Preserving Our Proud Past

Nearly everyone owns at least a few treasures from their past – whether it’s some photos and ticket stubs in the corner of a dresser drawer or tubs of family heirlooms in the basement.
 

Children’s Mercy archives live in multiple locations

Children’s Mercy has historical treasures, too – boxes of paper documents, photos, plaques, statues, maps, nursing uniforms, quilts and more.

• In 2015, the hospital sent 66 boxes of paper records and 24 boxes of pictures to the LaBudde Special Collections at the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for safe storage. This part of the Children's Mercy historical archive is digitized and searchable by the general public.
  
  
• In 2020, the Children’s Mercy Library Services department took over responsibility for the overall Children's Mercy archives collection, including 3-D items, artifacts and important documents created from 2011 to present day.
  
  
• The Kansas City Public Library, along with Kansas City University, whose administrative offices occupy the 1917 Children’s Mercy Hospital building, have some Children's Mercy historical materials, too.

Children’s Mercy’s historical collection is considered exceptional. The photos, biographies, correspondence, promotional materials, scrapbooks and keepsakes reveal the earnest effort, exceptional dedication and innovation that brought us here. The collection inspires our future and shows the importance of documenting and owning our story.

Collection, cataloging continue

The Children's Mercy Library Services team is working to organize and catalog off-site materials while continuing to sustain and grow the archives by collecting current items. Librarians Heather Steel, MLS, and Kim Weir, MLS, are certified archivists, and they’re passionate about preserving – and showcasing – Children’s Mercy’s history.

Digital archive shares scholarly works

Children's Mercy Library Services’ current archival initiatives include SHARE@Children’s Mercy, the largest children’s hospital repository of scholarly work in the nation. SHARE is an ever-expanding digital archive of approximately 5,000 documents (and growing) created by Children’s Mercy-affiliated authors and researchers. Last year alone, people from more than 1,700 institutions in 152 countries downloaded over 25,000 documents.

“SHARE is useful to our own clinicians,” said Library Services Director Katie Dayani, MLS, AHIP. “It also plays an important role in building our reputation and attracting the best and brightest to Children’s Mercy. It increases the potential for collaboration and allows us to spread our knowledge with researchers and practitioners around the world.”

History relates to the future

“In any history of the Kansas City area, Children’s Mercy plays a prominent role,” said Katie. “Everyone at Children's Mercy should know our history, where we are, and where we’re going. The story continues, and we’re all a part of it.”