Kautz Family YMCA Archives

Few social welfare organizations are more highly revered than the YMCA. Founded in England in 1844, the organization’s archives reflect a rich history of innovation, service and Christian values. Its archives—10,000 books and bound journals and 3,500 cubic feet of manuscripts and photographs—are housed at the University of Minnesota. Skimming through these materials, one finds the YMCA’s contributions to American life, including inventing basketball and volleyball, teaching English as a second language and pioneering in night schools. The archives include tens of thousands of pages of first-hand accounts of YMCA “secretaries” establishing YMCAs in countries from China and India to Mexico and Peru. (Historians at the University of Minnesota view the records of China as the “best that survived in the modern world.”) A keypunch card file on 26,000 men and women who served with the Y in World War I provides an invaluable genealogical tool.

Andrea Hinding, Professor and Curator of the Kautz Family YMCA Archives, recognized the need for a preventative measure to halt the pervasive decay of most archive originals from the wood pulp paper era that began in the late 1880s. She estimated that nearly 15 percent of the entire collection was too brittle to be handled and a majority of the collection could be lost within 50 years. For Hinding, stabilizing the collection and preparing for the YMCA’s sesquicentennial in 2001 was a top priority. Deacidification was the most cost-effective and secure method of preserving these vital historical texts. Hinding’s strategy was to treat the entire collection as an artifact.

“The archive is a direct physical link to the past with tremendous emotional, physical and cultural value,” Hinding says. “Every technological breakthrough that comes along is hailed as a preservation panacea. Regardless of how technology advances, however, the original will always have its place.”

“The same can’t be said for digitization, for instance," she continues. “We don’t know that it is a preservation medium. We know it improves access, but we don’t know that it is a medium of permanence. We must be cautious and preserve originals first.”

Despite the YMCA support for deacidification, several concerns surfaced. For the first time in its venerable history, portions of the archive would have to be shipped off-site for treatment. Another concern was damage to source originals, such as running ink. Despite these issues, an independent preservation consultant confirmed that deacidification was a safe and effective way to preserve the archive.

Weighing these risks with the overall benefits of deacidification, the YMCA decided to undertake the process in 1999.

The process
Through the support of the YMCA, the University of Minnesota turned to Preservation Technologies and its Bookkeeper method to deacidify The Kautz Family YMCA Archives. The University somewhat reluctantly shipped its archives to the Pittsburgh-based Preservation Technologies (PTLP) in locked plastic totes. The totes were banded together in stacks of 16-24 and labeled for easy tracking and reference.

“As custodians, we are natural skeptics, so we were very apprehensive about shipping our documents for deacidification,” Hinding notes. “Too many horror stories from early microfilm and other forms of preservation hardened us.”

In partnership with the YMCA, PTLP was able to develop a methodology to successfully treat the entire collection, even some of the most brittle documents. The Bookkeeper process, which uses no solvents or heat, did nothing to compromise the integrity of this already brittle collection. In fact, PTLP performed several deacidification sample runs to build YMCA’s trust in the validity and effectiveness of its treatment system.

The results
The project, slated for completion by mid-2001 at the latest, has been a rousing success to date. PTLP treats 48 cubic feet/week of records and 400 books/week. All source documents are returned to the University of Minnesota in the same order and same container, ensuring accurate and efficient assimilation into the main archive.

Hinding says she couldn’t be more pleased with the results to date. “We have been very impressed with PTLP. Our materials have been returned to us even better packed than when we shipped them in the first place. They have treated all our rare and fragile documents with great respect.”

Emboldened by the success of the project, Hinding’s ultimate goal is to preserve the entire collection as a gift to the YMCA—and a treasure for the 22nd century.

“We are giving the 22nd century a relatively intact body of work from the 19th and 20th centuries. Not many records from an institution as important as the YMCA might survive to the 22nd century. This collection is a history of our world culture and heritage—a very important collection for posterity.”