to weather the 2020 earthquake with no damage at all.
This is the original light from the top of the state capital.
The storage facility complete with boxes upon boxes of government documents and a robot to help retrieve them.

Much of what keeps the archivists busy at the Utah State Archives is converting older media into digital formats.

Looking over a cemetery plot.
Seeing the Utah State Constitution.
A closeup view of the constitution (it is hand written).