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Six members were inducted as Fellows of the Society of American Archivists during the annual awards ceremony Aug. 31, 2007, at the Fairmont Chicago: R. Joseph Anderson, Laurie A. Baty, Jane Kenamore, Robert S. Martin, Christine Weideman, and Joel F. Wurl. 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 174 Fellows among SAA’s membership of more than 4,900.
R. JOSEPH ANDERSON has worked for the American Institute of Physics since 1993, and is now director of the Niels Bohr Library and associate director of the Center for the History of Physics. He is currently directing a major study to document the history of physicists in industry, funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In addition, Anderson administers a grant program he established that funds the processing and description of records relating to physics and allied sciences. The program has awarded approximately 40 grants of up to $10,000 each.
Prior to his current position, Anderson was the director of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia. He has also worked on the Contemporary Medical Care and Healthy Policy Collection at Yale University, as well as the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. In each of his positions, Anderson has worked to document traditionally under-documented areas, with a focus on inter-archival cooperation.
Anderson has served on SAA’s Nominating Committee, Manuscripts Section, and the Science, Technology, and Health Care Roundtable. He is active in regional archival and history organizations, participated in the Cooperation on Archives of Science in Europe project, and served on the Technical Committee of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science.
“Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, however, has been to take the archival programs at the Center for the History of Physics, which already stood as a model for all discipline-based history centers, and make them better,” remarked presenter Peter Hirtle of Cornell University. “In all that he does, and in his own unique low-key and effective manner, Joe works to foster collegiality for the betterment of the profession and the documentation of his selected fields.
One of LAURIE A. BATY’s nominators referred to her as“a tireless advocate for preserving the nation’s cultural heritage.” Baty is the senior director of Museum Programs at the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C. She worked in historical interpretation at the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Site and at the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, was a post-master’s Fellow at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, a program officer at the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), and deputy director of collections at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Baty has contributed her expertise to several organizations by serving as a consultant, judge, reviewer and panelist for the NHPRC; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland; and for National History Day programs. In addition, she has authored numerous articles and served as editor of the Daguerreian Annual.
Baty’s colleagues cite her influence as the chair and chairelect of the Visual Materials Section from 2001 to 2003, and as the editor of Views, a newsletter for SAA’s Visual Materials Section. “For over 18 years, Laurie guaranteed that a beacon in the visual materials world stayed strong because of her dedication and enthusiasm to publish up-to-date visual materials information,” said Wilda Logan of the National Archives during her introduction. Baty has been an instructor for SAA’s workshop “Administration of Photographic Collections” for 15 years, as well as a lecturer for a graduate course in “Visual and Sound Materials” at the University of Maryland. She also worked as an editorial assistant on A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (SAA, 2005).
JANE KENAMORE, a partner in the archive and library consulting firm of Kenamore and Klinkow in Chicago, was presented the Fellows’ plaque by Richard Pearce-Moses of the Arizona State Library. He recalled a former SAA president recommending her because, “Her voice is valued in and outside the profession as a quiet and effective moral leader by those dealing with high-level policy issues…and also by the rank-andfile who deal day-to-day with fundamental issues of archives management and archival service. Her insight and good sense have been forces for a balanced approach that recognizes the way things are, but looks forward to the future.”
She began her career as an archivist at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston, Texas, in 1976, where she was named head of Special Collections in 1985. At the Rosenberg she co-edited (with Michael E. Wilson) Manuscript Sources in the Rosenberg Library and (with Uri Haller) Cartographic Sources in the Rosenberg Library, both published by Texas A&M University Press.
Kenamore relocated to Illinois in 1998 to become the archivist at the Art Institute of Chicago. A year later she joined the staff of SAA as its Education Officer. From 1995 to 1997 she worked in the archives of the American Medical Association. Since 1997, she has been an archives consultant in Chicago. Kenamore has served SAA in a variety of leadership capacities, including as a Council Member from 1999 to 2001 and as a member of the Committee on Education and Professional Development, Program Committee, Nominating Committee, and the Committee on Automated Records and Techniques. She is a past president of the Society of Southwest Archivists and a former board member of the Academy of Certified Archivists.
Pearce-Moses wrapped up his acknowledgment with: “Jane is much more than a professional who processes collections and manages archival programs. She is, at heart, an educator. Her verve, sense of humor, and dedication to the profession bring all who meet her the desire to become the best archivists they can be.”
“Every year, it seems, the Committee on the Selection of Fellows is inevitably surprised when several, or all, of the nominees are found to not already be Fellows,” noted Steve Hensen of Duke University, when introducing ROBERT SIDNEY MARTIN. “Taking nothing at all from this year’s selection, or from the cadre of existing Fellows, I would like to paraphrase George Orwell and observe that some are more ‘Fellow’ than others. I believe that is certainly the case with Bob.”
Martin is a professor of library science at Texas Woman’s University. Hensen noted that Martin has “always been the most effective of leaders,” in his previous positions as director of a special collections library at Louisiana State University; a state librarian in Texas; and “granter” of government grants at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS). Martin was named by President Bush to be director of IMLS in June 2001. He served in the post for four years, during which time IMLS distributed more than $860 million in grants to enhance access to cultural resources in the nation’s museums and libraries. In 2005, he was awarded the SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for his support of the profession.
Martin has also held leadership positions in the American Library Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries. Martin’s supporters refer to his wide influence in “extending and integrating archival issues among librarians, museum curators, and academics about documentation, preservation, scholarly communication, electronic records, and access.”
CHRISTINE WEIDEMAN has served in a series of positions in the Manuscripts and Archives Division at Yale University, most recently as deputy director and currently as its interim director. “In her two decades as a professional archivist, Chris has written seminal articles and presented innovative and pragmatic papers that have contributed heavily to archival discourse; she has led several successful SAA committees and sections; and she has served as a superlative mentor to multiple early-career archivists who have gone on to make their own mark on the field,” remarked Sue Hodson of The Huntington Library.
Weideman’s research and work on streamlining processing via minimal standards is well respected in the profession. Her recent articles include “The Buckley Stops Where: The Ambiguity and Archival Implications of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,” co-authored with Mark Greene in Privacy and Confidentiality Perspectives (SAA, 2005), and “Accessioning as Processing” in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of American Archivist. It can be found in SAA’s Privacy and Confidentiality Reader.
Weideman has served as chair of SAA’s Manuscript Repositories Section, a member of the 2000 Program Committee, and co-chair of the 2004 Program Committee. Hodson concluded her tribute: “Like the Yale bulldog, Chris brings a purposeful tenacity to her work, yet she usually shies away from the limelight. Indeed, her unassuming manner makes her instantly approachable to young professionals looking for a role model.”
JOEL F. WURL is a senior program officer in the division of Preservation and Access at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C.
He began his career in 1981 as archivist at the University of Toledo. Four years later he joined the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center, where he served until 2006 as head of Research Collections and then associate director. One of his supporters wrote, “He has thrived in the emotion-laden world of immigration and is respected by archival colleagues who could charitably be called ‘the competition.’ How does one move so effortlessly between organizations of Slovaks, Finns, Italians, Poles, Greeks, Czechs, Estonians, Latvians, and Arabs?”
He has written, edited, or co-authored more than 25 publications about archives administration and immigration research. His service on 35 advisory committees, boards, and panels has brought him in contact with groups such as Elderhostel, the Ironworld Discovery Center, the Minnesota League of Women Voters, the Somali Community Documentation Project, and the Center for the Documentation and Preservation of Houses of Worship.
Tim Ericson, senior lecturer emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, concluded his tribute to Wurl with the comment: “His sensitivity toward the feelings and perspectives of others makes him a strong supporter of diversity within SAA, a wise advisor, and a calm voice in difficult discussions. As one supporter wrote, ‘Joel is someone who I would gladly hold up to non-archivists as a model and ambassador of our profession.’"
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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—Randall Jimerson (chair), Timothy L. Ericson, Steven Hensen, Peter Hirtle, and Richard Pearce-Moses—and three Fellows selected by Council—Sara Sue Hodson, CA, Wilda Logan, and Patrick M. Quinn.