Tyler was especially drawn to the HiLS program after learning about the professional experiences offered in tandem with his academics and the immense network of alumni in archival roles across the country.
At an early age, Tyler Stump, HiLS ’15, discovered his love for history and set his ambitions on pursuing a career in the industry. After he earned his undergraduate degree in history from the University of Maryland (UMD) and transitioned to working as a teaching assistant in the UMD History Department, he began to look into continuing his graduate studies at UMD. After his undergraduate professors urged him to consider a career in archives, he landed a spot in the History and Library Science (HiLS) dual-degree program at the UMD College of Information Studies (iSchool).
Tyler was especially drawn to the HiLS program after learning about the professional experiences offered in tandem with his academics and the immense network of alumni in archival roles across the country. The program also allowed him to continue exploring history while learning about archives.
“I think it was getting the chance to see archives up close and talk to people who had actually worked in them that sold me on it after I started my grad courses,” Tyler remarked. “You get to work on the front lines of history; you help decide which materials get saved that’ll be used for historical research in the future.”
During his three years as a student in the HiLS program, Tyler worked in the University Archives housed within Hornbake Library on-campus. Here he received hands-on experience learning about and contributing to each step of the archival process, which he continues to apply in his professional work to this day. In this role, he was able to work on a number of projects, which included processing former UMD President, Harry Byrd’s, documents and adding new collections to the Library’s growing archival assemblage.
Tyler attributes much of his success in the field to his graduate professor, Dr. Ken Heger, who aided in Tyler’s understanding of records appraisal and his ability to collaborate well with processing archivists at his workplace, and to his mentor, Anne Turkos, whom he met while working in the University Archives. “She treated me like a colleague from the start, asking me my professional opinion on making archival decisions and helped me feel like I belonged in this field from the start.”
Today, Tyler is the Appraisal and Accessioning Archivist at the Pennsylvania State Archives where he frequently travels between PA government field offices and facilities to appraise records and transfer ones with historical value back to the State Archives. One of the most exciting and interesting parts of his work has been pulling old records out of mental institutions and prisons which are stored in basements, sheds, attics, walk-in safes, former morgues, and other strange and dusty places.
Not only did Tyler fall in love with archives at the iSchool, but he also met his wife, Andra, MLS ‘14, who is currently a digital archivist at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives. Whenever Tyler and his fellow Terp archivist are not hiking, playing video games, or spending time with their dog, Riley, he enjoys reading history books or historical memoirs, or running eight to ten miles a day.