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| Julienne Crawford, curator and collections services coordinator |
Julienne Crawford, our curator and collections services coordinator, took a moment from her busy day to talk with us about her love of history and her role in preserving and spotlighting Arkansas history at the State Archives.
Q: What’s your job title, and how long have you worked at
the Arkansas State Archives?
A: I am the curator and also serve as the collections
services coordinator. I was hired as the curator 17 years ago in 2002. I first
began working for the agency in 2001 as part a large digitization project that
added over 12,500 photographs to our online catalog.
Q: What do you do on a typical day at Archives?
A: I coordinate the preservation and processing of
various types of collections at the State Archives. I work with staff members, including
archivists, the librarian, the microfilm section, the conservator and archival
assistants, to develop plans for processing and preserving collections and
making them accessible to the public. I meet with potential donors and state
agencies about transferring historic material. I also research, write, design
and create our onsite and traveling exhibits, and I catalog our
three-dimensional objects. I work with other agencies to produce offsite
exhibits and other special projects.
Q: How did you become interested in Arkansas history or
working at the Arkansas State Archives?
A: In high school and college in Virginia, I loved
learning about the history and culture of the Upland South that is shared with
many people in the Ozarks. After college, I worked as archeologist throughout
the southeast U.S., including Arkansas. I then worked as the program
coordinator for the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation in Vicksburg, where I
expanded my interest in the history and culture of the Delta and other parts of
the South. After my husband got a job in Little Rock, I started the University
of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Public History program and began working at ASA on
a digitization project. I was amazed by
the immense collections of the ASA. In graduate school, I worked for the
Clinton Library, the Central High School National Historic Site and UA Little
Rock. Nothing could compare to the collections at the ASA. I was thrilled when I was hired as the curator
in 2002, so I could bring the collections of the ASA to the public through the
research room, as well as through onsite, offsite and traveling exhibits,
publications, programs, educational resources and digitized collections.
Q: What’s the most important or interesting thing you’ve
discovered while working at Archives? Why?
A: One of my favorite items at the ASA is a letter from
Edward Payson Washburn to his sister as a teenager in 1846. My favorite
painting in our collection is a self-portrait of Edward Payson Washburn, the
artist who painted the original Arkansas Traveler. The letter shows the wit of
the young artist as he joked with his sister about sending the letter by
telegram, going off to war, and writing the letter in the latest fashion from
Paris. He doodled a drawing of clock and
a soldier in the Mexican War on the page and told his sister about visitors and
life in their house. Letters like these
give us a more personal glimpse of the past, not just the facts of a textbook.
Q: Why do you think the Arkansas State Archives is
important for Arkansans?
A: The Arkansas State Archives has the largest collection
of Arkansas archival material in the world.
Arkansans can explore the history of their communities and families
through newspapers, photographs, correspondence, government records,
organizational papers, business papers, music, artifacts and other
resources. They can learn about what was
life was like for their ancestors and examine important parts of Arkansas
history through various primary sources. The Arkansas State Archives has the
important responsibility of preserving the history of Arkansas and its people
for future generations.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job?
A: The most rewarding part of my job is bringing the
amazing collections of the ASA to the public. Through traveling exhibits,
publications and online collections, I have been able to bring the collections of
ASA to communities throughout the state. I also enjoy helping people find the
hidden treasures in our collections that answer questions about their families
and research interests.
Q: How do you see archives evolving in the future?
A: I see the continued expansion of online resources as
important for archives. We are currently working on plans to make more of our
collections searchable and viewable online. Finding the best way to preserve
and access electronic records in quickly changing computer formats is an
increasingly important part of modern archives. We are continuing to expand our
electronic records program and develop protocols to preserve those records and
be able to access them in the future. Archives are also evolving to bring their
collections to the public in a variety of ways. The ASA continues to expand our
outreach through the development of new programs, symposiums, educational
resources and exhibits.
Q: What do you wish people knew about Archives?
A: I wish more
people knew how amazing the collections at the Arkansas State Archives are. The
ASA has something for almost everyone's interest – one can search old
newspapers from communities throughout Arkansas, listen to the immense
collection of music transferred from the Ozark Folk Center to the ASA, view
images of people and places from the collection of over half a million
photographs, and research various archival collections and government
records.
