Last fall, around the same time the national Executive Council approved a $25,000 architectural study for the Archives of the Episcopal Church, Patrick Duffy, its director, stopped by the facility located on the grounds of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest (ETSS) in Austin, Texas, on a rainy weekend. To his horror he discovered that the roof was leaking directly above where part of its irreplaceable collection is stored.

The roof has subsequently been repaired and timely intervention saved all but a small portion of the collection at least until the next crisis. The archives have outgrown their current location on the top floor of the seminary library. Mr. Duffy is also concerned that the ministry is falling behind in the race to make key documents available over the internet.

Council members toured the facility as part of their Feb. 11-14 meeting in Austin. Oversight of funding for the archives is supervised by council between General Conventions.

When created by an act of General Convention in 1845, the idea of designating an official repository of an organization’s records was uncommon. By getting such an early start, the Episcopal Church was able to compile an extensive collection of primary research material.

The archives contain perhaps the most comprehensive collection of documentation on loyalist life in the Colonies during the American Revolution, but much of the archive collection is relatively inaccessible because of storage constraints and a lack of indexing.

When council approved the architectural study last fall, it also decided to keep the archives at ETSS. Relocated to Austin from Philadelphia about 50 years ago, the archives currently lease space from the seminary. Council members saw the plastic sheeting which had been installed to protect some of the indexed shelves from the leak in the roof. The sheeting has been left in place because another problem has developed with the drain pipe gutters.

Irrespective of leaks, the main archival storage area is temperature and humidity controlled, but the off-site facilities are not. It costs $65 to deliver or retrieve a box of documents from the remote storage site, which is maintained by an independent company, said Mr. Duffy. Much of its holdings are still not indexed and therefore of far less value to researchers, he added. He said the staff and board are also trying to keep the collection compatible with the latest technological developments.

“All of the records need to be brought into the future,” he told council. “The system is already overburdened. Within five years we will have to stop collecting some new material.”

Steve Waring