Project History

The MacJannet Legacy project began as an internship for my archives courses at Simmons College. I was shown 50 or so dusty packing boxes in the basement storage room of the Tufts University Digital Collections and Archives (now Tufts Archival Research Center) that had arrived from the MacJannet apartment in Geneva. The first phase of the project consisted of typical archival work, sorting through the boxes, arranging the papers and creating a document to describe what the collection contained. Images were chosen from the collection and added to the online image database. The Donald and Charlotte MacJannet Papers were now a part of the DCA (now TARC) holdings.

It soon became apparent that the collection was filled with valuable information, fabulous photos and interesting stories. The MacJannets themselves, their history, the events that shaped their lives and the people they touched, leapt from the pages and images contained within the collection. These could not be ignored. Inspired by the documents themselves, a second phase of the project began, to bring the ideas and the legacy to as many people as possible. The concept for the MacJannet Legacy site was born.

It is the aim of the project to explore the history of the MacJannets and the concepts they embodied through the sources found within the collection itself. Added to this information is the oral history provided by those who knew the MacJannets, or experienced one of the institutions they founded. I encourage any who visit this site to explore and discover the world of the MacJannets.