The History Museum on the Square and Missouri State University have collaborated to transfer the museum’s archived collection to Meyer Library.
The History Museum and MSU’s Meyer Library Special Collections and Archives have worked together before to share content or put exhibits together. This particular partnership marks a step forward in their shared goal to protect the legacy of these archived materials.
Sean FitzGibbons, executive director of the History Museum on the Square, noted that before the transfer, the materials were housed at an off-site location, which made access difficult.
“If anybody came to the museum to engage with the archives we would need advance notice," he said. "We could bring the archives here. But then like, if there was some sort of spontaneous inspiration to go explore further into the archives, unfortunately we wouldn't we weren't able to accommodate that.”
The archives include two-dimensional materials like postcards, letters, menus and VHS tapes. All of the materials are already at the MSU location, but cataloging, digitalizing and inventorying the 700 boxes of material will take some time.
“The other aspect of it is to enable our team to have more resources and time and just overall bandwidth to focus on our exhibits and our programming,” said FitzGibbons.
All three-dimensional items will still be available for viewing at the History Museum on the Square for anyone who wants to learn about Springfield history.