Director of Muskie Archives and Special Collection Library Kat Stefko; Bates' Muskie Oral History Project recently won the Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award, from the Oral History Association, for excellence in an oral history project. The Muskie project comprises some 400 interviews.

Asked to describe her job as an archivist, Katherine Stefko’s stock reply is, “I’m paid to read other people’s mail.” The joke is revealing. Director of archives and special collections at Bates, Stefko oversees the delicate work of gathering documentary materials that reveal the details — sometimes very personal — of history.

The Muskie Archives houses nationally significant holdings relating to the late Ed Muskie ’36. You’ve called him the hero of the 1968 presidential campaign, running with Hubert Humphrey.

It was the first time a presidential candidate advertised himself as having chosen a VP who could step up and be president. There was this fabulous political ad that Humphrey put out with the image and sound of an electrocardiogram and the line, “Who is your choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?”

We have film showing Muskie inviting a heckler to the stage. Muskie basically said to him, “I’ll give you 10 minutes to tell people your ideas, but in exchange your group has to be quiet and listen to my ideas.” He was extraordinarily genuine in wanting to understand everyone’s opinions before formulating a policy.

By extending that respect, he really gained a lot of ground with the antiwar protesters. Many political observers speculate that had the election been even a week or two later, Humphrey and Muskie would have come from behind to win.

You recently had vice-presidential scholar Joel Goldstein at the archives researching a book.

By necessity, archivists have to be generalists, so having somebody there with dedicated time to read through and make connections within the Muskie Papers has been incredible.

He has become a huge fan of Muskie, and wrote a lot of op-eds during this election year drawing parallels between the ’68 and 2008 campaigns. Goldstein has been particularly impressed by Muskie’s ability to inspire and sustain civil discourse.

You have a broad collecting mandate, between representing Muskie and other Bates people, and then officially documenting the College’s history.

We collect externally and internally — that’s important to realize. External to Bates, that’s usually me. I spend quite a bit of time working with alumni, their families, and other donors.

It’s always better if you talk to a person about their papers, because nobody can tell a story like the person who lived it. Also, giving one’s papers to an archives is not necessarily an easy thing to do — “Here’s my mail, make it publicly available.”

I talk to people about the historical importance of their materials. And I try to foster confidence so they understand that as an archivist, I’m ethically motivated to do the right thing, balancing the privacy needs of our donors with the research interest of our patrons.

What’s the on-campus process?

Internally, Pat Webber, the College archivist, works with people on campus to make sure that their records of historical value are preserved in the archives. We are authorized to collect from College offices, but there are other records being created at Bates with permanent value. So he goes to student-organization meetings in the evening to talk about the importance of their records.

The Outing Club, for instance, is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2010, so they and their adviser, Judy Marden, have been thoughtful, with Pat’s encouragement, about their records. Last summer we received all their historic records.

How else do you interact with alums?

We get quite a few casual visits during Reunion and Homecoming Weekend. We’ve offered a historic film festival where we’ve shown old films from the collection, and those have been quite popular.

Whenever possible we try to instill in alumni that we really want material that tells the personal side, the unofficial version of Bates’ history — scrapbooks, letters home to Mom and Dad expressing what it was like to adjust to college in Lewiston. These are the types of materials that support cultural and social history, and they can make the past seem real to today’s students.

Who laid the groundwork for the collections of College records?

Harry Rowe ’12, who worked at the College for about half a century, was the unofficial College historian. Bursar Norm Ross ’22 was a diligent record keeper. And he passed the baton to Bernie Carpenter as treasurer. They did a great deal to make sure that early records survived. We’re extraordinarily lucky to have as extensive a historical record as we do.

How is technology changing what you do?

The speed of obsolescence creates monetary challenges. Where a piece of paper, even a black and white photograph, can live happily on a shelf for 500 years, an 8-inch floppy drive is already obsolete.

We’re constantly thinking about getting things into a stable format — by today’s standards — and then developing a strategy to deal with it when that format becomes obsolete.

And something I’ve been thinking about is that kids don’t keep diaries anymore — they keep blogs. How can we thoughtfully collect and preserve blogs? I don’t have an answer yet, but I know it’s something that we need to do.

Interview by Doug Hubley, photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

First-year students Ed Muskie, at left, and Charles Taylor in their Bates dorm room in Roger Williams Hall, circa 1932. Below: Muskie waits to be called onstage during the Democratic National Convention in August 1968. (Photographers unknown. Photos courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library.)

A new photographic exhibit, including seldom-seen family images, depicting the late Maine statesman and environmentalist Edmund S. Muskie is on display at Bates College’s Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, 70 Campus Ave.

From Rumford to Washington: Edmund S. Muskie’s Life in Photographs is drawn from the Edmund S. Muskie Papers at Bates, an important documentary collection relating to this Maine native and member of the Bates class of 1936 who served as a Maine governor, U.S. senator, presidential candidate and U.S. secretary of state.

The archives is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please call 207-786-6272.

The semi-permanent exhibit coincides with the 40th anniversary of Muskie’s 1968 vice presidential campaign, when he ran with Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and with the 50th anniversary of Muskie’s election to the U.S. Senate.

The exhibit also marks the end of a $65,000, 15-month grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The grant enabled the archives to finish processing its Muskie holdings, including items received from the Muskie family in 2005, rendering these historic materials fully accessible to researchers for the first time.

“A lot of the Bates students who do research in the papers are able to make valuable connections between the political challenges and questions of 30 or 40 years ago and those of today,” says Muskie Papers archivist Christie Peterson, who curated the exhibit.

“I think some of them are surprised by how relevant Muskie’s career is to issues they care about personally today.”

The exhibition illustrates highlights of Muskie’s life, from his childhood in Rumford to his time at Bates, from his 1954 election as Maine’s governor to his service on the federal Tower Commission investigating the Iran-Contra affair. “There’s also a section devoted entirely to the environment, because that was the thread that ran throughout his life,” says archives director Kat Stefko.

“The exhibit draws entirely upon the Muskie papers,” says Stefko, and includes many personal photographs — including an image of the freshman student Muskie in his Bates dorm.

Much of the collection documents Muskie’s 22 years in the Senate, where his accomplishments included the landmark Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972. Totaling some 2,350 linear feet of materials, the college’s Muskie holdings include letters and memoranda; family scrapbooks; press releases and news clippings; speeches, reports and reference materials; and audiotape, photos, film and videotape.

A companion collection at Bates is the Muskie Oral History Project, comprising 442 interviews with individuals who knew, affected or were affected by Muskie.

The grant was Bates’ first from the NHPRC, the grantmaking arm of the National Archives. It enabled Stefko’s team to finish indexing the Muskie holdings and moving them into archival storage, ensuring the longest possible life for the materials. In addition, some 800 magnetic audio recordings were stabilized and digitized, and the collection’s computerized index was updated to make it more powerful and more compatible with national databases.

“During the period of the grant,” Stefko adds, “we worked with the Muskie family to lift the restrictions on material prior to 1947, so materials about his early life are now available for scholarly research for the first time. It allows people to really get to know his biography in a way that you wouldn’t before.

“There are, for instance, all of the letters that he wrote home to his sisters when he was a student at Bates, talking about how he’s balancing his academic schedule with student government or being a waiter” in a college dining room.

“This week we had General College Elections,” the young Muskie wrote in one of those letters from Bates, this one written to his sister Lucy in March 1935. “I was fairly successful. I was reelected president of my class and, in your senior year, that is the biggest honor you can get as far as offices go. In addition to that I was elected Vice-president of the Student Council.”

More Muskie Archives news:

• Expert on vice presidency to discuss Muskie’s 1968 campaign

• Garcelon family to donate papers

– Office of Communications and Media Relations

First-year students Ed Muskie, at left, and Charles Taylor in their Bates dorm room in Roger Williams Hall, circa 1932. Below: Muskie waits to be called onstage during the Democratic National Convention in August 1968. (Photographers unknown. Photos courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library.) A new photographic exhibit, including seldom-seen family images, depicting the late Maine statesman and environmentalist Edmund S. Muskie is on display at Bates College’s Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, 70 Campus Ave. From Rumford to Washington: Edmund S. Muskie’s Life in Photographs is drawn from the Edmund S. Muskie Papers at Bates, an important documentary collection relating to this Maine native and member of More Muskie Archives news: • Expert on vice presidency to discuss Muskie’s 1968 campaign • Garcelon family to donate papers the Bates class of 1936 who served as a Maine governor, U.S. senator, presidential candidate and U.S. secretary of state. The archives is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please call 207-786-6272 or e-mail muskie@bates.edu. The semi-permanent exhibit coincides with the 40th anniversary of Muskie’s 1968 vice presidential campaign, when he ran with Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and with the 50th anniversary of Muskie’s election to the U.S. Senate. The exhibit also marks the end of a $65,000, 15-month grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The grant enabled the archives to finish processing its Muskie holdings, including items received from the Muskie family in 2005, rendering these historic materials fully accessible to researchers for the first time. “A lot of the Bates students who do research in the papers are able to make valuable connections between the political challenges and questions of 30 or 40 years ago and those of today,” says Muskie Papers archivist Christie Peterson, who curated the exhibit. “I think some of them are surprised by how relevant Muskie’s career is to issues they care about personally today.” The exhibition illustrates highlights of Muskie’s life, from his childhood in Rumford to his time at Bates, from his 1954 election as Maine’s governor to his service on the federal Tower Commission investigating the Iran-Contra affair. “There’s also a section devoted entirely to the environment, because that was the thread that ran throughout his life,” says archives director Kat Stefko. “The exhibit draws entirely upon the Muskie papers,” says Stefko, and includes many personal photographs — including an image of the freshman student Muskie in his Bates dorm. Much of the collection documents Muskie’s 22 years in the Senate, where his accomplishments included the landmark Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972. Totaling some 2,350 linear feet of materials, the college’s Muskie holdings include letters and memoranda; family scrapbooks; press releases and news clippings; speeches, reports and reference materials; and audiotape, photos, film and videotape. A companion collection at Bates is the Muskie Oral History Project, comprising 442 interviews with individuals who knew, affected or were affected by Muskie. The grant was Bates’ first from the NHPRC, the grantmaking arm of the National Archives. It enabled Stefko’s team to finish indexing the Muskie holdings and moving them into archival storage, ensuring the longest possible life for the materials. In addition, some 800 magnetic audio recordings were stabilized and digitized, and the collection’s computerized index was updated to make it more powerful and more compatible with national databases. “During the period of the grant,” Stefko adds, “we worked with the Muskie family to lift the restrictions on material prior to 1947, so materials about his early life are now available for scholarly research for the first time. It allows people to really get to know his biography in a way that you wouldn’t before. “There are, for instance, all of the letters that he wrote home to his sisters when he was a student at Bates, talking about how he’s balancing his academic schedule with student government or being a waiter” in a college dining room. “This week we had General College Elections,” the young Muskie wrote in one of those letters from Bates, this one written to his sister Lucy in March 1935. “I was fairly successful. I was reelected president of my class and, in your senior year, that is the biggest honor you can get as far as offices go. In addition to that I was elected Vice-president of the Student Council.” – Office of Communications and Media Relations

Thanks to a recent grant and a key donation of personal papers, one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of political documents outside the presidential library system has grown even larger.