Public invited to bring items, photos, stories to ‘Andrus for Idaho: History Harvest’ event at BSU

Idahoans are encouraged to participate in a two-day event this week that honors the environmental and political legacy of Cecil Andrus, Idaho’s longest-serving governor.

Share your ‘Cece story’: Boise State’s Andrus Center will host ‘History Harvest’ for book project

The Andrus for Idaho: History Harvest event, hosted by the Boise State University Andrus Center, includes several panel discussions and presentations from some of the people who knew Andrus best, as well as an “Antiques Roadshow”-style History Harvest, which encourages Idahoans to bring in photos, memorabilia, artifacts, letters and oral histories from Andrus’ time in office to have them documented and archived.

The two-day event will begin at 9 a.m. Friday and 9:45 a.m. Saturday at SPACE in Boise State University’s Albertsons Library, 1865 Friendship Lane on BSU’s campus. Both days of the event will go through the afternoon, and the public can join the activities at anytime throughout the day.

The Andrus Center is also looking for volunteers to help with the event, including set-up beforehand, guiding visitors and helping at informational stations during the event and tear down and archival work afterward. To register as a volunteer, fill out this Google form online.

As Idaho’s population changes and grows, Emily Wakild, the Cecil D. Andrus endowed chairwoman for environment and public lands in the School of the Environment, College of Arts and Sciences, said the event is a way to bring the state’s history to life — and to capture the memories and items related to Andrus’ political life before it’s too late.

Volunteers will be on-hand to scan photos, letters and other documents, while others will be available to record oral histories and personal stories about Andrus. Submissions large and small are welcome from Idahoans from all walks of life, Wakild said.

“Within our history circles there’s this recognition that there are silences in archives,” Wakild said in an interview. “And there’s ways that we can account for them, but one of the best is to do a community archiving event and just simply ask people what they want to have remembered. That itself articulates, I think, some of the really strong values of the Andrus Center, which are public dialog, public interaction with lots of different perspectives and public ideas about moving forward.”

Many of the people who worked with Andrus are aging, and organizers of the event hope to capture a more contextual picture of Andrus and his politics before they pass on, Wakild said.

“We especially want to get people that do have those memories,” Wakild said. “But we also want people that have been here 10 minutes — people that can say, ‘oh, I moved here. What’s it like?’ We want them to be curious about it, and come talk to folks and sit and listen to the panels and ask questions and engage with us. …We hope people from age 9 to 90 make their way over.”

The History Harvest event has also served as a jumpstart to a book project that aims to help retell and expand on Andrus’ life and service to the state and nation.

The book will feature chapters of narrative essays written by some of Idaho’s most notable officials and political insiders, including journalists who covered Andrus, staff who worked side-by-side with him, conservationists who helped shape his environmental policies and beliefs, and Idaho politicians who have followed in his footsteps.

“I’m particularly interested in the motivations of the people that worked around Andrus and for him. Or that didn’t, right, that weren’t his supporters,” Wakild said. “I’m interested in those stories, too, but we’re really interested in the kinds stories about the motivations and the really descriptive details about what it was like to be in the room with him.”

The event and book project interweave BSU student participation at nearly every turn, including the showcasing the work of the university’s design, history and film students.

“There’s a lot of real-life practice that goes into these skills of public history that we’ll be tapping into,” Wakild said. “We’ll have those students in the room.”