On behalf of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, it is my sincere pleasure to welcome a new Archivist joining our team for 2025-2027. Cory Davis joins us after a competitive national call for applicants. While in Houghton, Cory will be assisting in regular archival duties, including reference and research support services, collections processing, instruction, and outreach. Our staff are so happy to have him join the team as we continue our mission, explore new projects, and strengthen access to our collections. Please take a moment to get to know Cory as he introduces himself in his own words. Welcome, Cory!
Hello, everyone!
My name is Cory Davis (he/him) and I am extraordinarily excited to begin my two-year term position as Archivist here at Michigan Tech. I am originally from Duluth, Minnesota, and I received my Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 2015 from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. After graduation, I spent the next two years working in Duluth while I figured out the next step, during which time a friend of mine suggested Library Science to me as a potential career path. I looked into it and discovered that it would be a perfect fit for me, with archival work being especially attractive and exciting. In September of 2017, I began my graduate studies with the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During my time as a student there, I worked as a graduate assistant at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and the Music and Performing Arts Library. I also completed a practicum digitizing and editing archival video at WCIA-TV, a local CBS news affiliate for Champaign County, Illinois. I graduated from the University of Illinois with a Master’s of Science in Library and Information Science (MSLIS) in May of 2019. Upon graduation, I returned to my hometown of Duluth for family reasons and spent the next few years working different jobs. In February of 2023, I started my first full-time archivist position at the University of Minnesota-Duluth as Project Archivist, a limited-term position in which I created and carried out digitization plans for the photographs and film reels from the Hartley Family Papers. The next year, I moved to California and became the Manuscripts and Special Collections Coordinator at California State University-Sacramento, eventually leaving that position in December of 2024.
One of my great interests within the field of archives is audiovisual preservation, especially as it relates to legacy audiovisual media. This interest carries over into my personal life, as I am an avid music and movie aficionado with an extensive collection of CDs, vinyl, DVDs, and Blu-Rays. I am also a musician myself, having been a guitar player since I was twelve years old and involved in numerous bands and music projects over the years. I am very happy to be able to return to the Midwest and continue to pursue my interests and further develop as a professional archivist in the Great Lakes region I know and love. Call me crazy but I will take a -20 degree cold snap over a 110 degree heat wave any day of the week. As my dad always says, “You can’t shovel heat.”
For more information about our programs and services, or to stop by to meet our new colleague, please call the archives at (906) 487-2505 or e-mail us at copper@mtu.edu. The Michigan Tech Archives can also be found on Facebook: Michigan Tech Archives and Instagram: michigantecharchives.