Margaret C. Norton

Margaret C. Norton

Margaret Cross Norton (July 7, 1891 – May 21, 1984) served as the first State Archivist of Illinois from 1922 to 1957 and co-founded the Society of American Archivists in 1936, where she served as the first vice president from 1936–1937 and president from 1943-1945. She also served as editor of the American Archivist from 1946-1949. Norton was recently recognized in the December 1999 American Libraries article naming "100 of the most important leaders we had in the 20th century" for her influence and forward-thinking for the future direction and scope of the archival industry.

Norton promoted the establishment of archives as a profession separate from history or library science and developed the American archival tradition to emphasize an administrator/archivist rather than an historian/archivist. She encouraged learning through experimentation, practical usage, and community discussion. While editor of The American Archivist she emphasized technical rather than scholarly issues, believing that these issues were more pertinent to the daily issues an archivist faced.

By stressing the legal authority of government records, Norton believed archives could gain funding and government support through educating potential users about the legal protection records could provide them. Her influence and writings within the field of archives remain, for the large part, unchallenged.