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Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2150-233X
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7317-0324
Abstract
A strength of the University Archives at the University of New Hampshire is its strong administrative and institutional history collections through the mid 20th century, with hundreds of linear feet of manuscripts from offices across campus. However, some of these collections were processed more than 30 years ago and are missing descriptive work that would ideally highlight communities of color on campus and their inclusion and self-advocacy in the history of higher education.
In the absence of resources that would prioritize reprocessing these collections, the University Archives has partnered with the Digital Collections Team at UNH to broaden the access to these unique collections in ways that not only recontextualize their content but also invite stewardship and stakeholdership to build resilient collections with cultural heritage institutions.
In this presentation, the panelists will discuss the early stages of a collaborative partnership with Densho, a Japanese-American community archives based out of Seattle, WA, to host a mirror collection of papers that reckon with a previously unknown history of Japanese American students applying to UNH during WWII. By taking descriptive queues from Densho, enriching their collections, and advocating for other schools in the Northeast to collaborate with them to address gaps in their collections, we hope to provide an example of how building resilience in archives can be conceived by not only broadening access, but also recontextualizing a set of institutional records in ways that reckon with a harmful past.
Date Created
2026-03-21
Department
Library
Publication Date
3-21-2026
Language
English
Medium
Presentation
Document Type
Presentation
Recommended Citation
Uchida, Kai H.; Exline, Eleta; and Wilson, Morgan, "Unearthing "Storied Lives:" Building Resilient and Recontextualized Collections at UNH Library through Community Archives Collaborations" (2026). Faculty Publications. 2472.
https://scholars.unh.edu/faculty_pubs/2472