St. Croix Landmarks Society
Library & Archives

 

The Library and Archives began modestly in the late 1960s with approximately 150 donated books about St. Croix and the Caribbean that were helpful to the mission of the Society. The original library was housed in the Director's office which, at that time, was in the plantation carriage house.

In the late 1970sabalo the present library building was constructed to house and protect the growing number of books. Both books and the Director's office were moved to this location.

1982 brought a donation of a major collection of books and papers from Rachael Armstrong Colby. In October 1983 Barbara Hagan-Smith started as the Director of Landmarks Society. Two of her first actions were to use extra funds from a National Endowment for the Humanities collection cataloguing grant to have the Colby Collection and all the rest of the Society's books catalogued and, to move herself out of the now "library" back into the carriage house where there would be more room for other staff.

Finally in January 1986, the honorary became official with the employment of a professional librarian, Carol Wakefield. And, in the ensuing years she literally created a
thriving library out of a "pile of books". .

Almost immediately she opened the library to researchers on a regular daily basis and made herself available to the public for research assistance. She began to develop strong community outreach programs. An active acquisitions program was instituted for St. Croix, V.I., and Caribbean materials. The Library Committee was founded during this time. In addition to the normal horary activities, the Librarian was pressed into becoming involved in the research and development of many short term exhibits at the Museum. These included a Plantation Exhibit, a Fritz Henle retrospective, a Map exhibit, and an exhibit on the windmills of St. Croix. Thus photograph and map collecting was emphasized and expanded in the library.

In 1987, impressed with a program in Georgia in which a former colleague was involved, Mrs. Hagan-Smith encouraged Mrs. Wakefield to start a similar project called Vanishing St. Croix. This photograph preservation project was started at an early Starving Artists Day. Community members were urged to bring their personal photos of St. Croix to be copied (photographically) on site during the event. The originals were immediately returned to the owners and the copy negatives and future prints remain-i, with owner's permission, for use by the library. Also, in the late 1980s, the Library was benefited by the work of a Danish-American historian and anthropologist, Dr. Svend Holsoe, who while on Sabbatical, began the organization of the manuscripts and archives of the Society.

Early in the 1990s the Library received a $12,500 challenge grant from two trustees which was matched by the Carlsberg Foundation. These monies were stretched to buy major equipment such as a generator to provide 24 hour climate control, a copy machine, and a microfilm reader printer. A small reading room was built to relieve the now cramped space. And, the remainder of the funds were spent on acquiring microfilm of St. Croix information from Denmark and providing microfilm of a few of our collections to Danish repositories.

In 1992, at the urging of the Library Committee members, a vigorous Family History (genealogy) Program was begun with the hope that this might re-involve the local population in the Society thereby promoting it as the community organization that it strives to be. Three years later an annual Family History Workshop/Lecture series was begun.

The Library was changed to the Library & Archives when, in October 1996, Barbara Hagan-Smith resigned as Director of the St. Croix Landmark Society and was rehired on a part time basis to be the Archivist of the Society. Active solicitation of personal collections and business and organizational archives was begun. Within a year the dilemma of what to do with the once again "bulging seams" was solved with donations from several mends of the Library that brought a major expansion. This time the old cistern below was converted to a closed stacks and photo copy area by installation of compact shelving and an interior staircase. Mr. Sam Harris, an Historical Architect and Engineer from Philadelphia, was "convinced" by the Mrs.sabalo Hagan-Smith and Wakefield to come to St. Croix in the middle of winter and help with the design and logistics of the project.

Finally, late in the 1990s, as a result of the V.I. Historians' surveys and family history researchers' need for church records, the L&A started a Records Preservation and Copying program. St. Patrick's in Frederiksted was the first church to agree to the idea. Since then other churches have joined and the program has expanded to include the Government's Vital Statistics for St. Croix

The new millennium has brought new collections and increasing numbers of researchers. These have created the need for immediate planning for the future expansion of the staff and physical plant. Already a part time Assistant Librarian has be hired to help with overwhelming Family History and researcher needs. A special Library endowment has been started with designated donations.

The constant concern about traditional non-income producing library programs has brought expanded outlets for sale of reprints from the photograph collections. In addition, a revolving fund that provides ready cash for income producing projects, has been established. Already this revolving fund has supplied the monies to print a series of notecards using the old photographs. These are now being sold throughout the Island and soon will be available on this web site. Copies of old maps are being sold and a publications program is in the air.

St. Croix Landmarks Society Library & Archives 52 Estate Whim Frederiksted, VI 00840 (340) 772-0598
SCLS-Library@StCroixLandmarks.org
Last modified on: April 11, 2008