Hi everyone!
I’m excited to join the Visual Materials Section as an incoming Member-at-Large and to be more involved with the Three-Year Strategic Plan. I am the project archivist for the Jay T. Last collections and other print and ephemera collections at The Huntington Library in San Marino, California. The Huntington holds about 900,000 historical works of American and European prints, posters, and ephemera. I am currently processing a large collection of valentines and greeting cards, and by processing the collection I have discovered so much about Victorian social practices of expressing love, friendship, as well as disdain.
Prior to my role at The Huntington, I was an archivist for the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) at the University of California, Santa Barbara where I largely processed graphic art collections from multicultural organizations (Self Help Graphics, Kearny Street Workshop, Galeria de la Raza). I’m fortunate to continue to work with drawings, prints, and other graphic art forms in my career, and I am consistently learning more about the mediums with every collection I process.
As a first-generation Armenian American, I also understand how strong an impact our roles in processing rare and unique materials can hold on voicing cultural histories for underrepresented populations. I am eager to learn more about archival workflows practiced by colleagues and in discussing best practices for visual art materials that promote equitable and inclusive descriptive practices for access and discovery.
Mari Khasmanyan, MLIS, MA, VMS Member-at-Large (2022-2025), Project Archivist – Jay T. Last Collection, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California.