AARL

Obituary

Ian Maclean and Archives in Australia

In March 2003 Ian Maclean passed away in Brisbane. Ian was 83. He is regarded as Australia's first professional archivist, and a key individual in the development of the profession not just in Australia but internationally. He can be considered also the founding father of what is today the National Archives of Australia.

As a young soldier in 1944, Ian was appointed to be the first archives officer with the Commonwealth National Library. The appointment was seen as necessary to ensure that the records survived to allow the writing of the Official History of Australia's involvement in World War II. C E W Bean, the official historian of World War I, had been constrained by the lack of a comprehensive official record for his History.

Ian served as archives officer from 1944 to 1947 and then as chief archives officer from 1947 to 1960. In 1958 he was awarded a travel scholarship to identify best archival practice in Europe and North America. What he learned and adapted was to set Australia off on its independent and world-leading role in the archives and records management fields.

In 1960 the Commonwealth Archives Office became an independent entity separate from the library, in no small part to Ian's lobbying. It was appropriate that he became the first CEO of what is now the National Archives of Australia.

A little-known fact is that Ian invented what is now the standard archives box, with its integral folding lid and finger hole to allow easy storage and handling of files.

From 1968 to 1974 Ian was the SEATO archivist, living in Bangkok and ensuring that the archives of that important organisation were retained for posterity. On his return to Australia he was deputy keeper of the Public Record Office of Victoria in 1975 and then principal archivist of the Archives Authority in Sydney from 1976 to 1980.

It is correct to say that not only was Ian the founding father of the National Archives, but of the archivists' profession in Australia. His concern to integrate the disciplines of records manager and archivist in a holistic way anticipated the current broader professional push not just in Australia but internationally. And his concern to ensure that archives and records were described using the records themselves as the focus of research, rather then the internationally-accepted notion of the 'fonds' produced by a particular agency, was revolutionary. It provided a solution to the problem for researchers of tracing a function or series or subject at a time when administrative change was making the management of records very difficult. His ideas, developed by Keith Penny and Peter Scott at the Commonwealth Archives Office during the 1960s, became widely accepted in Australia and increasingly overseas.

The National Archives of Australia is now a robust and respected institution, headquartered in Canberra in a building that befits it status, and of which Ian was immensely proud. All the offices of the National Archives, its staff and the large numbers of researchers who use the records it contains owe an immense debt of gratitude to Ian's leadership and foresight.

Steve Stuckey, acting director-general
National Archives of Australia
April 2003