By Hannah Faberman, B.A. ’26, Classical & Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology
The U.S. government mandates that their records, ranging from birth certificates to agency documents, be catalogued and preserved for future generations. The records of Washington, D.C. are particularly complex, as Congress administered the District before the Home Rule Act of 1973, which established a popularly elected mayor and city council. As a result, D.C.’s records are spread between the National Archives and the D.C. Office of Public Records and Archives. The city’s archives require meticulous care at the hands of dedicated archivists, conservationists and related professionals.
On July 15, 2024, State Archivist and Public Records Administrator Lopez Matthews, Jr. Ph.D. discussed the D.C. Archives as part of the D.C. Mondays series organized by the Albert H. Small Center for National Capital Area Studies. Matthews is deeply immersed in D.C. history, serving as the Historian of the District of Columbia, chair of the D.C. Historical Records Advisory Board, and director of the D.C. Office of Public Records and Archives. His presentation highlighted his office’s unique responsibilities and how the mission to preserve government records will be enhanced by a new facility being constructed on the University of the District of Columbia’s campus.
According to Matthews, the fundamental objective of any archive is to preserve its collection for future use while making the materials accessible for public research. The new home of the D.C. Archives has been designed with these goals in mind.
The current archival facility, located at 1300 Naylor Court NW, was built in the early 1990s. Once the building opened, additional records that had not previously been part of the collection were discovered and stored there. The building consequently reached capacity in under a decade, and the collection has only continued to grow. In planning the new facility, a 50-year accession strategy has been mapped out to accommodate future growth. Once the new building is complete, D.C. records that are currently stored in other states (in spaces leased from the National Archives) will be driven back to Washington.
Matthews eagerly highlighted additional exciting amenities that will make the facility more accessible to researchers. The first floor will house relevant exhibits and a multi-purpose programming space large enough for 300 people. Research rooms will accommodate 40 people simultaneously, compared to the current capacity of just 3.
The new archival space will also lean into the digital world. Matthews, who created the archives’ digitization program, plans to continue the project with the help of a digital archive storage and preservation imaging lab.
Managing a working relationship with 92 D.C. agencies and handling numerous daily records requests is no small feat, especially with a staff of only eight. The D.C. Archives has made the most of its current facility, but the upcoming building on the University of the District of Columbia’s campus will provide the modern home it deserves. You can watch a video of this D.C. Mondays program below and browse upcoming talks on the museum’s website.
About the Author
Hannah Faberman is an undergraduate at GW majoring in Classical & Ancient Near Eastern Studies and archaeology. She is a member of the GW Wind Ensemble and Delta Iota Gamma, the first pre-professional fraternity in the country dedicated to the study of anthropology and classics.