Washington University Libraries joins Ferguson collecting initiative​

Regional institutions working together to capture and preserve history

​An image from Documenting Ferguson,​ a shared resource in the Regional Collecting Initiative on Ferguson. (Click the image to learn more.)
​An image from Documenting Ferguson,​ a shared resource in the Regional Collecting Initiative on Ferguson. (Click the image to learn more.)

Washington University Libraries is partnering with a host of St. Louis institutions to work collaboratively in the gathering and preservation of materials that capture the story of events that took place in the St. Louis region following the August 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer.

The Regional Collecting Initiative on Ferguson aims to document the people and experiences that have shaped the movement for change in the wake of Brown’s death, and to make the collections broadly available in order to create opportunities for engagement and learning.

In addition to Washington University in St. Louis, participants in the initiative also include Harris-Stowe State University, the Missouri History Museum, the Missouri Humanities Council, Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“The work of libraries and cultural heritage institutions is often entrusted by their citizens to steward the intellectual and creative capital of their communities,” participating institutions said in a joint statement. “It is our hope that the people of the surrounding areas who are engaged in the creative and social justice work of this movement see our spaces as places that inspire confidence when entrusting their content to us.

“Joined together as a collective of institutions made up of individuals from different St. Louis communities, this collecting initiative exemplifies that we all have a stake in making sure that our individual and collective stories are represented in all of their diversity and complexity.”

The full statement is available online here. Organizations that may be interested in joining the collecting initiative can contact the group by submitting an online form.