Ralph Rapson papers – processed, digitized & made accessible

Our two-year project has wrapped up. With an extraordinary funding gift, we hired two full-time archivists to process (identify, arrange, describe, select & digitize, house and sometimes repair) all that we have in the Ralph Rapson papers. You’ll find the collaborating firms in each commission’s scope and content notes so that researchers can quickly find local names and connections. Our team selected just over 1000 items to be digitized and 720 of those are linked from the finding aid to UMedia Archives platform (click the camera icon). Flat files have been re-housed in custom folders – designed and created by our project manager, Teresa Tjepkes. Olivia Copia, archivist, repaired torn bum wad and identified tens of thousands of slides. This team did a phenomenal job managing and completing this project. It’s a dream to take the time needed to process a collection with such detail and care: Ralph Rapson papers.  

Helena Hernmarck papers

Two thirds of her papers have been digitized and each of the 6211 items scanned have been individually described thanks to Sonja Swanson who has been working part time on this project for almost a year, and to Ella Anderson, UMN student who got it started three years ago. This effort facilitates the creation of a Catalog d’Raisonne, edited by Mae Colburn, anticipated publication is December 2028. Insert thumbnail image

N115 a: Minneapolis Plan Vault: Significant Architects

Analog searching was made easier by separating out materials by ‘significant architects’ as considered so at the time of processing. Now un-siloed searches make such a series unnecessary — instead, we utilized the series to begin the hard work of correcting and adding searchable metadata to the N115 finding aid. Now, one thousand plan sets are tied & tagged, safer and happier in their custom drawings boxes in the caverns. Thanks to Ivy Orlando, landscape architect student and Joel Campbell, newly minted master’s degree in Urban Planning.

We’ve done the same for N69, Larson McLaren papers, thanks again to our dynamic duo of Ivy and Joel.

Close Associates papers

Oliva Copia is creating the online finding aid, reprocessed the existing collection’s job files & specifications, and has begun processing the accruals. This is a multi-year endeavor.

That gives you a glimpse of the work we do here at NAA, and I haven’t even mentioned the 315 unique individual research inquiries and the handful of classes taught, nor the donor site visits! Thank you for your support this last year, whether you attended our events, wrote a check, asked a question, or donated materials. Thank you for being part of our community of learners.