As a current student in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, working in the Queens College Library to process the Helen Marshall Papers over the past 5 months has been an invaluable learning experience for which I am incredibly grateful. Helen Marie Marshall (1929–2017) was an American politician and community organizer who served in the various elected positions of New York State Assemblymember, New York City Councilmember, and Queens Borough President between the 1980s and mid-2010s. 

This collection has proven to be robust in scope and diverse in content, covering a wide range of historical events, social issues, and political eras throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. While the magnitude of this project posed practical challenges of adequately preserving, arranging, and describing the records, its vastness also provided amazing opportunities to view these archival traces of Marshall’s life and legacy from a variety of angles.  

Composed of 35.75 linear feet of records produced between the 1920s and 2014, the Helen Marshall Papers document Marshall’s role as a community activist and elected official in New York City and State politics. The collection includes correspondence, project files, subject files, certificates, campaign ephemera, photographs, and audiovisual reels. Additionally, the Helen Marshall Papers include personal materials that chronicle the immigration story of Marshall’s Guyanese family. Overall, this collection reflects Marshall’s principal concerns of racial justice, women’s rights, public libraries and parks, health care, and senior citizens.  

I am honored to share the completed finding aid for the Helen Marshall Papers with the Queens College community and beyond. The collection can be accessed by emailing Special Collections and Archives at QC.archives@qc.cuny.edu to schedule an appointment. You can also learn more about the collection by registering for the “Virtual Show and Tell” taking place online on September 19 from 4-5pm.