As a volunteers at the Austin History Center, my group and I processed the Margret Hofmann papers, a collection documenting the environmental movement in 1970s Austin. Known as "Austin's Tree Lady," Hofmann was both an influential member of the Austin City Council and a prominent citizen advocate, playing a pivotal role in the local environmentalist and peace movements. The collection includes political correspondence, reports, notes, clippings, and promotional materials that shed light on Austin politics of the 1970s and contribute to the understanding and context of the anti-war and environmentalist movements.
My group and I created an extensive appraisal report and processing plan, rehoused and processed the collection, and created a DACS-compliant, EAD-encoded finding aid.
The Hofmann Papers were one of my favorite collections to process, and my group was so inspired by Margret Hofmann and her dedication to environmentalism in Austin that we created this rap song, "Peace and Trees" (lyrics by the incredibly talented Justin Kovar), and accompanying music video. To get our audience excited about our collection, the video was used in our final Archival Enterprise class presentation—and our professor was a huge fan of our rap skills.
To learn more about Margret Hofmann and our experiences processing her collection, bask in the warm glow of this PowerPoint presentation.
