Renowned Archivist To Keep Harvard’s History

After over 30 years of record keeping under the hand of former University Archivist Harley P. Holden, Harvard will soon have someone new keeping its diary.

Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, currently the librarian and deputy director of Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library, will head eastward this September when she becomes the new Harvard University Archivist under Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba ’53, director of the University Library.

Verba says the University library has been searching for a new archivist for almost a year and chose Sniffin-Marinoff out of a broad pool of potential candidates.

According to her colleagues at the Society of American Archivists (SAA), where she serves as a council member, Sniffon-Marinoff is a nationally renowned leader in the archival field.

“Megan is what I would call the consummate professional,” said Brenda Lawson, an SAA representative who sits on the executive board of the Massachusetts Historical Society. “Harvard could have picked no one better for this position. I have never heard anyone say a negative thing about her.”

The Harvard University Archives collection, housed in Pusey Library, contains official administrative records, publications, theses, faculty papers and alum memorabilia—holdings that range from the 17th century to the present.

Mary Ide, the president of the New England Archivists association, explained that most companies and institutions have in-house archivists to preserve their records for future generations.

“The philosophy is that we’re responsible, whether it’s at the U.S. government or at Harvard, for maintaining and acquiring records of enduring value, whether it be electronic form, moving image or plain old paper,” Ide said. “Every institution will keep these records, and the future uses can be for historians, social scientists, writers and filmmakers.”

The Harvard collection consists of books, photographs and multimedia as well as an increasing amount of electronic records.

As more and more official University correspondence is conducted digitally with every passing year, archiving managerial records becomes increasingly difficult, according to Verba.

Sniffin-Marinoff takes up her position at Harvard at a time when the archival field as a whole grapples with the challenges of new technology—a mixed blessing, according to her colleagues, which has presented some unprecedented questions about the preservation of intangible digital materials.

“I look forward to the enormous challenge of leading the efforts to document Harvard’s history—challenges presented not only by yesterday’s paper records, but also by today’s electronic records.” Sniffin-Marinoff said in a University statement published yesterday.

Verba seems confident that she will rise to the challenge, citing her extensive credentials and familiarity with Harvard’s confusing structure.“The only organizational chart of Harvard University I’ve ever seen is at the Museum of Modern Art, painted by Jackson Pollock,” he jokes, adding that Sniffin-Marinoff’s tenure at Radcliffe will ensure she is comfortable in her new position.

According to the University’s statement, Sniffin-Marinoff will continue to guide unfinished renovations to the Schlesinger Library building during the first few months of her appointment.

“I will spend a period of time moving back and forth between the Schlesinger and the Archives to ease the transition,” Sniffin-Marinoff said in the statement.

In addition to both of those duties and her council position at the SAA, Sniffin-Marinoff serves on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Archives Advisory Committee and the International Council on Archives.

She is also the former president of the New England Archivists association, a group which organizes conferences and education opportunities for archivists.

Sniffin-Marinoff graduated with a degree in journalism from Boston University before receiving a master’s in history and a certificate in the management of archives from New York University. Between 1980 and 1994, she worked at Simmons College, first as an archivist and later as an instructor at the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Before starting at Radcliffe, Sniffin-Marinoff was the head of the Institute of Archives and Special Collections at MIT.

Lawson, who studied under her for several years as a graduate student, calls Sniffin-Marinoff a “professional mentor.”

“I think if you had a room of New England archivists, and asked who considers her a mentor, probably 75 percent of the people who know her would raise their hand,” she said.

—Staff writer Leon Neyfakh can be reached at neyfakh@fas.harvard.edu.