In the age of cloud storage and instant data access, it's easy to forget just how much history still lives in physical form. For many organizations, the past is more than something to simply remember, but something to preserve, protect, and occasionally put on display.
That's where company archives come in. From marketing materials and uniforms to one-of-a-kind artifacts, these collections tell the story of a company's journey and help shape its identity moving forward.
At their flight museum in Atlanta, the archives are more than a storage space. Housed inside the airline's original 1940s hangars (now a Historic Aerospace Site), the 4,000-square-foot archives hold everything from vintage travel posters and ticket jackets to bag tags, aircraft models, glassware, and even full simulators.
Then-Archives Associate Tina Seetoo put it best: "We get new material in every single day. When people call or drop by, I'm the person they talk to — and every item we receive helps tell part of Delta's story."
But preserving a legacy takes more than shelf space. As Delta's collection grew, so did the need for a system that could organize, protect, and grow with it. With the right design and the right partner, the airline found a way to elevate its archives, without sacrificing the space to keep collecting.
This is the story of how one company's heritage found a home, and what other company archives can learn from it.
Designing a Company Archive that Could Keep Up
The Delta Flight Museum may span 68,000 square feet, but the archives have just 4,000. That's less than six percent of the total space, but it's where the bulk of the museum's collection lives, gets processed, and prepped for display.
And over time, that space had become overwhelmed.
"Initially, they had all this wide-span shelving with boxes and boxes of stuff," said Gene Reilley, the Patterson Pope sales representative who handled the project. "They had so many great items, but they didn't really know the full volume of them. They had even more great stuff than they knew."
The existing shelving wasn't optimized for the kind of collection Delta had built. Uniforms were crammed into shallow cabinets that had been retrofitted with hanging rods. Archive boxes were stacked wherever there was room. And large portions of the collection, especially clothing, couldn't be stored properly (let alone accessed efficiently).
The solution had to do more than hold boxes. It had to preserve the integrity of the collection, improve day-to-day organization, and leave room for future growth. That meant stepping back, taking stock, and creating a new strategy from the ground up.
"The first task was to spend some time getting in there and understanding what they had," Reilley said. "Combining that analysis with in-depth conversations led us to a pretty good plan. Together, we came up with a storage system that worked within their budget and made space for what's next."
Building a Storage System that Fits the Collection (and Then Some)
Once the planning was complete, the new storage system for Delta's company archives came into focus: an 11-range mechanical-assist high-density shelving setup, customized to fit a collection as varied as the airline's history itself.
Seven of the ranges, each one stretching 42 feet, were dedicated to archive boxes. The remaining four were designed specifically for clothing, uniforms, and accessories.
"We alternated the shelving where the clothing and old uniforms are stored," said Tina Seetoo. "One cabinet has a single hanging bar with doors for protection. The next is open shelving, where we can place purses, shoes, or hats. And above everything, we've added extra shelving for overflow storage."
But the storage strategy didn't stop there. To accommodate everything from delicate artifacts to decades of documentation, the team added:
- Art racks for framed pieces and larger items
- 4-post shelving for archive boxes and loose materials
- Cantilever shelving for Delta's expansive book collection
- Rousseau drawers for organizing pins, wings, and china
- Textile racks for flags, banners, and specialty fabric items
Even with all of these upgrades, the system was built with expansion in mind. There's still space left to add four more ranges as the collection grows.
A Company Archives Success Story That's Ready for Takeoff
"When we get items in now, we know exactly where they're going to go and how they're going to help our collection grow," said Tina Seetoo. "That exactness, fostered by organization, has been huge. There are over 40 airlines under the Delta Air Lines umbrella. We have sections for different departments in different airlines. Before, we were just putting things wherever there was room. Now we've got space and structure. It's been a real bonus."
As the Delta Flight Museum looks ahead to the airline's 100th anniversary in 2029, it's clear the history of air travel is still being written. And thanks to a thoughtful, scalable approach to storage, the museum's company archives are equipped to keep pace.
"Working with Patterson Pope was great," Seetoo added. "They were flexible, met their timelines, and were always responsive — especially when we needed to make adjustments. That kind of follow-through really made the difference. We love the result."
Whether you're stewarding a legacy brand or managing a growing corporate collection, better archive storage design makes a difference, today and tomorrow.
Have a company archive that needs some lift? Let's talk. Contact a Patterson Pope representative today and see how we can organize your history.
