renewed respect for archivists

Have renewed respect for anyone in archival business. Just spent an hour making PDFs of a bundle of letters from the brother of promoter who put the first jazz band w/ black & white guys onstage in St Louis. First letter chastises me for the zillionth time to write the book. He was so persistent, the letters reached me in five different states from 1995 to 2005.

If nothing else, the docs are ready to study — someday. They brought back lots of memories, too. They are part of a huge archive of letters & other docs in which various special collections have expressed an interest. Over ten years, my husband — who has a library degree — digitized 200 interviews conducted between 1993-2005. Hurts to hear them.

I was so young & so hopeful & asked the biggest names in the business almost anything. What happened to that girl? More than anything, we need to secure this stuff someday soon. We made the archive part of our estate planning during the height of the pandemic. List of things to do never ends.

PS I have hired a transcriber to transcribe the letters, which are quite short but rich in content. The letter writer was an elderly man writing in cursive on notebook paper. Transcriber is also transcribing my six interviews with him and his brother. About three hours of talking.

Last richest memory: he & his wife did a swing dance performance when I was a guest lecturer in Vernon Burton’s African American History survey class. I’d just finished my MA in Dance. Lecture concerned influence of black culture on vernacular dance. My dear friend drove over to dance for University of Illinois at Champaign students. I was on my way to Chicago. Feels like a cajillion years ago. To learn more about that band, listen to this NPR story.