GREAT FALLS – Elevator doors open up to the top floor of the History Museum in Great Falls, where overflow and large items not on display are stored, and an entire corner of the room was filled with recently acquired filing cabinets.
Executive Director Kristi Scott opens up a drawer filled with photographs and pulls one out that was included in a story written in 1985.
“His name’s Robert Warden, at the time he served as editor and he’s working with Joseph Kinsey Howard who was The Leader copy editor in 1940,” Scott said. “And that was just opening up a drawer.”
The History Museum recently acquired over 20 filing cabinets filled with newspaper files and several boxes with photographs and photo negatives from the Great Falls Tribune in a massive effort to preserve the records after the Tribune building sale was finalized and everything needed to go.
Owen Robinson, who retired from the city commission at the end of last year and has had continued involvement with the museum, reached out to editor Grady Higgins nearly two years ago after the “For Sale” sign was placed on the building.
“When I saw that sign, that’s absolutely the first thing that came to mind, ‘Oh, I hope there’s a plan for the files there,’” Robinson said.
Robinson coordinated with Higgins, who said at the time it was too early and that the files were still in use in some cases but to stay in touch.
After the sale was finalized in November, with New City Church preparing to move into the space, there was only a brief window of time when the museum could come in and take the files.
Robinson worked with five former Tribune reporters, including the museum board’s vice-president Peter Johnson, who knew where all the files were stored, what was important for preservation and how they were sorted.
“It was a short deadline, so at least we knew what we wanted,” he said.
Museum staff had to clear a large area on the third floor, no small task according to Robinson and Scott, where the files would eventually be stored.
Scott said it is going to take years and resources to understand the filing system and catalog everything received in the donation.
“We do have all the Tribunes from way back and all the Leaders from way back, and you can get now a lot of things online from old newspapers, but they’re just the story,” Robinson said. “This is some of the background for the stories that are not in the stories, and so from a researcher standpoint, this has been saved. This would have been lost — now, it’s saved.”
Robinson said these files won’t be available to the public for a while but the museum will work to have at least part of it available as soon as possible, but clarified that people can’t go back and dig through the files themselves.
Scott said people would be able to request what they would like to see and an archivist would find it and bring it out through their research center.
The museum has applied for a state grant to help raise funds for improvements to better store historical artifacts, including those donated by the Tribune.
“I can’t thank Owen Robinson, Kristi Scott and all involved at the History Museum enough on this,” Editor Grady Higgins said. “And I love that we have some former ‘Tribuners’ like Peter Johnson and Rich Ecke involved in the process as well. With us looking for another office space in town conducive to our staff, it wouldn’t have been realistic for us to hang on to all of the historic materials we had. And the museum has the staff with the experience to care for it and eventually make it presentable for the public for years to come. It was a win-win for all.”