The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) is the official archive and research center for the Presbyterian Church (USA), holding the records of the denomination and related organizations dating back to the 18th century. The project was an ongoing support engagement for PHS while consulting with Eastern Standard, covering a series of development tasks for the organization's Drupal-based website.
A significant technical component of the project was developing a custom upload tool for archival documents. Historical society websites handle a particular class of content challenge — large volumes of primary source documents, digitized records, and archival materials that need to be stored reliably and made accessible to researchers and the public. The custom upload tool enabled PHS staff to submit archival documents directly to AWS S3 (Simple Storage Service), with the files served from S3 rather than the web server's local filesystem.
Using S3 for archival document storage provides scalability and durability appropriate for an organization whose core mission is the long-term preservation and accessibility of historical records. The S3 integration required building a WordPress or Drupal admin interface for the upload workflow, handling authentication with the AWS S3 API, managing file metadata, and ensuring uploaded documents were associated correctly with relevant content entries in the CMS.
The ongoing support engagement model meant that tasks addressed evolving needs rather than a single defined project scope, requiring familiarity with the existing Drupal codebase and responsiveness to the organization's development priorities over time.
