What We Offer

We provide in-person or remote consultation on the beginning, middle, or end of archival projects in the following areas:

• Collection Development

• Collection Care

• Disaster Preparation and Relief

• Establishing Archival Collections

• Oral History Development

• Community Engagement and Outreach

• Digital Collections Sustainability

Our services are built on a framework that prioritizes a people-first approach to collecting and care of archival materials, and our approach to that work reflects an active resistance to racism, sexism, ableism, religious, class and gender oppression, and environmental harm. We understand that the histories of people of color, queer communities, working-class and under-resourced communities, religious minorities, and individuals with disabilities are missing from larger institutional repositories, and we prioritize projects and clients that could fill those gaps.

We have worked and collaborated with several organizations on Chicago-focused archiving initiatives and documentation projects, including the following:

• Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Oral History Project

• The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party Oral History Project

• Honey Pot Performance’s Chicago Black Social Change Culture Map

• The Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project

• The Jackson Legacy Foundation and Family Archives

Theories that inspire or guide our philosophy and practices are listed below:

• Archives in the Anthropocene by Purdom Linblad

• Being Assumed Not to Be: A Critique of Whiteness as an Archival Imperative by Mario H. Ramirez

• Call to Action: Archiving State-Sanctioned Violence by Zakiya Collier

• Combahee River Collective Statement

• From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives by Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor

• Implications of Archival Labor by Stacie Williams

• Rethinking Care Theory: The Practice of Caring and the Obligation to Care by Daniel Engster