
The Society of American Archivists have declared October American Archives Month. American Archives Month is intended to raise public awareness about the importance of historic documents and records, and of archives and archivists to our communities.

Here at Loras, our archive is closely associated with the Center for Dubuque History. They are both housed on the first floor of the Loras College Library, and they both preserve documents, photographs, and other items that help tell the history of Dubuque, of Loras College (or Columbia College, Dubuque College, St. Joseph’s College, Mount St. Bernard Seminary, St. Raphael’s Seminary, or whatever name Loras went by at the time), and the rest of the community. In the archives, you can browse through old yearbooks (Purgold, Restrosum, Lorian Year in Review), view old magazines, old photos of campus and Dubuque, look through scrapbooks, and so much more. Heidi Pettitt, the archivist here at Loras College Library (and director for the Center for Dubuque History) recommends looking through the Hoffmann-Schneider Funeral records. While funeral records may at first not seem like the most entertaining records, they are incredibly useful and interesting resources that tell us more about what life was like in the past through rituals around death.
Archival collections, here and at other archives, are incredibly important tools for historians, and other scholars. The primary sources found in archives are essential components of historians’ work. Genealogists rely upon archival records as they research family trees. These collections help researchers, regardless of discipline, bring history to life. Archival records go beyond dry old files (though there are plenty of those in archival collections as well) and include documents and photos that allow us to glimpse the past.

While time travel is impossible, looking through an old diary, examining old photographs, reading letters, all allow us to, if only for a brief moment, glimpse the past. We will never know what it was like to arrive in what is now Dubuque before the city was built, what it was like to witness the crash of the stock market and the ensuing Great Depression, or what it felt like the first year women were allowed to study at Loras, but we can begin to piece together all of those events through archival records.
Don’t discount archival records as you research. You can never tell what new discovery you’ll make!
To see for yourself, visit this page, and set up an appointment to view archival collections here.