UMass Amherst Libraries Welcome Taelore Marsh, Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archives Archivist

The UMass Amherst Libraries welcome Taelore Marsh as the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archives (BFA) Archivist to the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center (SCUA). Prior to joining SCUA staff, Marsh was a research assistant and processing archivist at Duke University, where she contributed to the preservation and access of more than 1,200 oral histories on Jim Crow segregation. She received her certification in archival studies from Louisiana State University (LSU), further strengthening her expertise in archival preservation and access. As a graduate student in history at North Carolina Central University, she led an undergraduate class on oral history methodology and was awarded a teaching assistantship for the course Black Experience Since 1865. In her new role as BFA Archivist, Marsh will preserve and provide access to the historical papers of Black women and their allies, ensuring the stories contained within these collections are featured in coursework and scholarly research.

“Ms. Marsh’s passion for the BFA’s mission—for ensuring the voices and selves of Black women, femme-identifying women of color, and their allies are visible and heard in the historical record—is matched only by her talent. Dr. McClaurin’s vision for the BFA is bold and needed, and Taelore’s efforts to realize that vision will deepen SCUA’s reputation as ‘the archives of social change’,” said Dr. Adam Ware, Associate Dean of Special Collections and University Archives.

“An archive is a continuous journey, not bound by a beginning or an end, where stories unfold over time,” said Nandita Mani, Dean of University Libraries. “These stories highlight the connections people have—with organizations, each other, and their families. Taelore Marsh’s vision will guide and nurture these connections, steering the growth of the BFA as it evolves from vision to reality.”

Founded by Black feminist anthropologist, award-winning poet and author, past president of Shaw University, and higher-education leader Dr. Irma McClaurin, the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive documents the lives of Black women artists, activists, and academics whose wide-ranging contributions have driven social change and shaped local, national, and global conversations around critical cultural issues. The BFA acts as a living, growing resource for scholarly and community researchers and will function as a training center for Black archivists to participate actively in centering their own stories, to amplify historically silenced Black voices in the historical record, and to advocate for and protect the endangered legacies of Black women.