Here we are in the room where they bring you the documents you request. Everyone has their own space and their own documents. See the cart full of boxes behind Craig in the back corner? You are not allowed to bring in any ink pens, notebooks, or loose papers unless they have been stamped by the archivists. I could look at Laura’s documents but only touch the ones I had checked out.
I spent most of my time scanning Mormon Battalion Pension and Bounty Land Applications. They had the greatest scanners there! It is VERY quiet in that room. I loved being there. I think the sense of earnest seeking, researching, and wanting to learn is palpable. Everyone is so intense about their research – nose in the books, bending closer to look at old handwriting so they don’t miss anything, stacks and stacks of index cards to keep track of things, often multiple cell phones to take pictures. Everyone was busy learning something. And the diverse types of things people are researching is intriguing. I met Karen S Needles who has been coming to the archives for 21 years to scan all the Federal Records created during the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, including the American Civil War. She does this on her own dime and puts them on her website www.lincolnarchives.com. She told me she has about a million done but there are many millions more to go! If that project piques your interest – she’s always looking for volunteers to help and… they can be remote.