April 7, 2003
Contact: Tracy Sebren (509-963-2308/509-963-2871/e-mail: sebrent@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Central Washington University has a rich
and interesting history. Unfortunately, a significant part of that
history is largely unknown to the public and even the university’s own
faculty, staff and students.
“A few people know pieces of the story, but most know very
little,” CWU President Jerilyn S. McIntyre says. “Many artifacts and
professional papers have already been lost because we have had no
system in place for collecting, preserving and cataloguing them.”
That’s why McIntyre is now calling for a concentrated effort
to create university archives and a historical museum collection, to
augment the samples of historic classroom equipment, furniture, band
uniforms, clocks and other artifacts, items and valuable documents
preserved by individual campus departments.
Martha Duskin-Smith, curator of the CWU anthropology
department museum, and Tracy Sebren, records analyst, through direct
contact with faculty and staff in various departments, have been
charged with surveying current Ellensburg campus collections of
three-dimensional objects. But, without a central listing of campus
holdings, it’s proving to be a daunting task.
Because of that Duskin-Smith and Sebren are now seeking help
in identify objects and collections across campus, or those that
community members have in their homes that may be valuable to our
historical and cultural legacy.
Such items include official or unofficial documents,
photographs, publications, three-dimensional objects and electronic
media.
“If people have suggestions about other places we might
look, they shouldn’t hesitate to make us aware of them,” Duskin-Smith
says.
To help identify pertinent items, an on-line survey has been
established on the CWU Web site at
www.cwu.edu/~purchase/CulturalArchives/ArchiveSurvey.html.
Duskin-Smith and Sebren ask that those forms are filled out
and submitted by April 25.
The survey can be completed more than once to include more
items or answered separately about different collections. The stated
goal is to acquire treasures that will communicate and reflect the
culture of this historic institution and its people.
For more information about the project, call Sebren at (509)
963-2308, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.
