University of the Pacific’s archives will soon have upgraded storage units to better preserve its extensive collection of manuscripts, books and artifacts, and improve access to material for student researchers and others.

The National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded Pacific a $350,000 grant to cover a large portion of the improvements.

“Pacific’s diverse collection provides an invaluable look into Californian and American history going back more than a century,” said Niraj Chaudhary, dean of the William Knox Holt Memorial Library and Learning Center.

“Other items in our collection date back even further, including an indenture (a type of contract) from England in 1693 and a 15th century book from Spain. By making these essential upgrades to our archives, we are preserving history so it can be shared for generations to come.”

The Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives are housed on the garden level of the Stockton Campus library and are open to the public.

“If you think of Indiana Jones where there are dusty archives where nobody is allowed to go, it's the opposite of that. We're here to make this material available to everybody,” said Mike Wurtz, head of special collections and archives. “We want people to come in truly understand when and where things happened.”

The university’s archives are also accessible digitally. Tens of thousands of researchers around the world access the online records each year.

Founded in 1947, the archives maintain the world’s largest collection of works by renowned conservationist John Muir, known as the father of the national parks.

Another notable item includes a 4,000-year-old Babylonian tablet with a unique connection to the university. The tablet was sold to then President Tully C. Knoles in 1920 by Edgar J. Banks, one of the inspirations for fictional archeologist Indiana Jones. A scene shot on Pacific’s campus was included in two of the Indiana Jones’ movies.

Items such as the Delia Locke diaries, written by a woman who diligently recorded daily life in the late 1800s, provide an expansive window into life in the Central Valley at the time.

Archival material must be carefully stored with state-of-the-art fire suppression systems, temperature and humidity control and other measures. The upgraded storage units will replace aging storage, ensuring materials are properly preserved, improve safety for staff accessing items and provide quicker access to material for researchers, many of whom are students.

“Students use it from all disciplines,” Wurtz said, adding that it provides a unique opportunity for students to critically analyze the material they are researching.

“When you go into a library or museum, you're getting somebody else's interpretation,” he said. “When you go into archives, you're seeing what the person who actually wrote that material was thinking. You're going into the foundation of history and finding, ‘what did people really think and say?’”

Installation of the new storage units will begin in the processing room in spring 2025 and in the archive room over the summer.