SALEM Ore.
Amid the old yearbooks, senior theses, reel-to-reel tapes and the plastic seal balancing a gold dollar sign on its nose, Mary McKay is in her element.
She is the first archivist at Willamette University, the oldest university in the West.
Since it was founded in 1842 it has become a trove of history.
“The most fun part of my job is you get sucked in,” McKay said. “You just get to explore and learn.”
Willamette only got serious about its past when McKay came on board a year and a half ago as its first real historian.
University Librarian Barbara Dancik said it was Willamette’s 150th anniversary that started school officials thinking about its history, plus the discovery of a box full of records in Eaton Hall during a remodeling project.
