| Blog Post Published on: | 11th November 2022 |
| Title: | CPC's Archive: 2001 Article in Pine Needles |
| Lead Author: | Katie Shilton |
| Type of Blog Post: | cpc_archive |
Quite a few ghosts haunt the attic of the Circle Pines farmhouse, and I had the incredible experience of spending this summer getting to know them.
Most of the attic ghosts are, to be honest, figurative. But that didn't make the experience any less exciting. As the summer archivist intern, I read the letters of Pete Seeger, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Dave Sonquist. I stumbled upon the memories of long-ago campers, who even then complained about work projects and loved Lake Stewart. I found the remnants of plenty of angry board meetings, and also records of successful cooperation. And over everything hovered the ghost of Bill Knox, the man we have to thank for most of CPC's archives, preserved in his jumbled boxes and hundreds of newspaper clippings.
Sometimes, spending my days elbow-deep in other people's memories was a bit overwhelming. The sheer volume of boxes in the attic, as anyone who has poked around the farmhouse knows, was fantastic. But box by box I sifted and sorted, putting documents in order by subject and decade.
So for anyone who is interested in digging through the history of Circle Pines, there are now 7 organized filing cabinets full of letters, Pine Needles, board minutes, and folk operas, among other treasures. There's still work to be done on the CPC archives, but documents it contains are more accessible than ever before.
The short time I spent at Circle Pines and the sheer volume of documents to be sorted limited the amount I could do on this project. There remain a few things to be done. Here is a guide for the next person who tackles the archives.
The documents on the metal shelves in the middle office still need sorting according to subject and decade. It will be helpful if whoever does the sorting sticks to the same Organization method I have used two systems in one archives could be confusing! Also, a few filing drawers - the ones labeled "Historical" in the attic filing cabinets need sorting as well. Finally, the "Correspondence" drawer needs to be put in chronological order and cataloged.
The photographs we found have been sorted by decade, thanks to John Glass, and now need to be put into albums. We have several nice albums and photo corners so that the pictures can be taken in and out. Also, anyone who wants to tackle slides has their work cut out for them!
As things stand now, anyone curious about the documents in the PC archives will have to come to Circle Pines to explore them, as there is no comprehensive listing of what is here - only an outline. I would recommend cataloging first the letters held in "Correspondence", as it is the least descriptive subject heading. After "Correspondence", a listing of the other documents held here would be of great use to anyone looking for specific information.