Greetings from Metro Archives!

Maybe you caught our newsletter and want to learn more about our work at our offsite storage facility on Elm Hill Pike (hereafter referred to as EHP). Or perhaps you simply stumbled upon this post and are now wondering, “What HAVE the Archives staff been doing?”

Have no fear—a blog post is here!

During the Main Library closure, Metro Archives staff have been hard at work at EHP, where about one-third of our records are stored. With plenty of processing, indexing, and transcribing projects on our to-do list, read on to learn more about what each staff member has been working on.

Darnetha, the Brain of the Archives and the Queen of Subdivision Plats

One of Darnetha’s primary projects while at our storage facility has been continuing a project that she’s been diligently working on at the library for over a year – digitizing our plat subdivision maps.

So, what’s a “plat,” you ask? It’s basically a map that shows exactly where your property begins and ends, and how it fits in with the land around it. These maps are created when land is split up into lots for homes or turned into public spaces like parks. Once approved by the city, they become the official record of that subdivision.

Plats are a goldmine for property research. One of the coolest things about them is that they’re usually dated from when they were first drawn up and approved. That date can help you figure out when a house was built—or at least get you in the ballpark.

With so many other items to be scanned, why these?

While you can get a copy of your plat map from the Register of Deeds office (and even on their website with a subscription), we’re scanning ours because they’re one of our most-requested records—and we can provide high-resolution scans with better clarity and detail.

We have thousands—possibly tens of thousands—of plat pages. Housing all those books and pages at the library just isn’t possible, but digitizing them makes access much easier. As part of Darnetha’s project, the plan is to move all the digitized books and plat boxes (each box can hold several books, depending on size) out to our storage facility, since space at the library is at a premium.

Wondering how to get a copy of your subdivision plat?

If your home is on a plat, you can request it here—we'll simply need your plat book and page number from your deed. Don’t have them? You can look them up on the Parcel Viewer or Property Assessor’s site.

See the photo below for where to find that info on a deed. Still stuck? Send us a request with your address and we’ll help you track it down.

What Else Is Darnetha Working On?

She’s also tackling a beast of a task—cataloging our yearbook collection so it appears in the library’s catalog. Not for the faint of heart! On top of that, she helps with patron requests, flattens original wills for Nina (the Ancestry staff member on site), and pitches in on our big re-organization of the building and administrative files that we're all tackling.

Shewww… and that’s just one staff member—there’s more to share!

Grace, the MVP 

Organize, Index, Label, Repeat! 

At EHP, Grace has been multi-tasking like a pro. Building on a solid index from our former chief, Ken, she’s dug deeper to itemize shelves in detail—giving us a clear picture of what’s housed here and paving the way for better organization.

This project continues her library work, where she created detailed shelf lists for our closed stacks, map drawers, and oversized materials.

But the theme of cleaning and re-organization continues through her other work where she has been moving and re-organizing the bound newspaper collection as well. And, from the photo you see below, she has also been wrapping the fragile Guardian Settlement books who sadly lost their spines along the way. With help from Kelley and our practicum student, Jill, their dates have been identified and written on the outside of the wrapping. 

Questions?

You might be wondering what Grace will re-organize next—if she gets to our desks and purses, we’ll have to put up a stop sign.

And if you’re asking, “What’s a Guardian Settlement book?”—it’s just what it sounds like: court records documenting the legal guardianship of individuals (mostly minors) and their finances. 

What about the bound newspaper collection? This is actually pretty intriguing. The collection includes primarily the Tennessean and Nashville Banner, but also several titles not found on newspapers.com—such as The Evening Tennessean (though there are some digitized), community papers like the Donelson News Diary, The Nashville Record and the Jeffersonian (which I’ll cover in more detail shortly), and many more. Grace’s current project involves organizing the papers by publication and browsing newspapers.com to determine which issues have already been digitized and which have not.

The Nashville Record and the Jeffersonian

Newspaper lovers and Nashville history buffs, let me introduce you to a gem I just discovered—The Nashville Record and Jeffersonian. While it skips the juicy gossip found in other papers, it’s a goldmine for government-filed historical data. Each front page features “Construction and Engineering Projects in Nashville and Middle Tennessee,” listing addresses, owners, architects, and contractors (when known). You’ll also find marriages, divorces, building permits, charters, new businesses, and my favorite—“New Comers,” which spotlights families moving here, where they’re from, where they’ll live, and even their professions.

If you’re interested in viewing it or any others (there’s many more), just send us a message!

Is that all Grace has been working on? Of course not! She’s also leading our administrative file review, pursuing professional development, and—most importantly—just became a certified archivist! She passed the exam with a high score, and we couldn’t be prouder to have her on our team.

Kelley, the GOAT

Several months into her role as Metro Archivist, most of Kelley’s work is now administrative (and keeping us in line—no small feat!). But once the emails are sent and archivists wrangled, she still finds time for other projects.

City Beautiful-Ness Scrapbooks

One recent project Kelley started is processing and indexing the City Beautiful Commission scrapbooks at EHP. These are packed with promotional photos for city clean-up efforts—like the delightfully quirky “Lively Dan, the Talking Litter Can” campaign (which really should make a comeback). They also hold gems like the scanned photo below of the old Elliston Place Soda Shop.

The date of the current scrapbook she’s working on is 1961. When we're able to digitize the images, we'll share a few of our favorites on social media. But here are a few of them now...

Before diving into the scrapbook project, Kelley joined Grace on the clean-up and re-organization front—dating Guardian Settlement books missing spines, clearing out excess microfilm drawers, supervising summer interns, and tackling countless other tasks that keep Metro Archives running like a well-oiled machine.

Sarah, the author of this post and cheerleader of the archives!

Last but not least, me. Well, one very obvious project that I’ve been working on is this blog post! But beyond that, there’s a few more. 

To start, I brought over the Jim Hagan Collection I began scanning at the library—a mix of Jim Hagan’s and Gary Layda’s photos of Nashville Network shows. I’ve shared some on our Facebook page to help identify people, with more “who is this?” posts coming soon. Here’s one of my favorite scans from this massive collection: Jack Hanna on Nashville Now with host Ralph Emery holding a sweet little tiger cub.

More Fire Department Stuff

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I may never reach the end of the Fire Department Collection. But progress is happening! I recently re-organized and indexed all the fire log books and even shared a few highlights on social media (check out last year’s blog post for more).

Next up: tackling either the administrative files or the negatives. Stay tuned—I’ll share more cool finds as they surface!

Mya, the Rock-Star Social Media Intern!

Until she left us to return to school, I also supervised our social media intern, Mya, this summer. Despite juggling two internships, she filled out our social media calendar through August—go Mya!

If you follow us (and you should 😉), you’ve likely seen her posts. Her most popular, a deep dive on Percy Priest Dam and Lake shared August 1, reached nearly 26,000 followers—clearly she knows what our audience loves!

On the Archival Horizon

What’s next? More re-organization and indexing—a never-ending task for any archivist! As we uncover cool items during processing and digitization, be sure to follow us on social media for the highlights.

Lunchtime naps are another important project at EHP. But working tirelessly on our projects has some side effects to our rem cycles. Head over to our social media pages this upcoming week to see the side effects! 

'Til next time, 

Sarah