October is American Archives Month! We’re excited to join archivists around the country for this annual celebration recognizing the value of archives and the work archivists do. This year’s theme in Washington State is Find Your Story: Choose Your Own Adventure in Archives, highlighting the process of discovery inherent to research and learning. We hope you’ll join us for the activities and events we have planned this month to celebrate!
On October 30, we’ll be partnering with King County Archives, Puget Sound Regional Archives, National Archives at Seattle, and UW Special Collections to host a Make Your Own Zine Workshop. Join us and dive into images and graphics from each of the participating archives to create your own one-of-a-kind zine and “find yourself” in the historical record. No experience needed! We’ll provide the supplies and a basic how-to on zines, and you bring your vision and creativity. The workshop is free and will take place from 2:30 to 5pm at Seattle Public Library’s Douglass-Truth Branch Library. All are welcome but registration is required; sign up here!
Earlier that week on October 28, City Archivist Sarah Shipley will be participating in an Archives Month event hosted by Seattle Area Archivists and Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum. Choose Your Own Adventure: Exploring Seattle’s Archives will feature a panel of local archivists discussing digital archives and applied archives work happening in our area. After the panel there will be a tour of the HistoryLink offices which are located next to Folio in the Pike Place Market. You can get your free tickets at Folio’s website.
And on October 20, you’ll find us in the first floor main lobby at City Hall hosting an Archives Month pop-up from 11:30am to 2pm. We’ll be on hand to answer questions, share information about the archives, and give away cool archives swag. We’ll be joined by our City Records Management colleagues who work closely with us here in the City Clerk’s Office. We hope you’ll stop by and say hello!
Finally, we’ll be participating in #AskAnArchivist Day again this year, when archivists around the country take to social media to respond to questions, discuss their archives, and share photos and details about their collections. Be sure to follow us on Instagram where we’ll be ready to answer your burning questions about archives, our collections, and the work we do. And remember that you can always reach out and ask us questions any other day of the year, too!