Fellow: Tawny Ryan Nelb

Tawny Ryan Nelb, president of Nelb Archival Consulting, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Nelb earned a BA in American Studies in 1975 from the University of Notre Dame in one of the first classes that included women. In 1983, she obtained an MA in American history. After serving as an archives and museum assistant at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library from 1975–1976, Nelb spent the next decade holding increasing positions of responsibility at Yale University Library’s Manuscript and Archives department. Beginning as a public services assistant, she became a project coordinator of National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant-funded projects. Nelb eventually served as the head of the Yale Architectural Archives Project. In 1986, she became an independent archivist/historian. As president of Nelb Archival Consulting, she has provided collection needs assessment analyses, archives designs, processing plans, archives policies and procedures, disaster plans, oral history projects, and book and grant writing for clients including the Michigan History Center; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; UCLA; Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia; and the new Indiana State Archives building design currently under construction. She also provides archival services for families and individuals.

Nelb's commitment to the profession and service to others reaches from the local to the national level. She is a past president of the Historical Society of Michigan and served for eight years on the governor's Michigan State Historical Records Advisory Board in Lansing, Michigan. She is a past member of the executive board for the Midland Center for the Arts and served on the advisory board of the Midland County Historical Society (MCHS) for eleven years before rejoining the advisory council in 2021. During the same year, Nelb received the “History Hero” award from the Historical Society of Michigan for her “extraordinary dedication to community service and contributions to Michigan history.” In 2023, she was one of the finalists for the Citizen of the Year award for her volunteer work in Midland, Michigan. Within SAA, Nelb has had a profound impact. She co-founded the Architectural Records Roundtable (now the Design Records Section), co-taught numerous architectural workshops for the Society, lectured at many conferences, and served for eight years on SAA’s Publications Board. Nelb has also mentored many archivists, helping to build the next generation of SAA professional leaders, and is recognized by her peers and her students as an excellent and creative lecturer.

Nelb is nationally recognized for having co-authored Architectural Records: Managing Design and Construction Records, which won the SAA Waldo Gifford Leland Award in 2007 for "writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice." Her writings have largely focused on promoting local history and advocating for the importance of archives in community preservation. She has authored 8 books or booklets, including The Tittabawassee Boom Company: A Mixed Blessing of the Lumbering Industry (2023), and over forty articles on local history or archival management.

One supporter wrote that Nelb’s “efforts to ensure the continued preservation, use and promotion of our local community's historical record has been tireless." Another complimented her work in May 2020 when MCSH's history center and archives flooded due to a dam breaking, stating that Nelb’s tireless volunteer work was instrumental in both immediate emergency recovery efforts and the long-term securing of a consultant to guide them through the creation of a new archive facility: "It is difficult to put into words the impact Tawny has had on her local community as a professional archivist and as a mentor. She has been an inspiration for what an archivist means to the community, advancing and advocating for the importance of archives in preserving a community's history and memory.”