Ty Cunningham's Tracking History Project
 

Archives and Library of Tracking Research
 

I wish to add another facet to ISPT or in other words I wish to make available a project I have been working on for two decades for everyone to help me.

After years of trying to do this alone I now forward the idea and make it public to the general body of ISPT membership specifically and to the world of trackers generally.

I have been collecting and preserving tracking documents from as many sources as possible with the goal of creating a historical archive and research library of all things tracking. I believe that this archive and library should be found within ISPT and I will continue to collect and house these documents, materials, and tracking objects. If this sounds crazy, I guess I fit the bill. I am a history buff and tracking pack rat and yet I have not even tapped into the larger world of other trackers and researchers to also collect and preserve “all” primary source documents, unpublished manuscripts, maps, prints, audiotapes, CDs, LPs, cassettes, videotapes, and DVDs and published books (library style), etc. I need your help!

Let me take you to what I have been working on in this collection of historical tracking “documents” and now I need everyone’s help to preserve what we all do.

It will be called: ISPT Archive & Library of Tracking Research (ALTR)

This is what I am looking for and collecting:

1. ISPT Gathering documents, abstracts, etc.
2. Trackers Biographies and autobiographies (in history-PAST and now-PRESENT)
3. Organization biographies (Logos, copyrights, trademarks)
4. Tracking methodologies
5. Tracking genealogies
6. Tracking artifacts
7. Tracking certification processes and certifications
8. Tracking inventions
9. Tracking case studies (real case notes, photographs, crime scene,
   court transcripts, etc)
10. Instructors and companies past training records, attendance rosters,
    training schedules.
11. Written articles published and unpublished (magazines, journals,
    newspapers, etc.)
12. Tracking area demographics (Animals, man, soil, vegetation)
13. Global maps of tracking data in all parts of the world.
14. Manuals, curriculum, books, and movies of tracking
15. Tracking research projects and use in government, private, etc.
16. Tracking use documents and projects in search and rescue, tactical, combat, animal, mounted, research, others (media, Hollywood, etc.)
17. Tracking quotes and other studies.
18. Research collections in tracking
19. Animal tracks and photos
20. Tracks and plaster casts (animal and man) even big foot
21. Animal foot collection and preservation
22. Environment photos and track evidence (Snow, desert, jungle, northern forests, concrete, etc.)

I’m sure there will be other preserveable tracking materials of value that I have not included here or that will become present in the future. I think ISPT is the place for such a collection since we are the “neutral” world organization for all-things-tracking. What I need is everyone’s help to preserve what we do “all in one place”. Nothing is different from what I have been doing except all trackers around the world will be helping me.

If everyone would just send me a copy (original source) of what they are doing or find as they are doing-in some form of storage, i.e. paper, media, etc. If it is an invention make sure the invention is explained. Please give me your address and phone number for contact purposes. I will log, categorize, maintain, protect, and report of the status of “our” archives & library each year physically at the ISPT gathering and in the newsletter quarterly. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Ty Cunningham, CMST
Founder & Tracking Historian

ISPT Archives & Library of Tracking Research
P.O. Box 183
Cameron, MO 64429
816-977-8703
isptarchive@yahoo.com
 

Download the Tracker Biographical Questionnaire

(280KB PDF file)