The Museum Archive: The Ontological and the Practical

Institutional museum archives are not static; rather, they are dynamic entities that shift and adapt through expansions, moves, and researcher needs. Opened in 1936, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was the first state art museum in the nation. Prior to that, the biggest museums in the United States had been privately established and funded by wealthy donors. The VMFA institutional archive is extensive and varied, and includes administrative, collections, and curatorial records, just to name a few. I intend for my presentation to focus on several elements in relation to museum archives. I will begin by providing a general overview of the VMFA archives, its contents, and its history. Next, I will be discussing my own attempt, as Photo Archivist and newcomer to the museum, to learn the its institutional history in order to gain intellectual control of the photography archive before moving it to a new space as part of a fifth expansion project. Additionally, I will outline my ongoing efforts to increase access to the comprehensive photo archive and the opportunities and challenges that lie therein. I will conclude by addressing the pragmatic side of performing research in museum archives with an emphasis on the contrasting nature of access between private and state museums and the ramifications for potential researchers. My goal for the presentation is to provide a holistic overview of the experience of working in museum archives to give potential researchers a glimpse of what they can expect when they visit.