American Archives Month Employee Spotlights - Laurie Austin
Name: Laurie Austin
Job Title: Audiovisual Archivist at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
How long have you worked at the National Archives?
20 years as a staff person, longer if you count my internships!
What made you interested in being an archivist? Why did you want to work at your Presidential Library in particular?
In graduate school, I had the opportunity to do two separate internships at the Kennedy Library. Mentors like James Hill and Allan Goodrich taught me how to use analog equipment like motion picture film viewers and reel-to-reel audio. That opened my eyes to how cool AV materials are, and how important they can be to telling stories of our history. I worked in the AV archives at the Kennedy Library, both as an intern and later a staff person, for about 16 years. Then the opportunity arose to switch to the Truman Library. I welcomed the chance to move to another mid-20th-century President whose administration was so important and did so many things to influence where we are today.
Give us an overview of your job. What are some of your responsibilities?
I'm an archivist that specializes in audiovisual materials: photographs, sound recordings, and moving images. I handle all aspects of working with this material, from receiving new donations, taking preservation measures, organizing and describing, digitizing, and putting it online, and helping people find materials relevant to their needs. My inquiries tend to come from the news media, production companies, curators creating exhibitions, documentary filmmakers, podcasters, authors writing books, and members of the public who admire President Truman and want to know more about him.
What’s the strangest thing that’s happened to you in this line of work? What’s the best?
The best times are when you're on the hunt for material that seems elusive but after connecting the dots to various clues, you actually do locate it! Given the nature of archives, we are not always that lucky. A good example of that is when author Matthew Algeo was writing his book When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art, he was doing very in-depth research on Mr. Truman's vacation in France, which led up to meeting Pablo Picasso. We had photographs that showed Mr. Truman taking home movies on that trip, and Matthew wondered where the footage was. I looked and looked in our holdings and could not find any evidence that it was ever here. So I started to think, if not here, where? I contacted our National Park Service friends over at the Harry S. Truman Home, and it turns out they have exactly one film in their collection—Mr. Truman's footage from that trip. When they brought the film over to the Truman Library to watch, it was a very good day.
What’s your favorite fact about the President for your particular library?
Music is important to me, so I love that Mr. Truman played the piano, and that he was quite a good musician.
You’re having dinner with the President of your library. What restaurant would you take him to or what would you cook? What artifact would you ask him about? Why?
I would not dare to cook for President Truman because I am not a good cook. I would take him wherever he wanted to eat! The artifact I would ask him about is the Purple Heart on display in the Korean War exhibit in our museum. It is a poignant item, sent to Mr. Truman from William Banning, a broken-hearted parent of a Korean War soldier killed in action. I would want to know how Mr. Truman felt when he received it and what his reaction was. Mr. Truman, being a combat veteran himself, would have an insight into war that other Presidents didn't necessarily have. Would he have wanted to talk to that soldier's parents? What would he have told them if he could talk to them?
If you were making a movie about your President, what would the tagline be and who would you cast? Why?
The tagline would be "The Buck Stops Here," and it would star Cary Elwes because Princess Bride. Obviously.
What's your favorite document, and why?
My favorite archival item is the home movie footage that President Truman took himself after he was given a movie camera from the White House News Photographers. The film that was produced from that day is an absolute treasure! You can read more about it in this Unwritten Record blog post.
What advice would you have for someone interested in a career in archival work, or how would you convince someone to consider a career in archival work?
My advice would be to try to find internships, volunteer work, or jobs that will give you experience in the different aspects of the work, and take as many tech-related library science classes as you can. So much of our work is information management, and being comfortable with digital platforms, working with large amounts of data, and feeling comfortable with different kinds of digital files will get you far. But don't forget, at least for 20th-century archives and earlier, that you must feel equally comfortable working with analog materials. Find ways to get experience handling as many different materials as you can!
Lastly (and most important), why should people visit or learn more about your Presidential Library?
We recently renovated all of the exhibits at the Harry S. Truman Library, and they are spectacular! It is well worth your time (and you will inevitably feel like you need more time) to visit them. Hopefully you'll get a sense of not only who the Trumans were, but all the ways that Harry Truman's Presidency have shaped the globe since the end of World War II. Things like the Cold War and our relationship with the then-Soviet Union, establishing the United Nations and NATO, hostilities in Korea and its aftermath, and the atomic age—they all have their roots in the Truman Presidency.