by Francie Iverson and Lynne Schneider
The Weavers Guild of Minnesota has always valued preserving its history. In the early years a member volunteer served the role of the guild historian in charge of collecting and keeping items that eventually became the guild archives.
As the acquisitions grew, an archive committee was formed to organize the materials adding to and maintaining the collection over the years. After moving into Textile Center, the members active on the committee were Lila Nelson, Marjorie Ford Sethna, Phyllis Waggoner, Karen Searle and Francie Iverson. A locked cabinet was designated as a secure location for the archive collection to be stored. Our focus at this time was to catalog the items and protect them in acid free storage materials.
Other Guild members have helped the committee over the years. Susan Larson-Fleming advised us as a trained historian with knowledge of safely preserving the collection. Paula Pfaff, Lila Nelson, Karen Searle and Phyllis Waggoner all have been invaluable in identifying members in old photographs and slides of guild activities, classes and workshops.
Around 2012 Donna Gravesen helped us with information about having the collection digitized. Individual documents were scanned by the Minnesota Digital Library in conjunction with University of Minnesota and the Minnesota History Center. The extensive job of adding metadata to each item was carried out by Archive Committee volunteers. The first documents digitized were items from scrapbooks kept by Hilma Berglund, and included documents related to the formation of the Guild. Other items included minutes from the first Guild meetings, and early photographs of Guild activities. Lynne Schneider joined the committee in 2015, and carried the digitizing project through Covid lockdown to the present day.
The most recent focus of the committee has been to complete the digitized collection of Guild newsletters. Guild members who joined the committee for this final push are Deb Jensen, Garneth Peterson, Anna Turk, Karen Hovermale, Morgen Ruff, and Shari Nelson. These members, along with Betsy Konop and Lynne Schneider, have finished the digitizing of newsletters from 2000 to June 2022.
This spring, members will be invited to help assess and catalogue our archives. This work will enable us to more easily communicate, find, and make available items within our archive to members and researchers. If you are interested in helping with this effort, please email Betsy at bkonop@weaversguildmn.org.
You can access the Guild’s digital archive on the Minnesota Digital Library website here: https://mndigital.org/about/contributing-organizations/weavers-guild-minnesota