Secretary of State Jason Kander this week marked the 50th anniversary of the 1965 State Records Act, which established the Missouri State Archives and Records Management divisions.
Both divisions are part of the secretary of state's office, and are responsible for managing the state's current and historical records, to ensure they're accessible to all Missouri citizens.
"The Missouri State Archives and Records Management provide an invaluable resource to researchers around the world and Missourians here at home," Kander said in a news release. "Whether you're looking for family or state history, or want to keep your government officials accountable, the Missouri State Archives has a wealth of documents to assist your efforts."
Kander noted a 1963 fire at the Jefferson State Office Building spurred the Missouri Legislature to review how the state managed its information and records.
Rep. Alex Petrovic sponsored the State Records Act, creating the Records Management and Archives Service in 1965.
The goal was to save the state money, time and space, Kander said.
Each state government agency was required to submit inventories of its records by the end of 1965, and soon more than 12,000 square feet of records storage space in the Capitol had been converted to office space. In just the first year, Secretary of State James Kirkpatrick reported the new section saved the state approximately $500,000 - the equivalent of more than $3.6 million in today's dollars.
Today, the State Records Center stores more than 391,000 boxes for more than 400 state agencies from across Missouri.
Laid end to end, the boxes would stretch 74 miles.
The Imaging Section has scanned more than 2.6 million images and produced in excess of 4,000 rolls of microfilm.
Thanks to modern digitization capabilities, three public databases have been placed online to aid researchers around the globe: Missouri Digital Heritage, the State Archives Death Certificate database and the Missouri State Penitentiary database.
The Local Records program was established in 1986 to improve long-term record-keeping at the local level, Kander's news release reported.
Local Records has conducted projects and consulted in all 114 counties and the city of St. Louis. The program has generated more than 71,000 reels of microfilm - preserving more than 122 million pages of records.
More information about about the Missouri State Archives and Records Management divisions' work, as well as their online databases, are available at www.sos.mo.gov/records.