Postcard view of University of Missouri-Columbia, ca. 1920
(University Archives)
History of the Archives of the University of Missouri - Columbia:
The University of Missouri Archives was established in 1969 as a centralized program to protect and preserve the historical records of the University of Missouri System. From its creation until the program was decentralized at the end of 1991, the University Archivist at the Columbia campus (with the assistance from the Associate Archivists at each of the other campuses) administered the historical records of the University System's four campuses as well as those of the administration of the University System. The historical records of the four individual campuses were placed under local authority on December 31, 1991 and an autonomous campus archivist was appointed for each institution.
From its inception through 1979, the University Archives reported to the University System's Vice President for Administration and from 1979 through 1991 to the University System's Vice President for Academic Affairs. Following the Board of Curators' decision to localize responsibility for the Archives program, the University Archives at the Columbia campus was placed under the authority of Director of Libraries of the University of Missouri-Columbia, where it remains today.
In June 2005, University Archives became part of the Division of Special Collections, Archives and Rare Books (SCARaB) of the MU Libraries at the University of Missouri-Columbia. For a short period from late 2016 through the middle of 2019, University Archives answered directly to the Director of Libraries before joining as a division in the Libraries with Special Collections and Digital Services, forming University Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Services (UASCDS). At the end of 2019, UASCDS was headed by an interim Associate University Librarian for University Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Services. In the summer of 2022, the Division was yet again reformed and renamed Special Collection and Archives, once more answering directly to the University Librarian.
The University of Missouri-Columbia Archives is authorized by the Board of Curators to collect and preserve the historical records of the University of Missouri-Columbia and the records of the University of Missouri System administration. The University Archives' primary responsibility is to preserve the official records of the institution it serves, but it also solicits and preserves private papers and organization records that support the history of the Institution and the University System.
Directors of the University of Missouri-Columbia Archives
- Ralph Havener, 1969-1990
- Nancy Lankford, 1990-1992 (interim)
- Martha Alexander 1992-1995
- Patricia Timberlake, 1995-1996 (interim)
- Michael Holland, 1997-2016
- Anselm Huelsbergen, 2016-2019 (interim), 2019-
