The Presidio Army Museum - Under New Management—the National Park Service Era
In the General Ralph E. Haines, Jr. Collection, the story of a Coast Artillery officer in the 20th-century is told through the illustrious career of Brigadier General Ralph E. Haines, Sr. (pictured, center), commander of the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco during World War II.
Golden Gate NRA, Park archives, General Ralph E Haines Collection, GOGA 35313.138
Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) Collection Processing
Museum processing of the Presidio Army Museum (PAM) collection began with the three-dimensional object collection in 1998. Archival processing began in 2005, and a second intensive phase began in early 2009. Collection materials that had been mistakenly separated were reunited by matching handwriting, names, faces, and formats of documents or photographs. A few months into processing, PAM donation records reemerged and information such as catalog numbers were used to further reunite collections. This process was aided by information uncovered during a survey of the military uniform collection. Objects and their associated archival documentation that had been separated for decades were reunited, highlighting to the GGNRA the significance of collections that had been previously unknown. Once research on donors (individuals who gave the collection to the PAM) and eminent figures (the individuals who owned and used the donated materials) was completed, individual collections were assessed for relevance to the GGNRA’s Scope of Collections. Anything that did not pertain to the park was removed from the GGNRA collection and returned to the United States Army. In January of 2011, once the assessment was complete, representatives from the U.S. Army Center of Military History came to the GGNRA to facilitate the transfer of the artifacts.
