POWERGRAMS

20 For the archivists of Alabama Power, every day is exciting, because "we never know what treasures will come through the door," said Archivist Bill Tharpe. "Alabama Power has a long, rich history, and the collection reflects that." Knowing that bringing electricity to Alabama would radically change the future of the state, the company's third president, Tom Martin, asked general manager W.M. Walmsley to collect and preserve the company's early documents. "This was the unofficial beginning of the Alabama Power Corporate Archives," Tharpe said. "Martin was a man who both appreciated and understood the value of history," said acclaimed historian Leah Atkins. "He believed that those who studied the past would have a full view of every success and failure, and that clarity would help guide the company into the future." From 1921 through the late 1920s, the early corporate records were housed at the Magella primary substation. "From there, a portion, if not all, of the records were transferred to the corporate secretary," Tharpe said. In 1994, Alabama Power formally established the Archives as part of the corporate library, under the management of the corporate secretary. Archives was later merged with Records Management, until it became part of Public Relations in 2003. Today, Tharpe and Communications Specialist Erin Harney maintain the tradition of collecting and preserving the documents and artifacts that are instilled with the memories and stories of the company and its employees. Their work is comprised of a series of processes and procedures that are necessary to properly account and care for each piece that is accepted into the collection. Each artifact or archival document is given a unique number, called an accession number, that is recorded on the piece. Then, the accession number, along with any available historical information and a physical description of the artifact, is entered into a database. "The unique accession number is imperative," Tharpe said, "because it allows the location of each artifact or archival document to be tracked in the database. That way, when something is pulled for a researcher, used in an exhibition or is receiving conservation work, we will be able to account for it." "It is the duty of archivists to care for their collections with the idea of 'forever' in mind," said Tharpe, "so that each photograph, document and artifact in the collection will be available for research and corporate heritage for generations to come." HISTORY Night AT Museum TREASURES AWAIT VISITORS TO APC CORPORATE ARCHIVES by ERIN HARNEY • Photos by PHIL FREE Opposite page: Archivist Bill Tharpe inspects vintage APC equipment. Above: W.P. Lay's Loving cup, given him when Lock 12 was re-named in his honor, 1929. Left: Original board member Jonathan Worthington's leather- bound volume of ongoing APC construction projects, 1913.

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