The St. Olaf College Archives: A New Era

Curated by Sophia Hayes ’25, Student Associate for Archival Project Support

To begin viewing the virtual exhibit, click the “Enter The St. Olaf College Archives: A New Era Exhibit” gold button on the photo above.

In 2018, St. Olaf’s College Archives celebrated its 50th year, and began a new chapter in its work to preserve and protect our institution’s unique history ahead of the coming sesquicentennial. St Olaf College archivists and librarians have partnered with engineers, grant-funded descriptive archivists, conservators, and preservation professionals to increase accessibility, not just for students, but for staff, alumni, and researchers across the globe. The results: the construction of a new state-of-the-art, climate-controlled vault, preservation and digitization of the most important and fragile portions of our collections, and extensive classroom and community outreach. The exhibit features a timeline which chronicles just some of the progress made in the past four years and is accompanied by a section that depicts the College Archives’ “Mission in Action”; these are principles that the Archives wants to emphasize as the platform for the work we have and will complete.