“ Houston,we’ve got a problem, “might be the five most ominous words a NASA ground controller wants to hear, but in 2022, Historian/Archivist Glenn Diegel remembers hearing “The Clubhouse is on fire” and feeling just as awful.
The iconic 100-year-old Oakland Hills Clubhouse and all its historic treasures and the archives were literally burning to the ground. We will check in later in this article to learn the outcome.
Club Historians and Archivists are a rare breed. Some are professionals and some are Club volunteers. They will spend hours, days, years, tracking down a story or a vintage Club trophy. Here’s what one of the top professionals, David Normoyle has to say. “The most important thing to realize is that heritage is an asset for a Club that can be as important in attracting and keeping members as a golf course, a clubhouse, or the Membership itself. Just as every family has a story, as a Club, your heritage is your identity. The biggest challenge is getting decision makers — both members and staff — who don’t personally care for history to realize that a Club’s heritage is an asset to be maintained. By and large the Clubs we admire most are the ones that care the most about their stories.”
In case you think a professional’s view is somehow different from a Member volunteer, the Dean of Club Historian/Archivists, Bill Callan, has been at it for 40 years. He says, “Archives are a process, not a project. It’s beyond passion, it’s a need, and I saw the need.”
Callan helped establish and organize Olympic Club’s primary historical research files reaching back to 1860. His diligence went far beyond that, by establishing a detailed Mission Statement with clear objectives as to the organization, preservation and eventual display of the thousands of Olympic Club artifacts, photos, and written documents. He digitally scanned thousands of photos and documents and made a Procedure Manual for the History and Archives Committee. It outlined its purpose, principles, conservation, acquisitions, budgeting and even codes of conduct, helping a Club govern using actual data from the past. Bill has seen firsthand how the preservation and display of Club history creates a stronger bond between Member and Club.
Club Historians today usually have at least some archives to look after, even if they are spread out between different rooms, closets, basements or even bell towers. Step one is gathering everything together in one permanent location so you can get it organized and archived. Sometimes there isn’t much around, as Contra Costa CC found out a few years ago as they prepared for their Centennial. Undaunted, Club Historians Pam Thurston and George Godfrey scoured 100-year-old newspapers off site and discovered unknown golf course photos and even vintage movie film of E. Harvie Ward filmed at CCCC 70 years ago.
Once you’ve gathered everything, you need to digitize and archive it. It can be a big job, so that’s why MPCC hired Sully Hart to help. Hart had interned with Pebble Beach’s Neal Hotelling and MPCC needed someone with his skills. As Hart explained at a recent meeting of the Golf Club Historians of Northern California, there are a number of ways to scan and archive vast amounts of material. Hart organized the Club’s 1st Heritage Room, but he has been scanning paper archives and organizing them using Excel, because of its low cost and ability to use it as an easily searchable database. but he notes that there are other programs Archivists can use:
Omeka has a lot of capabilities but requires set up and web familiarity.
Past Perfect/Museum is relatively expensive and requires training.
CatalogIt! is easy to use and captures photos easily so it’s good for either historic photos or photos with images.
Forever.com is inexpensive and easy to use but has some limitations for big collections.
David Moore is a Professional Archivist (and Historian) and works with a number of significant Clubs. He uses ‘Past Perfect’ software adding, “so do 10,000 historical institutions.” He also uses Cloud based Forever.com for many clients, a program originally designed for photos, and he is familiar with Catalog!
As technology and software keep advancing there will be even more options. Artificial Intelligence programs like Google’s AI, could transform everything as well as new scanner systems like CZUR’s optical scanner. The future is bright for new ways to preserve history.
However, you choose to archive your material, consider making extra digital copies unless you are using the Cloud. Would it really hurt to copy the information onto flash drives and store them somewhere else?
In summing up, you might be wondering if there is a difference between Historian and Archivist. I asked Mark Larson of Allegheny CC that question. He is in the pantheon of respected Historians in the country and he said, “I do see a difference between the job of Historian and Archivist. From the very beginning at Allegheny, we broke down our mission into four components, 1) Preservation, (2) Acquisition, (3) Research, and (4) Presentation. Presentation is the retail side of the job, what the membership sees. The first three are all behind the scenes. I see the archivist role falling more under the Preservation function. The Historian has to be able to perform all four functions.”
Just how dedicated is Larson? He funds most of the acquisitions that go on display at the Club. His return is seeing the continued uptick in Member satisfaction every time a new historical display goes up or a new article of his is published. If you want a primer on researching sites, or finding vintage artifacts, see the recent NCGA article by Sean Tully. Don’t forget that your best source of old artifacts or newsletters might be your own Members. As Historian Charlie Hiemenz from St. Louis Country Club famously asks of his Members, “Don’t throw it away, throw it my way. “
And what of the famous Oakland Hills CC and the fire? The bad news is the 100,000 square foot building was destroyed by the fire. During the fire, several firemen led some staff members safely inside to recover some of the iconic artifacts, but many were lost. The best news was the digital archives all survived. Now, after four long years, almost to the day, the new five-word message is, “The new Clubhouse is opening!” History has survived and new chapters are waiting to be written.
Michael Jamieson has been the Club Historian at The Peninsula Golf & CC for 36 years. He was told in 1989 that there were no photos or Club documents, no archives and of course, no internet. He has now written 325 consecutive Club History articles and helped design a number of Historical Club Displays for the Clubhouse and his discoveries led directly to the Donald Ross course restoration. He founded the Golf Club Historians of Northern California to promote better sharing of Golf History.
