Margery N. Sly, retired director of Temple’s Special Collections Research Center, has died at 68
She had master’s degrees in American history and library science, and joined Temple in 2010 to oversee the merger of its Urban Archives and Special Collections Departments.
Margery N. Sly, 68, of Haddon Township, retired director of the Special Collections Research Center at Temple University, former deputy executive director of the Presbyterian Historical Society, onetime coordinator of special collections at Smith College, adjunct professor at Temple, archives consultant, writer, church leader, mentor, and avid sailor, died Saturday, July 26, of cancer at the Samaritan Center at Voorhees.
Ms. Sly had master’s degrees in American history and library science, and she joined Temple in 2010 to oversee the merger of its growing Urban Archives and Special Collections Departments. For 13 years, until her retirement in 2023, she championed diverse and inclusive archives, and she told a Temple colleague in a 2017 interview that the center housed 500 separate collections from a wide range of local cultural, historical, social, and civic organizations.
“I think we’re unusual for our emphasis on documenting the people of the city, not just the leaders and shakers,” she told Temple Now news in 2022.
She was an expert appraiser and effective at setting collection policy. She courted donors and negotiated important additions and transfers.
One of her signature projects, “In Her Own Right,” culminated in a 2021 two-day virtual symposium that explored women’s activism from 1820 to 1920. It was the result of five years of research, collection, and digital production.
“I’ve been trying to document underrepresented populations,” she told Temple Now, “to make sure those voices are heard and to move away from the great white men theory of archives.”
She assembled and cataloged rare books, manuscripts, and photographs at Temple, and her collaborators included the Urban League, the local NAACP, the Nationalities Service Center, the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force, The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Zoo, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
She supervised a dozen library staff and mentored student assistants and volunteers. She handled big-money grant applications and taught a fall semester graduate class in archives and manuscripts at Temple for more than a decade.
Most recently, as an archive consultant, she worked with clients including the Vesper Boat Club and Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. Before Temple, from 1997 to 2010, she rose to deputy executive director of the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia.
Earlier, she was coordinator of special collections and archivist at Smith College in Massachusetts, and archivist at Clemson University in South Carolina. At Smith, she processed Gloria Steinem’s papers. At Clemson, she collected the records of Sen. Strom Thurmond.
» READ MORE: Ms. Sly talks about the 19th amendment in 2016
At the Presbyterian Historical Society, she assembled documents and traveled to Kentucky and North Carolina to supervise projects. Her sister Carol said: “Oh, the boxes she moved and the papers she sorted and put in order during her life boggle the mind.”
She was named a fellow of the Society of American Archivists in 2013 for “outstanding contributions to the archives profession.” She ran seminars and workshops, mentored SAA interns, and served as president of the society’s foundation board.
She was treasurer, vice president, and president of the Academy of Certified Archivists and was active with the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries, the Society of Georgia Archivists, and other associations.
“Margery is one of the rare individuals who can work with anyone,” a colleague at the SAA said in a 2013 tribute. “She fearlessly takes on even the most volatile situations and expertly diffuses them with humor and good sense.”
She wrote articles for the American Archivist, the Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists, and other publications. In 2013 and 2014, she was archival adviser for three episodes of the TV series Philadelphia: The Great Experiment.
She interned at the National Archives in Washington while in graduate school and worked for a year as a manuscript specialist at the University of Missouri before Clemson.
She joined Trinity Presbyterian Church in Cherry Hill and volunteered as an elder, clerk of the session, and church representative. She chaired the strategy committee and served on the finance, stewardship, and whole life giving committees.
She worked on projects at the Institute on Disabilities, and officials there said on Instagram: “Margery was wise and humble, with a wide curiosity, a passion for social justice, and a commitment to archives as rich repositories of lives and stories.”
» READ MORE: Ms. Sly celebrates 50 years of urban archives
Margery Neal Sly was born Jan. 15, 1957, in Kingston, N.Y. She was the oldest of three girls, and she shared her lifelong love of books with her sisters, Patty and Carol.
The family moved to Ridgefield, Conn., and she graduated from Ridgefield High School in 1975. She earned a bachelor’s degree in German and history at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., and master’s degrees at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1981.
She spent the 1977-78 school year at the University of Salzburg in Austria and sailed every year for decades with her family off the coast of Maine. She traveled to Greece, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, and more trips were on her agenda.
She liked to crochet scarves and baby blankets for friends, and read books and articles on history and science fiction. “She was the best-read person I know,” said her sister Patty.
She was a Girl Scout and later a camp director and sailing instructor. Her whole family followed baseball, and she was a fan of the home team wherever she was.
She lived in Audubon for a few years before settling in Haddon Township in the late 1990s. She was the acknowledged family historian, and her family came first.
“A committed and proud aunt to all five nieces and nephews, she made a point of connecting regularly around their interests,” her sisters said. “That she will be missed is a huge understatement.”
In addition to her sisters, nieces, and nephews, Ms. Sly is survived by other relatives.
A celebration of her life was held Sept. 13.