Washington State School for the Blind, a preservation pre-assessment of archives

FAIN: PG-263469-19

Washington State University (Pullman, WA 99164-0001)
Robert Schimelpfenig (Project Director: April 2018 to March 2022)

A preservation assessment of archival records and artifacts maintained by the Washington State School for the Blind, established in 1886, along with two in-house workshops on preservation methods. Comprising 250 linear feet of archival sources and 400 objects, the collection includes correspondence and books in braille, audio recordings in multiple formats, photographs and scrapbooks, newsletters, campus maps for the blind, Dictaphones, an Edison cylinder phonograph, braille machines, and other sources documenting the school’s history as well as the history of technologies used for educating the blind.

The Washington State School for the Blind (WSSB) Archives documents the 130-year history of the school and the students who lived there. These histories are preserved in scrapbooks, news clippings, photographs and student records. The evolution of technologies is documented through antique sound equipment, volumes of braille, and Talking Books on vinyl. With limited staff, the collections from one of the oldest schools for the blind in the Western United States remains hidden. We propose a preservation pre-assessment of WSSB’s collections. After that the WSUV Library Archivist, in consultation with WSSB employees, will develop a 5-year plan to begin making the history of WSSB visible for its students and the public.