Ashley Miller recalls the exact moment she knew she wanted to become an archivist. She was in class when then–head archivist for the Penn State Libraries Jackie Esposito handed her a letter written by John Quincy Adams.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘Oh wow, this is so cool! I am literally holding a piece of history in my hands right now,’” Miller says.

After graduation, Miller ’16 Lib obtained graduate degrees in history and archival management from Simmons College in Boston and worked as the archivist, reference, and outreach coordinator at Concord Public Library in Concord, N.H., securing thousands of property and tax records, as well as archiving local newspapers on microfilm. “That was popular, as people were doing some genealogy and were looking up obituaries for local residents,” Miller says. 

In late 2022, she heard about an opening at New Hampshire’s State Archives, and emailed Secretary of State Dave Scanlan a note detailing why she would be an ideal candidate for the role of state archivist. Miller got the job in early 2023. She manages a 110,00-square-foot building and oversees the storage of historical records and documents filed by state agencies. The site holds confidential records as well as publicly accessible documents.

“I want people to come in and connect with their history, to learn about it, and to be able to hold that history in their hands and have that same feeling that I did,” Miller says.

One day, Miller would love to work as an archivist of the United States, running the National Archives and Records Administration, which, she says, holds “every manner of document from Civil War records to records dating back to the nation’s founding.” —Andy Faught