Smithsonian archivist hired for UO Libraries position

Jennifer O’Neal, who has Oregon roots but has served for the past four years as head archivist at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md., will join the UO Libraries this fall.

O’Neal was selected after a national search as the UO’s new Richard and Mary Corrigan Solari University Historian and Archivist. She will begin her new job Sept. 4.

The UO Libraries’ historian and archivist manages the University Archives program, and is in charge of the acquisition, appraisal and administration of permanent materials in various formats.  O’Neal will succeed Heather Briston, who left the UO last year and now serves as the head of public services for library special collections at UCLA.

O’Neal, a member of The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, was hired in July 2008 as head archivist of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Her parents and extended family live in Oregon.

O’Neal received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and a teaching certificate from Utah State University. She received a master’s degree in library science from the University of Arizona. She is completing a doctorate in history at Georgetown University.

Before taking her current position with the Smithsonian, O’Neal was archivist at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Treaty Affairs in Washington, D.C., and previously held archival positions at Princeton University and the University of Arizona.