Previous Artifacts - May 2009
Before
Rearranging the Records Collection
A constant concern for the museums is storage space. After receiving several donations of Minnehaha County Rural School archival records, it became clear that the basement of the Pettigrew Home & Museum was officially full and out of room. The museums also received a collection of framed photographs of the mayors of Sioux Falls. We were also out of room at the Old Courthouse Museum where our photograph collection is stored.
In order to remedy this problem, the collections staff decided that the strollers, sleds and baby carriages that were currently being stored in a room on the 3rd floor of the Old Courthouse should be moved to the attic. By clearing off those shelves, Minnehaha County and City of Sioux Falls government records that were currently being stored in both the basement of the Pettigrew Home & Museum and in the photograph storage room at the Old Courthouse Museum could be stored together and placed in this room on the third floor. The storage methods for our government records have also greatly improved. Several of the records were rehoused into archival boxes, and many of the books were shelved upright, supporting them more and making them
After
easier to access.
While moving the government records to their new storage room, it was discovered that we have many interesting items in our collection. The collection ranges in dates from as recent as 1993 to as far back as the 1870s. Some of the more interesting pieces include Records of Births, Deaths and Contagious Diseases, various Clerk of Court Records, and Extradition Warrants. While we have created a finding aid for our government records, there is still a lot of work to do. Some of the records need to be housed in folders, and most of the records still need to be cataloged, scanned, and entered into our PastPerfect database. If anyone would like to volunteer to help with this project, call the Collections Department at 367-4210.
