This paper addresses the challenges and offers potential aids to navigating trauma and grief in donor relations, from the perspective of an early career archivist. It explores these themes through the author's role as Processing Archivist at a community archive (Jewish Public Library Archives) and leans specifically on the author's relationship with a Montreal artist whose fonds is housed at the JPL-A. The presentation aims to dive into the trust building and difficult conversations that occur when pursuing legacy collections in which the donor is also the creator. By exploring examples of conversations with donors who are approaching end of life, or the families/colleagues of the recently departed, the author hopes to outline both the messiness of grief in the workplace and supports needed to aid in this process.
Lucy Pauker (Mon,) studied this question.