Heritage Museum names archives after volunteers

About two dozen area residents gathered at Libby’s Heritage Museum Sunday afternoon to witness the dedication of the archives to Mary and Larry Hebenstreit, the husband and wife volunteering team who were instrumental in modernizing and preserving the museum’s archives.

“In every sense of the word, this was a team effort,” museum board member and master of ceremonies Jeff Gruber said. “But Mary was the captain.”

Gruber spoke about the history of the museum and the 15-year project to protect and modernize the museum’s archives. Prior to the project, the museum’s archives were little more than a collection of documents and photos stored in boxes in a room they shared with saws, tools, cleaning supplies and chemicals used for repair and maintenance.

The project began in 2000, when the Heritage Museum applied for and secured a small grant to help begin the creation of an archive. Using that grant, the museum’s board brought in an expert to help design the archives and to teach the museum’s board members how to manage collections. It was from those discussions that the Accessions Committee was born on Jan. 4, 2001. Mary Hebenstreit was appointed as the committee’s first chair, a position she held until June 2015.

During her tenure with the committee, the two grants secured to modernize the archives were exhausted, but the work continued through the dedication of the Hebenstreits and the other members of the committee and the Heritage Museum’s board. Gruber credited the long-term success of the project to Mary’s diligence, tutelage and guidance.

“The true test of a grant is what happens to a project after the money runs out,” he said. And nearly a decade after the money ran out, the project has reached its pinnacle with the dedication of the archives to Mary and Larry Hebenstreit.

The archives allow for researchers to dig, first-hand, into the history of the Kootenai Valley, to read original documents and notes and to see the original photographs and drawings that capture the history of the area without the lens of another author. The goal, Gruber said, is to get the right information into the hands of the people doing the research, to help enable them to tell the stories of the area and its people.

“Libby has a rich and interesting history,” he said. “There are many stories left to be told.”