Provision for long-term preservation of SAA's records was originally made by section 21
of its constitution (1936), which reads:
The minute books, correspondence, and other records of the Society and its committees
shall be preserved by the officers and chairmen of the committees and shall be promptly
turned over by them to the secretary when their terms expire. Records that have ceased
to be of use in conducting the current affairs of the Society may, by direction of the
council, be turned over to a depository selected by it for permanent preservation.
Until Council designated a depository in the 1960s, the records migrated with each new
secretary, who was expected to maintain control over them. This arrangement was manageable
when the records amounted to only a few feet, but it proved impractical as their bulk
increased. Complicating the situation was the fact that officers and committee chairs were
slow in turning over non-active records. When records were passed to the secretary, they
often lacked any order. In his report at the annual meeting, Secretary Henry Browne
remarked the "exciting arrival" of several boxes from his predecessor, archivist at the
Ford Motor Company. The boxes "looked like a do-it-yourself kit for maintaining a
Thunderbird," he joked. "They proved to be the archives of the Society."
Dolores Renze, Colorado State Archivist, was the first secretary to make preservation and
processing of the records an ongoing priority. During her term, the archives grew
substantially. However, like Browne before her, Renze complained that many past presidents
and committee chairs declined to turn over their files, and those who did were "most
dilatory in applying [to their own records] the principles of preservation and arrangement
which they propound" as professional archivists.
On October 2, 1963, Council resolved that "the archives of the Society be deposited in
the official custody of an appointed archivist" and that they "be processed, housed, and
serviced in conformance with sound archival principles." Upon completing her term as
secretary, Renze was appointed as the first SAA archivist, and the Colorado State Archives
designated as the official depository.
On December 30, 1969, Council determined that it was again desirable to place the records
under the care of the secretary. Accordingly, President Kahn informed Renze that the
records were to be placed in the custody of Gerald F. Ham and placed on deposit at the
State Historical Society of Wisconsin (now Wisconsin Historical Society) in Madison.
Almost two years later, Ham reported that the records had yet to be sent, and Council made
arrangements to assist Renze in delivering the records.
During a January 1976 Council meeting, it was reported that the "greatest volume of the
Society's archives" were on deposit at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, although
"there were additional segments of the records in the custody of several former SAA
officers." Councilor J. Frank Cook chaired a committee to collect records of SAA's first
forty years, but it yielded few results. During this time, Council began emphasizing the
importance of designating a permanent depository, believing that such action would
encourage officers and chairs to transfer inactive records.
On October 2, 1978, Council accepted the offer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Division of Archives, to serve as the permanent depository of SAA's archives and appointed
Cook as SAA archivist. Cook and the UW-Madison staff provided access to and preserved the
records until Cook's retirement in September 2000. At that time, Council donated its
archives to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Libraries and named the head of
its Archives Department as SAA archivist. The records arrived at Milwaukee in April 2001.
Section 7 of the SAA Constitution currently provides for the placement and preservation of
the SAA archives.
