Margaret (Peggy) O’Neill Adams, Thomas J. Connors, Philip B. Eppard, Frederick L. Honhart, Elisabeth Kaplan, Wilda Logan, Nancy McCall, Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, and Diane Vogt-O’Connor were named Fellows of the Society of American Archivists on August 4, 2006, during the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA, the Council of State Archivists, and the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of conference attendees attended the ceremony in a ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel to salute the nine new Fellows.
Established in 1957 and conferred annually, the distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archival profession. There are now 164 current members so honored out of a membership of more than 4,600. SAA welcomes the nine new Fellows. Following are citations for the Fellows presented during the awards ceremony.
MARGARET (PEGGY) O’NEILL ADAMS has been an electronic records archivist for the National Archives for almost twenty years. Following her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Clarke College in Iowa and the University of Wisconsin, she taught history at the college level. But she quickly found her niche as the founding data archivist at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1960s and in a series of posts for the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky. She then was recruited to the National Archives, into what was then the Machine-Readable Records Branch, now the Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division.
Through the years, Adams developed the first and foremost reference service for electronic records in the American archival community. In 2003, she was recognized by NARA with the Archivist’s Special Achievement Award for the development and launch of the “Access to Archival Databases” web resource. In SAA she’s been an active member of committees and sections, a frequent presenter in workshops on electronic records, and a program speaker at a dozen annual meetings.
In more than a dozen publications, Adams has tied professional practice to the use of electronic records in a variety of ways, just as she has done with her contributions to allied associations, including the International Association for Social Science Service Information and Technology, the American Association for Computing and History, and the Association of Public Data Users, among many others.
Adams has had an influence on literally hundreds of her colleagues both in SAA and around the world. She has been a bridge-builder in so many ways. She is, in the words of one of her nominators, “a tireless champion for the preservation, effective use, and management of electronic data.” Adams has lived with this technology from the punch card to the Internet, and continues to keep a step or two ahead of it.
THOMAS J. CONNORS holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brown University in anthropology and American civilization. From his first position as archives assistant at Yale University Library in the late ‘70s through his post as archivist/curator since 1993 at the National Public Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland, he has consistently distinguished himself throughout his career. From his early ground-breaking and still definitive work on labor archives; to his tireless efforts on behalf of international archives affairs and greater American involvement therein; to his leadership in documenting the broadcasting industry; to the energy and dedication he brought to SAA’s governing council; and to the passion and eloquence he has evinced in advocating on behalf of greater access to federal and municipal records, Connors has shown himself to be the sort of archivist that defines the very best characteristics of the profession.
During the middle of Connors’s three-year term on SAA’s governing council (2000–2003), SAA and the profession faced many challenges: from 9/11 to unprecedented assaults on the public’s right to information about its government. Throughout it all, Connors was always ready to assist leadership to reason through and draft statements, make public appearances, and to work behind the scenes in the Washington media environment he knew so well. One of his great strengths was the way in which he then leveraged this activity with his international connections. As one of his nominators pointed out, “Tom has always been outspoken in defending academic and press freedoms, but he has recently brought that advocacy to an international forum, thus bringing our European colleagues into the dialogue.”
In addition to his leadership in SAA, Connors also is active in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, the Academy of Certified Archivists, and the Oral History Association. As one of his nominators noted: “Tom is a consummate archivist and a leader in the profession. The major quality that characterizes him is enthusiasm. He is always excited about his work and the field because he truly believes in its importance.”
PHILIP B. EPPARD of the University at Albany, State University of New York, has richly earned this recognition through his contributions to archival scholarship, electronic records research, archival education, the study of archival history, and national and regional professional associations. Eppard, who holds a PhD in American Civilization from Brown University, was editor of the SAA journal American Archivist for the past 10 years and strengthened its reputation for excellence. As one of his nominators stated, he “has given the journal vision and theoretical heft that it did not enjoy consistently before.”
Eppard has co-directed for seven years the American group participating in the InterPARES research projects on electronic records. As another nominator observed, Eppard could “persuasively articulate archival concepts to researchers from other disciplines” and “conduct himself as a consummate ambassador for our profession when working internationally.” In addition, as co-founder and co-convenor of the first International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (I-CHORA), Eppard has contributed significantly to the study of archival history, by fostering research and publication in an oft-neglected field. In these two disparate roles, he has bridged new and traditional concepts, combining theory and application.
Through his professional work and scholarship, Eppard has also strengthened the connections between archivists and allied professional groups. As an archival educator on the faculty of the Department of Information Studies at SUNY-Albany for almost two decades, he has integrated archival courses with library and information science. As Dean of the School of Information Science and Policy for several years he further strengthened the connections between the worlds of archives and information science.
Eppard has served SAA in other capacities over the years, including service on the Committee on Education and Professional Development to the Archival History Roundtable. He was elected treasurer and president of the New England Archivists, and has been active in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, the New York State Archives Advisory Committee, and many other professional groups.
FREDERICK L. HONHART joined the staff of Michigan State University in 1974 and currently serves as director of University Archives and Historical Collections, a program he established and advanced into a truly national model supporting administrative needs and the university’s educational and research missions.
Honhart was recognized for his leadership, his vision, and his integrity. He pioneered what we take for granted today: the use of computer technology in the daily operation of archival organizations. MicroMARC:amc, developed under Honhart’s leadership with the support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, was the first software package that enabled a significant number of archival institutions to automate description and share that information with researchers and other institutions. As one nominator noted, “Today, 20 years later, it would be easy to overlook the significance of Fred’s brainchild . . . MicroMARC:amc . . . [which] became the catalyst for many archivists to consider adopting professional standards for description.”
Throughout his career, Honhart, who holds a PhD from Case-Western Reserve University, has been an active and leading participant in the broader archival community. In the mid-1970s he advocated for greater transparency in SAA’s governance and was instrumental in opening the governing council’s meetings to all members. He also proposed the creation of a student membership category.
In addition, Honhart is active in the Michigan Archival Association, Midwest Archives Conference, and the International Council on Archives (ICA). He currently serves as president of the ICA Section on University and Research Institution Archives, and last year hosted archivists from around the world at the section’s meeting in East Lansing, Michigan, which was deemed one of the most successful and well-attended section meetings.
ELISABETH KAPLAN is university archivist and co-director of the University Digital Conservancy at the University of Minnesota. As one nominator noted, “In a relatively short period of time, Kaplan has made significant contributions to SAA and to the archival profession that outstrip what most archivists achieve in a lifetime.”
In her capacity as co-chair of the Program Committee for SAA’s 2005 Annual Meeting, Kaplan introduced a new feature called the “Archives Seminar” track: consecutive sessions on focused, intensive discussion of a range of new or especially complex topics that archivists face today. The proof of their success has been the high attendance at these intellectually challenging sessions.
Kaplan, who holds BA and MA degrees in history and archival methods from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, has wide and varied research interests: digital archives, visual records, ethnicity, science and technology, postmodernism. She was the principal investigator on “Documenting Internet2: A Collaborative Model for Developing Electronic Records Capabilities in the Small Repository,” a 2005 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). In 2001, she was a Fellow in the NHPRC Electronic Records Research Program.
Her writings are already classics, appearing on university syllabi across the country: “Mind and Sight: Visual Literacy and the Archivist” (co-authored with Jeffrey Mifflin) in Archival Issues (1997); “‘Many Paths to Partial Truths’: Archives, Anthropology, and the Power of Representation” in Archival Science (2003); and “We Are What We Collect, We Collect What We Are: Archives and the Construction of Ethnic Identity” in American Archivist (2000). In addition, she served as reviews editor of the American Archivist for four years.
As her nominators noted, Kaplan has enriched the professional literature, conferences, and the archives profession with a “keen intelligence,” “sense of humor,” and “superb interpersonal skills.”
WILDA LOGAN joined the staff of the National Archives and Records Administration in 1985 and currently is supervisory archives specialist in the Life Cycle Management Division. She holds a BA from Hampton University and an MLS from the University of Maryland. Her life strategy is about inclusion, participation, education, and achievement. Within SAA, she is a founding member of the Archives and Archivists of Color Roundtable and helped to establish the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award.
As an advocate for diversity within the National Archives, Logan served as co-chair of the Office of Records Service’s Diversity and Upward Mobility Strategies subgroup. She co-drafted the final report to devise strategies for recruitment and retention of targeted groups in the largest office in NARA. She currently leads the Diversity and Upward Mobility Coordinating Committee recruitment team and was responsible for its development and participation in major recruitment events, including SAA’s Career Center. Logan received the Archivist’s Special Achievement Award for outstanding promotion of diversity in NARA for 2001 and 2002 due to the significance of the final report and implementation of key diversity initiatives.
Logan has had a hand in developing many important NARA documents and policies including appraisal justification memos; records management training materials; conference programs, newsletters, and publications; records management briefing documents; records management and diversity policies and procedures; and evaluation reports. She also served as a member and leader of the NARA Equal Employment Opportunity Interim Advisory Group.
As one nominator noted, “Logan is well known for providing wisdom with a quiet voice. . . . She has helped shape both our national professional association and our National Archives into organizations that are more effective, and more open to participants from diverse backgrounds with different ideas but the same goal: to preserve our historical record.”
NANCY MCCALL holds a BA from Western College for Women and an MLA from the Johns Hopkins University, where she has spent her entire archival career. Currently she serves as archivist of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and as a research associate of the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine. She has developed the archives into one of the premier medical archives in the world, an accomplishment recognized by SAA in 1995 when the Alan Mason Chesney Archives at JHMI was awarded the Distinguished Service Award.
In addition to managing an award-winning program, McCall has published more than 20 articles, books, and chapters on such topics as the history of medicine, art history, conservation, program development in health care archives, and the use of medical archives. She co-edited Designing Archival Programs to Advance Knowledge in the Health Fields, which remains the standard work on the subject; she also contributed a chapter to Joan Krizack’s Documentation Planning for the U.S. Health Care System, which won SAA’s Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior quality and usefulness.
Through her publications and her many presentations at SAA and regional archival meetings, all archivists have benefited from McCall’s work. Especially important is her two decades of work on the issue of balancing access requirements for privacy and opportunities to study records of health care, which has led to her becoming a leading expert (and an expert witness) on the archival implications of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Under the auspices of an NHPRC-funded research grant, she is currently developing a model of a HIPAA-aware EAD finding aid that will have wide application for many archivists.
Science, technology, and health care archives are immeasurably better off because of McCall. As a nominator noted, she is “a professional’s professional who has tirelessly added to our body of knowledge while giving unstinting service to one of the world’s greatest biomedical institutions.”
GREGOR TRINKAUS-RANDALL is currently a preservation specialist for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, where he has served since 1988. He holds a bachelor’s and double master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin, and has been extraordinarily successful in assisting institutions in preservation planning and implementation projects including disaster planning and recovery. The statewide preservation program he developed is, as one supporter noted, “worthy to be a model for other state libraries and archives.”
Trinkaus-Randall’s work has had, as another supporter put it, a “multiplier effect” through his publication record on preservation and security, including his SAA book, Protecting Your Collections: A Manual of Archival Security. His writings are of superior quality, and useful. He has shared his expertise in teaching more than 50 workshops. At the last two SAA Annual Meetings he has provided timely guidance on the archival implications of the USA PATRIOT Act.
His most notable contribution has been coordinating SAA’s response to hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita in 2005. Following the destruction caused by these hurricanes, he generously gave his time to represent SAA on the Heritage Emergency National Task Force and helped SAA and its members understand how best to respond to colleagues who needed assistance. His outstanding service was recognized by SAA’s governing council this year.
His professional involvement is indeed impressive. In addition to SAA, he participates actively in the Academy of Certified Archivists, New England Archivists, Midwest Archives Conference, Boston Archivists Group, and Association of College and Research Libraries.
As his nominators summed up: Trinkaus-Randall “is a prototype for the dedicated archival professional.”
DIANE VOGT-O’CONNOR is prolific and exhaustive in all of her endeavors as an archivist, writer, teacher, consultant, and member of professional organizations. She recently joined the Library of Congress as chief of the Conservation Division. Prior to that, she held archival positions with the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and the National Archives and Records Administration. She has served all of those organizations with grace and distinction, and now the greatest library in the world will receive the substantial benefits of her knowledge and skill, and her limitless energy and enthusiasm for archives and preservation.
Vogt-O’Connor is the co-author of Photographs: Archival Care and Management, published this summer by SAA, and already being hailed as “a superb manual for the preservation of our nation’s photographic heritage at risk.” Other writing accomplishments include the Smithsonian Institution’s Guide to Photographic Collections, which garnered both SAA’s C.F.W. Coker Award for best finding aid and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference’s Arline Custer Award for best book; 22 Conserve O’Grams published for the National Park Service; and more than two dozen articles and special editions of the journal Cultural Resource Management.
Vogt-O’Connor has served SAA in a variety of leadership capacities, including as chair of the Preservation Section and assorted committees, as a speaker at annual meetings, and as a workshop instructor. Her professional involvement extends to the Academy of Certified Archivists and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. She also has served in a number of archival consultancies here and abroad.
As one of Vogt-O’Connor’s nominators aptly concluded, “She supplies both the inspiration and the just plain hard work necessary to bring conferences, workshops, seminars and publications to fruition.”
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The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.
As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Timothy Ericson (chair), Peter Hirtle, Steven Hensen, Randall Jimerson, and Lee J. Stout—and three Fellows selected by Council—Nancy Bartlett, Thomas Battle, and Linda Henry.