What does an archivist do? I’m so glad you asked!

Imagine this: On top of your fridge sits a wooden box full of little cards, a little dusty from years of sitting untouched. There is something exciting about blowing off that dust, running your fingers over the cover, and finally opening it. What is this box? It’s your family’s recipe box, passed down from generation to generation. And now, you’re the keeper of it.

Wait … stay with me.

This box is more than a collection of index cards and yellowed pieces of paper. It holds your family’s culinary history, traditions, and memories. But it can also tell a much bigger story: the history of everyday life and how it changes over time. Each card is a small piece of that story.

For example, take Grandma Bonnie’s molded gelatin Thanksgiving dish from the 1930’s. Maybe nobody in your family makes it anymore because tastes have changed by 2026. But that recipe can still tell us something about the ingredients, cooking practices, and food preferences of the time. When you hold that card and read its ingredients, you’re looking at a record of what someone cooked, what they used, and how they prepared a meal.

Now imagine that the card has been altered over the years. Someone crosses out an ingredient and replaces it with another. Sugar gives way to a low-calorie sweetener, which is eventually replaced by coconut sugar. Those handwritten changes tells a story, too. They document how a recipe evolved alongside changing tastes, available ingredients, and family preferences.

So, let’s return to your recipe box and how it relates to what an archivist is.

As the keeper of the recipe box – what should you keep? Imagine that the box contains duplicates of some of the recipes. Grandma Bonnie’s recipe was added again by Aunt Penny thirty years later. An archivist would evaluate all items in the box to determine which ones have lasting historical value. A recipe might be important because of who wrote it, how it relates to the other family records, or what it reveals about the family’s history.

Now that you’ve decided what should be kept, you’ve decided to arrange the recipes in the box. But how should you do this? You’re tempted to arrange the recipes alphabetically, but Grandma Bonnie’s recipes have always been kept together – from her pecan pie to her scalloped potatoes. An archivist considers how the records were originally organized and how they relate to one another before deciding how best to arrange them. Keeping meaningful relationships intact can preserve information that would be lost if every card were sorted into a new system.

So, now what? An archivist with this dilemma might decide to arrange the recipes by collections. They would create descriptions about its creator, dates, contents, and historical context and then create an aid to be kept in the front of the box to help the next family member understand what the box contains and locate the recipes they need. 

Now, what to do about the yellowing, brittle paper in the recipe box? An archivist would protect the collection by using appropriate storage materials and store it in suitable environmental conditions to protect the collection. So, no more keeping the recipe box on top of the fridge to collect dust! You have to preserve the recipe box and its contents to ensure that future generations can access and learn about your family’s record of changing traditions.

And that is what an archivist does. They identify, preserve, organize, and make sure records are available to people to use and learn from.