The Clair Global Archives website makes selected historical materials available online while the company develops an 8,000-plus-square-foot physical archive.
Clair Global has launched the Clair Global Archives website, a public-facing collection documenting 60 years of the company’s work in live-event production, professional audio and related technologies, according to ProSoundWeb. The site, at www.clairglobalarchives.com, provides access to selected historical materials and stories while a larger physical archive remains in development.
The online archive follows three years of work preserving records, equipment, photographs and stories from Clair Global and companies that later joined the group. Those holdings include material from Showco, dB Sound, MD Systems and Concert Sound, placing equipment development and touring-production history from several influential live-sound organizations in one archival program.
Archivist Joe Stolarick has been cataloging material, conducting interviews and researching the company’s history, ProSoundWeb reported. The collection encompasses equipment, business papers, engineering drawings, tour-related items, digital materials and personal records. Examples cited by the publication include 12AM horn prototypes and complete S-4 and Showco PRISM systems with their rigging.
Clair Global is also converting a former headquarters wing into a physical archive spanning more than 8,000 square feet across two levels, according to the report. The planned facility is to include offices, displays, a small library, meeting space, and processing and storage areas. It is still under development; no completion date or public-visitation policy was reported. Stolarick told ProSoundWeb that the effort is intended as long-term preservation work, with physical and digital records posing different care requirements, including specialized handling for textiles and film.
