Illinois Resident Wins Archives Contest

Julie Dresser, a teacher’s aide from Sycamore, Ill., is the winner of SAA's I Found It In The Archives! contest. Her essay describes how a trip to the Benjamin F. Feinberg Library, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, helped her find priceless letters from her fourth-great grandmother. “I’ve discovered wonderful things in many different archives across the United States, but these letters, with their first-hand accounts of different events, are my greatest of the great,” Dresser wrote. For the contest, SAA invited archives users to submit essays or videos detailing their “discoveries” in the archives. Dresser’s entry bested seven other finalists in the national competition in which the public voted for the winner. More than 8,400 votes were cast. Click here to read the winning essay.