Matt Blessing to Direct WHS Library & Archives

The Wisconsin Historical Society has announced the appointment of Matt Blessing, head of special collections and archives at Marquette University in Milwaukee, as the director of the Society's Library-Archives Division. Blessing, who formerly worked as an archivist at the Society from 1991 to 1999, will begin his new duties on Jan. 17.

Blessing has worked as an archivist for Marquette since 1999, overseeing some of the university's most widely used collections, including the original manuscripts of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" as well as manuscript collections documenting Catholic social justice movements such as Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker Movement. Part of his role has been to digitize significant amounts of material in the university's archival collections for Internet access, something that is also a priority at the Society.
--Bob Granflaten, Wisconsin Historical Society