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Kerri Anne Burke, Global Curator of Citi Heritage Collections, addresses a meeting of the New York Corporate Archivists group, hosted by the AP Corporate Archives at New York headquarters, Oct. 3, 2017. Valerie Komor, director of AP’s Corporate Archives, and Burke discussed demonstrating the business value of archives. (AP Photo/Chuck Zoeller)
The Associated Press (AP) Corporate Archives, founded in 2003, documents the history and operation of the organization. To that end, the Archives acquires, preserves, and makes available for research those records that are deemed of enduring value. Records span the years 1848 to the present and are organized into 245 collections totaling approximately 4,000 linear feet of paper records and 10 Terabytes of digital files. The holdings include personal papers, administrative, editorial and governance records, wire copy, photographs, sound recordings, artifacts, oral histories, film, and audio and video collections. The reference and rare book library emphasizes writings by AP staff, AP history, journalism history and the memoirs of leading journalists.
To kick-off American Archives, Month, a group of approximately 25 were graciously hosted by the AP Corporate Archives team, including Valerie Komor (Director), Francesca Pitaro (Archivist), and Sarit Hand (Digital Archivist). On October 3rd, all assembled at the AP headquarters at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan. The attendees bring expertise from an array of corporations and heritage institutions, including fashion brands (PVH Archives, Estee Lauder, Tiffany & Co.); financial companies (Citi Center for Culture, New York Stock Exchange, JPMorgan Chase, Amex Archives); and other sectors (IBM, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, The Durst Organization, Winthrop Group, and private consultants).
Kerri Anne Burke (Citi Center for Culture) provided an introduction to the AP Corporate Archives team. The AP Corporate Archives then described a variety of vital services and programs that they offer, including collection development, manuscripts processing, preservation, exhibition and outreach, oral history and reference services.
For the meeting theme on how corporate archives provide business value, the AP Corporate Archives team discussed how they closely collaborate with the AP News division. The collaboration includes obituary & general news research, along with “AP Was There,” a running series that republishes retrospective AP news accounts of significant stories, such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
One “AP Was There” story focused on the 60th Anniversary of The Little Rock Nine. AP Reporter Relman Morin’s seminal coverage was reposted, along with a collection of remarkable photos from the AP Archives. To further commemorate the occasion, there was a reunion in September 2017 of the eight surviving members who integrated Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. A video documenting the joint news conference is available on the AP Archives website.
The AP Archives also creates and produces original mini-documentaries. These films are presented to AP Board members, as well as made available via the AP Explore website. At the meeting, a powerful mini-documentary on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was screened, which tied back to The Little Rock Nine coverage. The film was created to commemorate in 2014 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education.
It was inspiring to visit AP and gain a better understanding of the AP Archives’ contributions and wide range of projects. We are grateful to the AP Archives team for hosting us all!