Old Bristol Historical Society President Mark Ziarnik welcomes Alison Brislin, the groups new collections manager. (Photo courtesy Ed Kitson)
The Old Bristol Historical Society is pleased to announce that it has hired Alison Brislin as its new collections manager. Brislin will be replacing longtime society volunteer Chuck Rand, who stepped down from this role at the end of 2023.
The board received a number of applications for the position, but Brislin stood out for her experience with both archives and objects. Before entering the field of archival management, Brislin earned a Master of Fine and Decorative Arts from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London and went on to work at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses. She later moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a docent at the Eames Foundation and as a creative producer and art director for The Walt Disney Co. creating content for marketing materials.
Her work utilizing the vast archives at Disney sparked her interest in pursuing a second master’s degree in information studies.
In 2018, she entered the graduate program in information studies at the University of Texas at Austin with a specialization in archives and material culture. In addition to her course work, Brislin gained practical experience working as a research assistant to the curator and preservation and access archivist at the Alexander Architectural Archives.
In 2019, she received a fellowship and spent the summer working as a collections and archives fellow at Fallingwater in Pennsylvania.
After finishing her degree, Brislin was hired as assistant archivist at the Alexander Architectural Archives where she stayed for two years. Her most recent job was as lead librarian at the El Rito Library in El Rito, N.M.
Originally from the East Coast, Brislin and her husband Kyle recently made the decision to move to Maine. She says they were drawn to the state for a number of reasons, but primarily by its natural beauty and outdoors lifestyle. In her spare time, Brislin enjoys swimming, antiquing, reading, and spending time with the couple’s 15-month-old son.
She is especially looking forward to introducing him to the ocean this summer.
If anyone has materials or objects to donate or loan for scanning, email the Old Bristol Historical Society at oldbristolhistoricalsociety03@gmail.com.
