Tacoma’s Northwest Room has a new historian. Her job is to bring the archive into the future
Anna Trammell discovered Tacoma Public Library’s Northwest Room shortly after she moved to town. She was impressed, which isn’t really a surprise.
Trammell is an archivist and librarian. Maps, photos, manuscripts and old newspaper clippings are kind of her thing. Originally from South Carolina, she cut her teeth (and earned her master’s degree) at the University of Illinois before a job helping to bring Pacific Lutheran University library “into the 21st century,” as she puts it, welcomed her to the South Sound in 2018.
When she first ventured up to the second floor of the Carnegie Building downtown — tipped off by locals about the treasure that awaited her — Trammell recalled being blown away. Not just by how much history the Northwest Room had to offer — like the old city directories and century old postcards, she said — but by how willing and able the staff was to help.
Three years later, Trammell is tasked with overseeing the Northwest Room, its vast archive and some of those same people.
It’s a job rooted in the past, Trammell said, but also the future.
While the Northwest Room has long been cherished, Tacoma Public Library didn’t hire her simply to be a reverential caretaker.
She’s there, in large part, because of what she can help the Northwest Room become.
“It’s a very specific job, because I think it takes someone who has the vision to look at an incredible amount of material and information and be able to say, ‘OK, this needs to be accessible in this way; this needs to be accessible in this way; and this is what we’re missing in terms of in terms of the fullness of the historical record,” said Tacoma Public Library director Kate Larsen, who hired Trammell and welcomed her to work Feb 1.
“An important part of her work early on is to start filling those gaps.”
Although history can seem static, the truth is that meanings and understandings are constantly evolving while new pieces are being created every day. In a sense, the same is true of libraries, particularly as ways we access information multiply and how history is recorded shifts ever more digital.
Last week, Larsen said it’s a reality the 32-year-old Trammell has clearly embraced.
In addition to her most recent stint at PLU, Trammell’s career has included stops at institutions big and small, like the University of Illinois Archives Research Center and Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Urbana Free Library in Champaign County. Already, she’s learned to be as comfortable with a rare book as she is hosting a podcast or finding new ways to partner with the community to archive stories that might otherwise be lost to time, Larsen said.
At the Northwest Room, Trammell said, she’ll focus on preserving all the things that make it an indispensable resource — like the personal customer service — while also working to expand the collection and make it more accessible, particularly online.
“I think that people can be intimidated when they think about conducting archival research and looking through records and manuscripts. That can sound like an activity that’s maybe reserved for credentialed historians,” Trammell said. “So I’m really trying to find ways to break down those barriers and make it as easy as possible for people to see what we have and feel comfortable coming in and doing that research”
After the retirement of longtime Northwest Room historian Brian Kamens in 2019, there’s little doubt Trammell has sizable local shoes to fill. While her hiring was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Larsen, she now arrives as his budding replacement.
According to Larsen, Kamens was the heart and soul of the Northwest Room and is largely responsible for building the archive into what it has become. Change also brings with it the opportunity to re-imagine, and she believes it’s something Trammell is prepared to do.
Like all archives, the Northwest Room has voids and blind spots — whether is the amount of tribal history that it holds or the voices of historically marginalized communities that it’s missing, Larsen said. Trammell was chosen for the position in part because she’s shown the ability and desire to dig into these omissions and build the community bridges to fill them, according to the Tacoma Public Library director.
As you might expect from someone with a keen interest of the past and all the minor notes that helped shape it, Trammell said she views the job ahead as a long-term project.
Her first weeks on the job have been spent working to document and better describe everything the Northwest Room archive already has in its collection, which includes digging through a trove of files and dusty boxes in the library’s basement — only a fraction of which is currently available to library users.
To some, it might seem like an overwhelming endeavor.
Trammell, however, feels right at home — and happy to be there.
The local importance of the position isn’t lost on her, she said.
“I’ve just been so impressed by the reputation of the Northwest room,” Trammell said.
“I certainly take this role very, very seriously, and I feel really honored.”
