A Rose by any other name…

December 12, 2024 Posted by: Matthew Brittin
In September of 2023, the GGNRA Museum Program employees went on a field trip to the Petaluma Historical Society Library; a small building constructed during Rockefeller’s philanthropic years. We met with Solange Russek, a former maintenance employee at the GGNRA for over 30 years, who now works with the Petaluma Historical Society managing their museum objects. She just received the uniform collection of Anita Rose, an Army nurse once stationed at Letterman General Hospital on the Presidio of San Francisco in the 1960’s; Solange thought the park’s Museum Program might be interested. What happened next some may describe as fate or luck (some may even believe it’s a lie) but archivists and researchers will know it is real.
Serendipity is defined as the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. Archival serendipity, though close in definition, is accidentally finding what you were looking for, or what you did not know you were searching for, in the archives. It’s not always instantaneous, it might happen when you aren’t trying. It’s not fate, because finding things in the archive is not inevitable, it’s not luck because it won’t bring good or bad to a person. Archival serendipity is passive, it’s being in the stacks and unexpectedly uncovering a piece of evidence no one knew they wanted or needed. 
The GGNRA’s collection is currently the third largest in the National Park Service. The sheer magnitude of the collection often suggests we must know who was on these lands and in these buildings but… we don’t. The Army, as a branch of the U.S. Government, is a fully functioning bureaucracy often characterized by how adept it is at creating paperwork with its own lifespan and path. When the Presidio closed, records went multiple directions. The truth is we can better tell you where and when a sewage line or roof was installed, and possibly even when maintenance was performed, but we don’t know who built it, lived under it, or used it.
So, getting a name and some items like those of Anita Rose, is amazing. All the people who processed through here are often just voids and now one of them can be plucked from the darkness and brought into the light. When a name appears the rhetoric question is asked, “Is it possible to find more about this person in one of the millions of other pieces of archived data?” The archive’s staff will run the name through the collection database, but getting a hit on the search is often confined to data management of their predecessors. The limited time and personnel mean we can’t do a deep dive into the stacks, so we’ll continue with our job, content in just being able to add one more name to the “Who’s Who” list of soldiers or civilians once here (but secretly annoyed we don’t have the time to go through the many documents or newspapers for a name).
Almost six months from the first visit to Petaluma, the full Anita Rose collection was transferred to the park (as some items stayed on exhibit for Veterans Day). The Museum Advisory Committee, which decides if an offered collection falls within the GGNRA’s Scope of Collections, was discussing the Anita Rose collection. I was listening to the discussion, still kind of in awe about getting to put a name to one of the many forgotten faces. I excused myself, because I was busy searching the collection for an upcoming “This Day in History” post.
At the rare bookshelf, I was skimming the Letterman Fog Horn Newspaper Collection (GOGA 18197) from the 1940’s for a specific date then I got distracted by the shelf below my search. The shelf is home to a second “newer” set of Letterman Fog Horns ranging from 1959 to 1986. They all look the same, a sea of blue books with gold letters swimming across them. I happened to pull out a volume, simply because it did not have a catalog card sticking out of it (it was the second copy of Volume XXI – XXII in this collection). As I thumbed through, the book laid itself open at an advertisement page between editions. A photo caught my eye, I figured maybe I could use it for a different “This Day in History” post. I read the caption hoping to find a usable date, it was discussing the promotion ceremony for Letterman staff members, including Anita Rose.
A newspaper image of Letterman Staff
It is hard to describe the feeling…. A pause… then an instant double check… then re-read to confirm I just read “Anita Rose.” I have thoughts of disbelief… because there is no way this is real, right!?
At first, we had a name, and a chance to say “yes!” according to our collection we have heard this person was here. But now, in my hand was this picture and story of a day in her life. We can now cross reference her materials to the Letterman Fog Horn Collection and say with deeper conviction “Anita Rose was a nurse at Letterman General Hospital, and here is additional evidence.”
I read the caption again excitedly, still kind of bewildered. Maybe it’s spelled wrong, I thought, or I read it incorrectly? But there it is. As if for one second the needle and I were all in the same place, unobstructed by the proverbial haystack, and I simply plucked the information from the air.
Archival serendipity is part of the mysterious nature of an archive. It is a reminder to not feel discouraged when you can’t find what you were initially looking for. Also, it’s a confirmation that the way collections are cataloged, stored, and documented comes down to individual interpretation. Finding things may be difficult, possibly accidental but, by taking the time to explore and re-explore the archival collection it seems to remind us; “don’t worry, it’s here, you’ll find it eventually.”  

ArchivalSerendipity, GGNRA, Letterman, LettermanGEneral Hospital, ANC, ArmyNurse Corp, WAC, WACC, GoldenGate, Presidio, PSF



Last updated: December 12, 2024

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