Challenges and solutions of processing PBB manuscript collections

Michigan farm families and community members affected by the 1970s PBB tragedy are a marginalized group. Until this collaborative effort, almost none of their records or related collections were processed and available to researchers in archives, resulting in their story being largely forgotten. Archivist Marian Matyn will discuss collection challenges including: personal privacy issues versus the desire of families to make their stories available for public research; trust issues after the unanticipated destruction of records tracking the health of farm families; and fears their records will be destroyed in the future. The collections document physical and mental health issues of families, bankruptcy, loss of farms and reputations, herd illness and destruction, frustration and anger, and how the State of Michigan and third parties lied, withheld facts, and blamed the farmers. Families and individuals retained documentation without archival advice. Marian will offer suggestions for archivists documenting and processing similar events.<br><br><br><br><br>