Michigan Tech Archives Map and Blue Print Assessment 2017

FAIN: PG-252802-17

Michigan Technological University (Houghton, MI 49931-1200)
Lindsay Hiltunen (Project Director: May 2016 to June 2019)

A preservation assessment of more than 18,000 engineering drawings, tracings, and blueprints and 7,000 historical maps, as well as photographs, posters, and other illustrations documenting the early history and economic development of Michigan’s mineral-rich Upper Peninsula.

For over a century and a half, Michigan's "Copper Country"  was the center of the nation's copper mining industry, the rise and fall of which has left a rich historical and fraught environmental legacy. This history can be further illuminated through use of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections ("archives"), an archives with the largest and deepest collection related to this subject. A flat file collection composed of over 25,000 regional maps, engineering drawings, blueprints and surveys is currently undiscoverable and without condition descriptions. A preservation consulting firm will be engaged to develop a detailed assessment report that will form the basis of an internal action plan that will be used by archives' staff to produce a complete inventory, catalog and index of the collections, preserve the material for future generations, and optimize accessibility for the wide variety of patrons visiting the archives annually.