Research Center’s Ft. Whipple Collection Fully Processed

In 2019, Library & Archives volunteer Worcester Bong began his work processing one of the most important collections in the Archives, the Fort Whipple & Veterans Administration (VA) Center Records. MS-90 collection.  Worcester was a recent retiree of the VA Center and he is an ardent volunteer of the Fort Whipple Museum, which is operated by the Sharlot Hall Museum. The completion of the collection comes at an opportune time, as the Fort Whipple Museum reopens July 8.  

Worcester began volunteering at the Research Center in 2019. By fall of the same year he had taken the L&A Collection Processing workshop, which is held annually. One of the main goals of processing a collection is creating a collection-specific finding guide. A finding guide to a collection is what a key/legend is to a map, giving a patron the information they need to decide if a collection worthy of a deeper look.  

L&A is proud to announce that Worcester has completed the processing of this wonderful collection and its finding guide. This is quite an accomplishment as this was his first time processing a collection and he did an excellent job! Worcester’s outstanding finding guide will soon be available to the public on the SHM L&A website. In addition, L&A obtained an archival supplies grant through the Arizona Historical Records Advisory Board (AHRAB), so this collection would be properly housed and preserved for the future.

The collection materials span from the Fort’s inception in 1863 to the most recent 2021 donations. The collection includes nine boxes of materials covering the history, correspondence, government documents, publications, newspaper articles, events, photographs, maps, and oversize and panoramic photographs of Fort Whipple.