Penned by Paul

Working in an archive is great because I get to surround myself with old dusty books and artifacts. But even better is that I use those books and artifacts to answer questions and create learning experiences.

One recent project I worked on was the Life and Times of Paul Harris, an online exhibit about the founder of Rotary International. I was responsible for researching and creating a list of works written by Mr. Harris. What I found was that he wrote quite a lot, including two autobiographies, a history of the early days of Rotary, several travelogues, introductions to others' books, and more. I compiled the list, and then wrote brief descriptions about each one. The Web department took that and created the Penned by Paul page, which includes much of my original text and some images of Mr. Harris's handwriting.

The whole exhibit includes seven other pages of narrative following Harris as a young boy, a young man, a professional starting an international movement, and a husband. Everything was meticulously researched and well written by my colleagues in the History and Archives department.

During this experience I learned that while those old dusty books and artifacts are fascinating in and of themselves, it's what we do with them that makes all the difference. A good archivist organizes the objects so they can be accessed. A great archivists knows and uses the objects to create illuminating experiences.