Part one of a two-part series examining the history and progress of the Baldwin County Department of Archives and History.

Although the Baldwin County Archives, in its current form, is nine years old this spring, the concept for the facility and its mission has been decades in the making.

The idea that public records in Baldwin County could be housed in one central location, providing ease of access and better preservation, began in the late 1970s with a few concerned public servants and county residents.

Individuals like Tolbert Brantley, for whom the Archives facility is named, saw the need for ready access to documents produced by the offices of the Baldwin County government and stepped forward to begin the process that gained momentum through the next three decades.

This development culminated in 2005 with the building of the new archives facility, located off Courthouse Square in Bay Minette.

Brantley, who served as the county attorney in the mid to late 1970s, sowed the seeds of a dedicated archives building long before such a project was popular or capable of being funded. For that vision, Brantley was truly ahead of his time in paving the way for the department that now exists.

Once the idea was in place, the hard work of establishing the facility was underway, and a long and often rocky path to completion followed. The Baldwin County Commission, witness to a demographic explosion in the county, found itself in need of a better way to access information, and in turn, to put that information to use serving their constituency.

Alabama law mandates open access to public documents, just as the voters of Baldwin County demand access to their county government.

Requirements for public documents in Alabama

• Residents should always be able to see and receive a copy of public documents
• Public officials must create and maintain records that document the business of their office
• Records are protected from mutilation, loss or destruction
• Records must be kept in accordance with auditing standards

So what was the process that led to the creation of the Baldwin County Archives, and how has the County met the standards of record keeping mandated by the state? The answers to both queries centered around concentrating the combined output of county documents in one structure, which could ensure the future availability of the documents, while also providing more open access to government agencies and private researchers.

To further facilitate the process the Baldwin County Commission established a Records Management Board to determine parameters for gathering and preserving the county’s records.

Unfortunately, the Records Management Board was unsuccessful and was replaced in 1997 with a County Archives Study Committee, charged with ascertaining the feasibility of producing an archives department as a stand-alone unit of the Baldwin County government. After careful consideration by the Study Committee, legislation was sought through which the Baldwin County Department of Archives and History would emerge.

In 1998 the Alabama State Legislature responded by adopting Act No. 98-579, as amended by Act No. 2000-275 creating the department.

Next week, we will look at the progress made by the Baldwin County Department of Archives and History as it has grown over the past eight years.