The underground archives of Multnomah County are delightfully spooky. The long aisles are dark, and the lights set the scene like a Hitchcock flick. Footsteps echo, and sometimes music scratches out from a small radio in the corner.
There, boxes and books and, increasingly, hard drives, document the best and worst of this county: the signatures of Oregon’s first African American women voters, the sentences of murderers, and the licenses of marriages that lasted a lifetime. The plans for houses built, the deeds for houses bought and sold, and bought and sold again.
The Board of County Commissioners honored that history and its curators this week when it proclaimed October as Archives Month in Multnomah County. County archivist Terry Baxter said those early voter registrations are some of the most meaningful to him.
“The only way you can talk to the dead is through archives,” he said. “You want to make a connection. Find out why something happened, how it happened.” And he said he has seen that revelation many times in his 30-year career.
The idea seems to be catching on. People are asking for help referencing the archives more now than ever before.
“Our reference numbers are going through the roof,” he said. “We’ve seen almost all our numbers at the highest place they’ve ever been, with three months to go [in 2016].” And with the increased demand, the county is implementing an electronic system so people can access local records through an online portal.
“We expect that is going to significantly increase our reference numbers, which we’re excited about,” said electronic archives analyst Jenny Mundy.
“One of my favorite jobs in college was working in archives,” said Chair Deborah Kafoury. She said she wandered the stacks after hours, just exploring, reading the stories of the people in Walla Walla and eastern Washington state.
“Do you need a volunteer job?” Baxter offered.
“Yes, well, I know where I’ll be heading once my retirement comes around,” Kafoury said with a laugh.
Baxter encouraged people to attend the Oregon Archives Crawl this Saturday, October 8, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. hosted at the City of Portland Archives & Records Center, the Oregon Historical Society and Central Library.