Alan Haeberle
Archivist | Chronic Collector
"The study of the papers of Senators and Members of Congress is critical to our understanding of history. I am inspired by the words of David McCullough, who said, 'We need to know more about Congress. We need to know more about Congress because we need to know more about leadership. And human nature.'"
Work at HAI
Alan began at HAI in May 2021 as part of the team arranging, describing, and thoroughly processing the papers of a former member of Congress. He brings to this job knowledge and experience that comes from his time as an archivist in Congressional offices and working with legislative papers in academic institutions.
Path to HAI
Whatever work experience and formal education he has had, Alan largely learned and found his passion for working with archives and manuscripts while at Cornell University, editing a state-wide survey of historical records. Eventually he moved from editing and indexing collection descriptions to being a fieldworker, visiting repositories around New York State to survey and describe their varied and often fascinating holdings. At the National Agricultural Library, he led a project to process and create an award-winning finding aid/website for a large collection of records on agricultural history, from the 18th to the 20th century. After that, for close to 20 years, he worked as staff archivist in the offices of two U.S. senators and a Senate committee.
Alan received a bachelor’s degree in English from Cornell University, and a Master of Library Science degree with a concentration in Archives from the University of Maryland.