By Kat Bryant
Grays Harbor News Group
On Saturday, several Grays Harbor representatives were on hand as the Washington State Historical Society presented its annual awards for excellence in advancing the field of history in the Evergreen State.
The Washington State Archives and Washington State Library were recognized for their joint effort to save thousands of photos, negatives, slides, film, tapes and documents damaged in last year’s Armory Building fire, which destroyed the Aberdeen Museum of History.
“By salvaging priceless history literally from the ashes, that had to be one of the greatest team efforts in the history of the Washington State Archives and State Library,” said John C. Hughes, chief historian for the Office of the Secretary of State.
Secretary of State Kim Wyman dispatched the State Archives team to Aberdeen immediately after the June 9, 2018, fire to assist in retrieval and recovery.
“The archivists and librarians worked relentlessly to rescue and preserve artifacts, ephemera, historical documents and more,” reads the official statement.
The team worked against time to clean and dry everything properly to prevent mold growth, which would had caused irreversible damage. “The entire State Archives team was focused solely on the recovery until every viable item was stabilized,” according to the statement.
Many of the State Library staff worked side by side with archivists, and others volunteered to assist during their off-hours.
“Watching them at work was amazing,” said Hughes, who is also the WSHS Awards Committee chairman and former editor and publisher of The Daily World.
“I was surprised how many photographs and documents we recovered,” archivist Benjamin Helle told The Daily World. “We spent days working on one or two scrapbooks that might have held 100 photos, but nearly every one of them came out without a tear. Although the scrapbook itself could not be saved, the scenes, events, and memories contained in the photographs are preserved. That was hopeful.”
During Saturday’s event, Tom Quigg delivered the City of Aberdeen’s resolution of thanks for the work performed by the Archives and Library. Also in attendance from the Harbor were John Larson, director of the Polson Museum in Hoquiam and WSHS trustee; Aberdeen City Council member Jeff Cook and his wife, Becky Walsh; and Dee Anne Shaw, an Aberdeen City Council member, and her husband, John Shaw, executive director of the Westport South Beach Historical Society.
