Rehousing the San Antonio River Authority's Historical Records

FAIN: PG-50890-10

San Antonio River Authority (San Antonio, TX 78283-3966)
Karen Bishop (Project Director: May 2009 to October 2011)

Funding supports the purchase of storage furniture and preservation supplies to enable the consolidation and care of the agency's historical records. Materials include initial planning reports and blueprints for development of the River Walk area as well as early 20th-century photographs of housing conditions and flood control efforts in San Antonio's Mexican Quarter.

The San Antonio River Authority recently engaged a certified archivist to survey historical records in its possession related to the history of the region's relationship with its rivers and creeks starting in 1937. To create a true working archive, as the archivist suggested, we wish to preserve and better care for our historical items by removing them from staff offices and libraries that are along hallway walls or in meeting rooms open to external visitors. Our historical records are still referenced by staff as well as by historians, project partners, and researchers. The historical items need to be housed in a separate climate-controlled archive room with rules as to who can directly access the collection. To do that, we will need preservation and storage supplies, including horizontal shelving, acid-free archival boxes, and archival file folders.