Elaine McCluskey Stomber ’89 P’17 P’21

Elaine oversees College records management, coordinates College Archives and manuscript collection processing and digitization projects, supports the curriculum by collaborating with faculty using primary resources in the classroom, offers access and reference services to the Lafayette College community and researchers from around the US and abroad, develops exhibitions and College programming using historic collections, and manages the Lafayette College Web Archive. In her role as Archivist for the Lafayette College Queer Archives Project, Elaine is dedicated to identifying and documenting the voices of underrepresented groups in the College Archives, improving campus climate, and contributing to LGBTQ+ studies at Lafayette College. She is an active member in the Lafayette Libraries’ working groups for Digital Repositories, Exhibitions, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Elaine also serves on the Lafayette College Bicentennial Planning & Management Group, chairs the Academic Affairs Task Force for the Bicentennial in 2026, and is a member of the Scientific Committee for the Archives Nationales exhibition in Paris in 2026.

Elaine received her early archival training as an undergraduate student assistant in the Lafayette Library’s Special Collections & College Archives. Upon her graduation in 1989, Elaine served as Project Archivist for the College’s Marquis de Lafayette collections. She subsequently served as Archivist at the American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia, processing manuscript collections in the history of science and technology, as well as the Cloisters, the medieval branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Elaine returned to Lafayette College in 2000 as Project Archivist on the personal papers of American artist Howard Chandler Christy, the political papers of Pennsylvania state senator Jeanette Reibman, and the master print collection of NJ artist Helen Frank. In 2017, Elaine was named Lafayette’s third College Archivist. In 2023, she was appointed Co-Director of Special Collections & College Archives and College Archivist.