Award Ceremony Honoring Archivist Shan Thomas Set for August 20 in Mineral Point, WI
MINERAL POINT, WI — [August 14, 2025] — The Mineral Point Library Archives (MPLA), a community cornerstone dedicated to preserving local history for over 45 years, has been named the recipient of the Wisconsin Historical Society Governor’s Award for Archival Achievement. The award will be presented to Archivist Shan Thomas by Abbie Norderhaug, Deputy Director of Collections & State Archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The public ceremony will be held at Mineral Point Library Park on Wednesday, August 20 at 1:00 PM. (If inclement weather, the event will be held in the lower level of the Mineral Point Library). Free tours of the Archives will follow the ceremony.
This prestigious recognition celebrates a transformational four-year effort led by Thomas to bring the MPLA to national archival standards, ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of Mineral Point’s rich and diverse historical record.
“This award recognizes the dedication of so many people—past and present—who have contributed to preserving Mineral Point’s legacy,” said Shan Thomas, who has served as archivist since 2020. “It’s an extraordinary honor, and one we share with the entire community.”
A Local Archive of National Significance
Mineral Point’s story is as layered as its limestone bluffs, shaped by Cornish and Welsh miners, African American settlers, immigrant entrepreneurs, frontier women, farmers, artists, and civic leaders. The MPLA preserves and tells these stories through 135 collections encompassing over 10,000 photographs, 225 maps, architectural drawings, oral histories, diaries, and family papers.
The Archives began in 1964 with a donation of 136 personal letters between President Woodrow Wilson and two Mineral Point brothers, David Benton Jones and Thomas Davis Jones—classmates and confidants from the Princeton Class of 1879. A second foundational gift arrived in 1980 from Bob Neal, local preservationist and co-founder of Pendarvis Historic Site, whose collection included maps, photographs, papers, and volumes on regional history.
Over the decades, the holdings grew steadily with subsequent acquisitions including, the Allen Ludden Papers, the Civil War Letters and Diaries of Sidney Shepard, the Women’s Club Records (founders of the Library), the Iowa County Fair Records, the Dr. Lawrence Graber Papers, the Early Family Papers (a freed black man and his children), and numerous smaller collections, diaries, oral histories, maps, and architectural plans. The MPLA also became the repository for records of permanent value of the City of Mineral Point.
Once housed in the basement of the Library, in 2012 the Archives moved to a renovated top-floor space, but lacked formal organization or trained oversight—until Shan Thomas took the helm.
A Four-Year Transformation
A professional archivist trained at Oberlin College, Thomas brought expertise from her previous role as Director of the Luther College Archives. Under her direction and with support from Library leadership, the MPLA was completely reorganized:
- Collections were properly arranged, described, boxed, and inventoried
- Modern finding aids, accession logs, and policy manuals were created
- Digitization efforts expanded, with metadata standardized using Dublin Core
- A newly designed website is being developed to share digitized images and media online
- A reference library of 534 volumes was cataloged into the South West Library System
- New archival storage systems and flat files were installed
- Hundreds of research queries are answered annually, serving local residents, national scholars, and family historians
In addition to preserving documents and photographs, Thomas has curated a growing permanent collection of original artwork by Mineral Point artists, now on display throughout the Library. With 97 works by 51 local artists, this visual archive celebrates Mineral Point’s long-standing role as an arts colony and cultural hub. The collection has become the “Museum of Mineral Point Art” within the Library—dedicated to honoring the town’s remarkable artistic legacy.
Today, the Archives are open 12 public hours per week, 52 weeks a year, totaling over 600 staffed hours annually—an effort that is effectively doubled thanks to the dedication of a skilled team of volunteers. The Archives support local storytelling, historical scholarship, architecture research, and cultural institutions including Mineral Point Historical Society, PBS, Wisconsin Historical Society publications, and Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts.
Event Details
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 | 1:00 PM
Mineral Point Library Park (next to the Mineral Point Library, 137 High St.)
Free and open to the public. All are welcome to celebrate this achievement.
This award not only honors the work of Shan Thomas and the MPLA but also affirms the value of local history and community memory. Join us as we recognize this important milestone in Wisconsin archival preservation.
