Montclair Ambulance Unit Digitized Archival Collection, Montclair History Center

Founded in 1953, MAU has provided 70 years of uninterrupted emergency medical service to the people of Montclair. While it began as an all-volunteer initiative, MAU is now staffed by 45 paid, professional emergency medical technicians (EMTs), operates four ambulances, and its crews are on duty around the clock at their current home in the historic, former Walnut Street fire house.

In celebration of their 70-year history, the Montclair History Center partnered with the Unit to digitize and catalogue MAU’s archival and artifact collection to with the goal to document and preserve MAU’s fascinating stories so that they can be shared with the public.

MAU has changed with the times. When MAU was founded in 1953, only men were eligible to work on the ambulances! In the 1960s, when MAU faced staffing challenges, the "lady riders" stepped up to ensure that an ambulance got out the door when it was needed. Fast forward 70 years and it is now staffed by more than 45 paid, professional EMTs, more than half of whom identify as female or people of color.

As an intern under the collections manager at the history center, I worked with the ambulance unit to organize hundreds of photos, documents, and objects. I then digitized the collection using the history center's scanning tools, created metadata, and uploaded to the public-facing LUNAImaging platform. Finally, based on my work with the collection, I wrote, designed, and delivered a presentation about the Unit for the center's History at Home series.