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State Archivist and Professional Impact[edit]

Norton accepted the position as Illinois State Archivist, but deferred her start date for more than four months to travel to the few archives that existed throughout the United States at the time. During her trip, she learned about the passive nature of the current American archives, and their practice to accept any records that were offered to their repository.. Previously an administrative clerk, Stiles presented a new organization of record keeping. He arranged his collections by provenance and prepared administrative histories of each Iowa state department to aid in his work. A combination of this work style and Norton's early experience with public records aided in developing "her regard for the legal and administrative values of the records of government and the importance of their arrangement by source." The availability of Hilary Jenkinson's Manual of Archive Administration "also confirmed Norton's theories on the "utility of governmental records and the importance of provenance."

As one of three divisions of the Illinois State Library, the Illinois State Archives reported directly to the Illinois Secretary of State and had a minimal assistant staff. Due to competition with the other two divisions, Norton often worked alone and faced budgetary restraints. While reorganizing and updating the archives, Norton discovered numerous historical and legal documents, including an 1823 Governor's letterbook explaining the chain of custody of a plot of land involved in a pending lawsuit. The information contained within this document was used to save millions of Illinois State dollars. In addition, Norton found other significant items, including an 1818 census record (when Illinois become a State in the Union), and records from the Illinois General Assembly during the time period in which Senator Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas were members. These discoveries demonstrated the legal and administrative value of archival records.

In 1934, the Illinois State Arsenal Building was destroyed in a fire. The need for a new archival building that could protect the invaluable records housed within became a priority for Norton. She lobbied the state legislature for additional funding for a new, secure, and safe Archives building. Norton successfully secured $500,000 in appropriated funds from the General Assembly and $300,000 from the Federal Public Works Administration. Designed according to Margaret Norton Cross' specifications,[19] the new building was "designed to protect the state's records of enduring value from the hazards of fire, humidity, heat, vermin, theft and exposure." At this time the Illinois State Archive building was only the third public archives building in the United States and during World War II, if an attack were imminent, the National Archives and Records Administration was prepared to move their most valuable materials to Norton's new building.

Archives as a Respected Profession

Norton became a well-known proponent for the promotion of the utilitarian value of archives.

"One might conclude from the report that the ideal archivist is a scholar sitting in a remote ivory tower safeguarding records of interest only to the historian. In reality the archivist is at the very heart of his government and the archival establishment is a vital cog in its governmental machinery. Archives are legal records the loss of which might cause serious loss to citizens or the government." -Margaret Cross Norton writing to dissent the verbiage put forth by the committee of archival training

Margaret Cross Norton was also a founding member of the Society of American Archivists, acting in a variety of roles throughout her decade’s long tenure. Those roles included the society's first vice president from 1936 to 1938, the society's fourth president from 1943 to 1945), and a Council member and editor of the American Archivist from 1937 to 1942 and 1946 respectively.. Her activities in the American Historical Association (AHA), the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Association of State Libraries (NASL) are also well documented. Through these associations, she published writings and made public addresses broadcasting her focus on the utilitarian value of archives and a desire to distinguish the archive professionals as separate from historians and librarians. One such address at the 1929 annual AHA meeting was met with skepticism. Six months later, however, a very similar speech with accompanying article was accepted and well regarded by the NASL. This and many other papers became landmarks for the push towards professional recognition of archivists as skilled professionals.

Pioneer for Gender Eqaulity

In addition to helping the archival field develop as a profession free from historians and librarians, Norton was also a pioneer woman of her time. From 1936 to 1972, only about 15% of chair positions were held by women and female membership in the SAA and other professional associations was very limited. Despite this, Norton made a impact on her colleagues. Her election as the first female president of the SAA was significant for the archival field and women in professional roles. She believed in and upheld the solidarity of her own thought and practices and in turn, was one of the first females to hold many of her professional titles. She also wrote numerous articles on the administrative aspect of the field. In one article, admitted "she deliberately overemphasized the administrative roles of archivist rather than their role as historians because too many so-called archivists shirked service to their institutions while writing or studying history for their own self-edification."