National Archives & Research Centre, USA
From Sawiki
The Archives Department was created to collect, preserve and make available Salvation Army history in the United States. Originally sponsored by the Eastern Territory, the Archives merged with US National Headquarters in 1989.
The Archives holds thousands of photographs, videos, sound recordings, posters, scrapbooks and other materials, along with books, publications/periodicals about or by The Army. The materials are housed in a climate controlled environment.
The main collection is official Army business records, corps/divisional/territorial files and officer personnel records. Officer personal papers are also a key component of the collection, including Evangeline Booth papers, donut girl diaries and Alexander Damon diaries, which cover fifty years of Army insider information.
The Archives staff handles hundreds of requests each year for corps information, genealogy and general history questions. They provide materials for television documentaries, War Cry articles and authors writing books. The staff also indexed these files and materials via Lotus Notes called the Heritage Database, run by IHQ. They are creating a knowledgebase that will eventually be accessible to other territories and all Salvation Army museums.
Susan Mitchem is the Director of the Archives, she can be reached at archives@usn.salvationarmy.org or at 703-684-5529. The mailing address is The Salvation Army National Archives, PO Box 269, Alexandria, VA 22313.
