Careers for Students of History

Profiles:

Jelain Chubb

Administrative Archivist
Missouri State Archives


"One of the most interesting and enjoyable parts of my job is working with our archivists to study and preserve a largely neglected historical resource, local government records: the first plat of a town chartered in 1809, slave freedom suits filed in territorial courts, documents that detail the history of St. Louis and its citizens from 1796. These records are important, not just locally—they are crucial to our understanding of regional, state, and national history. To have a part in saving them and making them available to researchers provides me with a sense of professional accomplishment and intense personal satisfaction."

 

 

Biography

A native of South Carolina, Chubb studied history and political science as an undergraduate at the College of Charleston. While researching her senior history paper on the bombardment and evacuation of Charleston during the Civil War, she became interested in the survival and preservation of the records she was using. This interest coupled with her love of history led to her choice of the joint M.A./M.L.I.S. graduate program at the University of South Carolina, concentrating in archives administration. In her graduate school training she had an opportunity to work with a wide variety of manuscripts and organizational records, but developed an enthusiasm and talent for working with government records. An internship at the Rocky Mountain Regional branch of the National Archives and her research for an M.A. thesis on the origins and history of the system of regional branches of the National Archives deepened her commitment to working with large government records series. After a brief interim position as a reference assistant at the South Carolina Historical Society, in 1994 Chubb accepted the job of local records archivist at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka. Four years later she moved to her present job as the administrative archivist for the Local Records Preservation Program of the Missouri State Archives, supervising the work of eleven field archivists throughout the state. In both positions she has had extensive responsibility for helping local governments identify and preserve their historical records. She has become an active member of the Society of American Archivists, the National Association of Government Archivists and Records Administrators, and the Midwest Archives Conference.

Last Updated: May 22, 2007