The Salmon Arm Museum’s archives room is the recipient of the 2011 Terry Reksten Memorial Award.
Administered by the Friends of the British Columbia Archives, the annual award in memory of the B.C. author, is given to a British Columbia public archive with less than three full time archivists.
Salmon Arm Museum staff applied to the adjudication committee last June, noting the need to purchase acid free envelopes for a very special donation.
Last year, over the Christmas holiday, almost three decades of Salmon Arm Observer photographs were donated.
“The gift was an unexpected Christmas present,” says archivist Deborah Chapman.
Observer publisher Rick Proznick donated 42 boxes of graphic images representing the Observer’s last 26 years of print making from the mid seventies to the new millennium. In 2001 the Observer went digital and no longer developed traditional photographs, making the gift a last of its kind.
Thanks to the donation of one board member and the work of another, Rosemary Blair and Rosemary Wilson, the collection has already been re-boxed in acid free boxes, says Chapman, who notes the next step is to match the images to the newspaper publication, glean information from the newspaper, catalogue each photograph, and place each one in its own acid free envelope.
“It is a big job, but the staff and volunteers at the Salmon Arm Museum are up to the challenge,” she says. “It’ll make quite the winter project.”
The Terry Reksten Memorial Award is $1,000, something Chapman calls a good start.
Much more, however, is needed. If you are interested in contributing financially or would like to donate elbow grease, call the archives at 250-832-5289.
Terry Reksten, a member of the Friends of the British Columbia Archives, was well-known for bringing the history of British Columbia alive through her books, including the best sellers More English Than the English, The Dunsmuir Saga, and The Empress Hotel. Reksten, who was also a founding member of the Victoria Hallmark Society, passed away in 2001 at the age of 59.
Her family asked that the Friends of the British Columbia Archives establish a memorial fund in her name to honour her and the work she did for preservation of the history and legacy of this province, and to endow an award for outstanding contributions to archives in British Columbia.