Lincoln County first to win “Archives Blitz” grant Clerk and recorder seeks people to help preserve historic maps

Lincoln County is the first recipient of a state grant to process and preserve historic archival materials during a so-called “Archives Blitz.”

Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder Robin Benson, who wrote the grant application, said via email she is “very happy ... that our old maps of historical origin are going to be inventoried, documented and preserved.”

To do so, Benson is looking for people to help with two stages of the Archives Blitz. The first is a Sept. 15 Montana Historical Society training session at the Lincoln County Courthouse. The second, the actual Archives Blitz event, will take place 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 9 to Oct. 13 at the Ponderosa Room at 952 E. Spruce St. near City Hall.

During the event, 20th Century canvas maps of Lincoln County that have been stored in a courthouse vault will be inventoried, flattened and prepared for storage and archiving, Benson wrote.

Benson said she hopes to get participants from throughout Lincoln County. The September training will be for a limited amount of people, she wrote, while individuals and groups are encouraged to attend the October event.

“The public is welcome to come look, ask questions and observe,” Benson wrote.

Benson said she was motivated to apply for the grant after the county’s recent restoration of a 1910 county survey that now hangs in the courthouse lobby.

“There are many more maps in the courthouse vault, but right now, we don’t even know what those maps are of so they do need to be inventoried,” she wrote. “Many of the maps are pre-(Libby)dam so some of those towns no longer exist and names of towns have changed.”

Benson noted that as the county’s “record keeper” it’s her job to preserve county records including maps, many of which are originals that have not yet been scanned or otherwise copied.

“The Archives Blitz program is part of the scholarship program of the Montana State Historical Records Advisory Committee,” Jodie Ann Foley, Montana State Archivist at the Montana Historical Society, said via email. “The committee is funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission — the grant funding arm of the National Archives.”

The goal of the program, she wrote, is to support archivists throughout the state and to enable the “indexing and rehousing of county maps to allow for better intellectual access and preservation of same.”

The grant is available to institutions including “local government entities who care for and provide access to some of the state’s most important permanent records,” Foley wrote.

Foley didn’t elaborate why Lincoln County’s application rose to the top, stating only that it “was deemed the best by our grants subcommittee.”

Benson encourages people interested in participating in the training or the Archives Blitz to contact her at 406-283-2301 or lcclerk@libby.org.