Eric and I have completed our first few weeks at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, where we will be processing nine collections over the next few months. The head Archivist is Clare Flemming whose warmth, professionalism and enthusiasm for the project has made us feel welcome and comfortable.

The first collection we processed here at the Academy was the Board of Trustees records. The Academy, founded in 1812, had an Academic Council made up of staff members who managed the financial and daily operational activities. As the institution grew, the council decided to divide its responsibilities by creating a Board of Trustees who would be made up of outside members. The collection dates from the establishment of the Board in 1925 through 1993, with a bulk of the materials covering the 1970s and 1980s.

The collection had a significant amount of original order and the remainder had a fairly clear intellectual order. The most challenging series in the collection was the “Working files of the President’s Office.” Through these papers, we were able to establish that on December 16, 1985 the Academy’s president, Thomas Peter Bennett announced his resignation due to taking another position in Florida, where he grew up and much of his family still lived. He was very torn as he had been President of the Academy since 1976. It was clear he had been speaking with the Board about a need for his replacement much earlier. A search committee was formed several months prior to the formal announcement. Bennett was so committed to the Academy, he helped in the search by remaining available to the endeavor for an entire year. After Bennett left he gave the Trustees his working files. I learned a lot about the presidential search from these records, but the portion of the records pertaining to the search was just a fraction of the series; perhaps one third of the series. The other two thirds of the records in the series covered a variety of different topics and had no original order which made the series challenging and time consuming.

Since we will be processing several collections here, I was glad we began with this one. It enabled me to gain familiarity with the organization, structure and history of the Academy. The information I learned from these records will be helpful in the processing the proceeding collections.