Today I am pleased to publish an interview with Andrew Chernevych, an archivist at the Galt Museum & Archives in Lethbridge, Alberta. I think you’ll enjoy reading about their holdings, as well as their fabulous customer service and outreach endeavors.
1. Can you tell us a bit about the Galt Museum & Archives?
The Galt Archives is an integral but distinctive part of the Galt Museum & Archives organization. Just like any other archival institution we preserve records of historical value and make them accessible to the public. We function as a regional archives – our mandate area is Southwestern Alberta including the Waterton National Park and the Crowsnest Pass area.
Our distinctive feature (and identity) is our commitment to fast customer service (yes, we call it ‘customer service’ instead of ‘reference service’). Over 90% of our distance requests are done within two business days and people love it, often telling us stories of how it took months to get a reply from such and such archives. For us, this is a way to stand out as dynamic, reliable, and client-oriented archival institution. In 2015, we processed 755 individual requests, which is quite substantial for an archives of our size.
Another important aspect of our work is our outreach. We run a monthly ‘Archives Program’, organize six photographic exhibits per year, share our images in the local newspaper daily (Flashback series in the Lethbridge Herald) and regularly promote archives on the Galt’s Facebook page. The Archives’ Facebook involvement is fairly recent, we started last year, but we’ve had some success. This post last month gathered 570 likes and 83 shares!
As far as holdings are concerned, our strength is the extensive photographic collection – close to 700,000 images (80,000 can be browsed and viewed online).
2. How long have you worked there and how did you become interested in the field?
I’ve served as Archivist at the Galt Museum & Archives since May 2011. Prior to that, I had worked at the City of Wetaskiwin Archives and the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
3. Can you share more about one of your favourite items?
One of the recent acquisitions is Harwood Family Albums containing images related to the early history of the Waterton National Park. Arthur Henry Harwood worked for the Park starting in 1909 and was a Renaissance character – a cook, businessman, photographer, postmaster, close friend of Kootenai Brown. His son Stephen was an equally colorful character – a parks mechanic, photographer and outdoor enthusiast – all despite of his disability: he lost his left arm in a firearms accident at age sixteen. Marv Harwood, third generation, is the donor of the albums who is still connected to the park and regularly advises its staff on the history of the area.
Thank you, Andrew!
Be sure to visit the Galt Museum & Archives website to learn more — and if you have comments or questions about this post or the archivist interview series, don’t hesitate to leave them below.