Archives Alert
Archives alert! The Dunn Gardens Office is no more, at least as an office space.
Archives alert! The Dunn Gardens Office is no more, at least as an office space. It is being returned to its original use as the Dunn Gardens Archives. This area is an early birthday present to the Gardens as they edge toward the stately age of 100 years (2015).
Establishment of an archive was initially considered by the Dunn Gardens Board in 2006. As is often the case the path to its creation has been slower and more circuitous than hoped. It took board-raised funds, along with a 4Culture grant to realize the first and big step, a new home for the office staff. As noted in a previous blog the Trust staff are now housed in new ‘digs’ in the Resource Center. The archives are being organized in the space they vacated.
The Dunn Gardens owes a tremendous debt to Dr. Robert Findlay, a retiring board member who has spear-headed the projects and grant writing efforts leading up to the creation of the Resource Center and archives. It has taken his time for much of the nine years he has been a member of the Dunn Gardens Board. We have been lucky to have such a prince among us.
Fortunately, setting up the Dunn Gardens Archives does not start at zero. The materials available before the 1994 National Trust listing of the gardens have already been catalogued by an archivist. Recently 4Culture awarded the gardens a grant for the purchase of a hardware: a dedicated computer, a hard drive back up, files and scanner. A second grant has secured the services of an archivist to complete the updating of the materials. All of this arrives in time for us to have the archives functioning by the centennial in 2015,
All this excitement got me wondering how the archives, not to mention the Dunn Gardens, will look in another 100 years.
Beth
