Breaking Archival Practicum News.

An archivist moment of excitement. Last night I was working on a box of donated items in which I thought were just that- random items with no connections other than each item was related to Saint Stanislaus. As I took each piece out and examined it for clues such as names and dates, I was making any notable remarks on my acquisition sheet only to make it half way through and find the defining piece that puts it all together and then the whole cataloging aspect changes because of the change of provenance.

The box contained items from 1964-66 for most part with a couple of items outside of that date range. The first item was a newspaper from 1971 and was a newspaper section filled with engagement announcements. I did not read the names of the young ladies as I was initially just writing down a short description of each item with plans on going back to write details such as context, article topics, dates, and etc. I was slowly making my way through the items, when I reached for a graduation program from 1966 and the middle section slid halfway out. I reached out to keep that section from falling out until I saw the senior portrait of the class president, of which had a name, a name that matched the name of the 8th grade promotion certificate. I took note and realized it was also matched the name that was on a few promotion letters from the United States Marines as well as various other certificates from school. I went back to the newspaper section with all the engagement announcements and read the names under the first photograph. I was so excited when I read that the gentleman that the young lady was newly engaged to was the gentleman in which this collection had originally belonged.

I felt satisfied and excited that I had, in my hands, a story of a young man's life that spanned from 8th grade to high school graduation and then from collage to his entry into the Military and then straight to his engagement to a beautiful young lady. These randomly place items actually had an order of provenance that began from little over a century ago

❤️The Archival Life💙