SITKA, ALASKA
“I don’t want to stick us into thing where we’ve got to be in there in twelve months and we have to be operating, unless we know what it is we’re going to be operating.”

State Museum curator Bob Banghart couldn’t be more clear: There is no timeline for re-purposing the Stratton Library. The building is right next door to the Sheldon Jackson Museum, which is also owned and operated by the state. The 19th Century octagon is in excellent shape but, like many museums, straining at the seams.

Linda Thibodeau oversees the Division of Libraries, Archives & Museums. Thibodeau didn’t initiate the effort to acquire Stratton, but it seems like a natural fit.

“This is an opportunity. The Sheldon Jackson Museum is very crowded and all their collections are not on display. No museum ever does display its collections. But this is a great opportunity, not for us to expand our size, but to expand our scope and the kinds of relationships we have in Sitka.”

It would all be so simple if the state were merely acquiring more space, but as Thibodeau suggests, there is more to this transaction – far more – than meets the eye. The state is stepping into the 130-year-old story of Sheldon Jackson College, which, though gone, is imprinted in the history of contemporary Alaska Natives, and echoes among the boarded-up buildings of its iconic campus.

Thibodeau and Banghart have begun the transformation of Stratton Library in a very un-bureaucratic way — by asking people what they hope to see happen there.

“Overall I thought it was a great beginning to an open-ended discussion. We didn’t go in there with a decision made about how we would use the Stratton Library, or what kinds of programs would, or would not, be entertained. My motto is, We’re considering everything right now and we want to be good neighbors and good partners with the campus and the stakeholders and the people that have an investment here,” Thibodeau says.

Bob Banghart says a woman at the meeting stood and showed a picture of her mother, an SJ graduate, and shared her concern that something important might be irretrievably lost as the campus moves in a new direction. Banhart says it is hard to put “a structure” around the significance of that moment.

“What was definitely on the table today was the level of emotional commitment – that’s the power of community. And if we’re going to be good partners, or good stewards of history, and involved with this community, we’re going to have to know how to use it. Not necessarily use it as a tool, but be involved with it so it’s effective, and that was what today was about.”

The physical records of Sheldon Jackson were temporarily moved to the state archives not long after the college closed three-and-a-half years ago. A third member of the state’s team, Jim Simard, is the head librarian of the state’s historical collections. Simard says the school’s archives were well-cataloged, and the state routinely responds to search requests.

 “The Sheldon Jackson archives material, which is about three-hundred cubic feet of paper material, covering the whole range of the history of the college, and then a small but significant photograph collection – those materials the state agreed to take responsibility for for five years. And they’re now on the shelves as part of the historical collection in Juneau, completely accessible by the public.”

Simard says bringing the archives back to the Stratton someday “will be a part of the ongoing discussion.”

For now, the state does not consider the Stratton fit for occupancy. Most of the work at the building will be on the physical plant, the roof, and the siding. These tasks will buy some time to consider the future at Stratton, but programming will guide any interior remodeling. Chief curator Bob Banghart says he and Thibodeau and Simard will be continuing to think about, and discuss, what will eventually happened at Stratton.

“It needs to resonate with the community, if it’s going to be successful, and we need to find out what frequency that operates on. So we have some research to do.”
© Copyright 1970, Raven Radio Foundation Inc.