With 2026 marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, this year seems an opportune moment for reflection. To that end, the Board has chosen to make the Utah Archives Month theme “Home in the Archives.” Taken most literally, a home is a residence, but “home” can be so much more than that. “Home” can take on different meanings to different people and in different contexts. People sometimes become homesick while traveling, inevitably comparing the differences in their destination to the comfortable normality of their hometown.

On the flip side, immigrants may courageously risk it all to move to a new place where they have no familial support or knowledge of local customs, but nonetheless strive to build meaningful connections as they make a new home. For the displaced, home may be a place that they’ve lost or a place they’ve never physically been to and only know through stories. For others, home may not be their own house, but a place or even a person who makes them feel safe and comforted.

USHRAB invites cultural heritage organizations and individuals to celebrate this year’s theme In October by sharing the photographs, letters, postcards, scrapbooks, and other documents in your collection that show what “home” means to you. How you share is up to you: you can make posts on social media (be sure to use #utaharchivesmonth #archivesmonth #ushrab so that we can see your post and share it with our audience, too!), host events, create exhibits, or find other ways to invite your community to share records about Home in the Archives.