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Currents of Archival Thinking
CURRENTS OF
ARCHIVAL
THINKING
SECOND EDITION
21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available as an eBook.
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An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
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This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
PART I: Foundations 1
Chapter 1: A Contested Realm: The Nature of Archives and the
Orientation of Archival Science 3
Terry Eastwood
Chapter 2: Origins and Beyond: The Ongoing Evolution of Archival
Ideas about Provenance 25
Jennifer Douglas
Chapter 3: Archives as a Place 53
Adrian Cunningham
SHIFTING FOUNDATIONS
The archival body of knowledge that took shape in the nineteenth and
early part of the twentieth centuries was rooted in jurisprudence, positivist
history, and a centuries-old body of written reflection and experience about
the nature of records and recordkeeping practices of administrative entities
from previous centuries. As Terry Eastwood explains in his essay, the tradi-
tional organic concept of archives as the natural, interrelated, and unique
outcome of a record creator’s activities and their consequent value as
authentic and impartial sources for history grew from these roots.
In contemporary archival discourse, this traditional view has been con-
tested on the grounds that it is incompatible with current understandings
about the nature of records and recordkeeping environments and fails to
account for the manifold ways in which human, social, and ideological
forces impinge on the use, production, and transmission of archives through
time and space. Out of that contestation, Eastwood suggests, a broader and
more nuanced view of the nature of archives has come forth, one that takes
into account their mutability, the fluidity of contemporary recordkeeping
environments, and the social contexts that determine the archives’ forma-
tion both before and after they are transferred to archival custody. Such
view, he maintains, does not displace the traditional one so much as it rein-
terprets it in light of the changing environment.
A related shift in thinking is discernible in the way archivists interpret the
principle of provenance. When it was first articulated in the nineteenth cen-
tury, the principle was understood primarily as an organizing device for the
physical arrangement of closed fonds. In the contemporary archival litera-
ture, it is more commonly understood as an umbrella term for the multiplic-
ity of contexts in which a body of records is created, used, transmitted, and
preserved. The relationships between and among records, their creators, and
custodians as well as the sociohistorical circumstances that have shaped the
records over time are all considered under this umbrella.
In her essay, Jennifer Douglas traces the evolution of provenance from
organizing principle to physical and conceptual construct and to sociohis-
torical context, considering, along the way, the influence of new technolo-
gies, fluid recordkeeping environments, the writings of postmodernist
theorists, and the call for social justice on that evolution. Douglas views
the expansion of the boundaries of provenance that has occurred in the
wake of its most recent repositioning as sociohistorical construct as a posi-
tive development inasmuch as it acknowledges “the complexity of archival
origins.” She wonders, however, whether collapsing all the various contexts
of records creation into the amorphous conceptual category of provenance
may have the inadvertent result of leveling some of that complexity and pro-
poses means by which to mitigate that possibility.
INTRODUCTION ix
Adrian Cunningham’s essay shifts our attention from the origins and evo-
lution of archival theory and method to the diverse histories of archives as
physical and conceptual spaces. Over the centuries, archival repositories
have been positioned variously as arsenals of administration, bastions of
citizen and state rights, laboratories of history, physical and virtual sites of
collective memory, and metaphoric sites of knowledge and power.
Cunningham traces the myriad ways in which “the archiving impulse and
imperative” has manifested itself in different times and places and considers
how archival understandings of archives as place are changing yet again in
response to contemporary shifts in the technological, social, political, and
philosophical landscape in which archives are situated. His historical and
comparative analysis demonstrates that the concept of archives as place is
a mutable, dynamic, and contingent one.
SHIFTING FUNCTIONS
Changing circumstances and intellectual ferment have influenced consider-
ation of archival functions. Gillian Oliver surveys the field of records manage-
ment, which she sees as a “contested and confusing area.” After a brief survey
of the history of the management of current records, she assesses the effects of
shifts from paper to digital records, from the life cycle model of phases of
records management to a more holistic view of all the actions performed on
records characterized in the continuum model, and from records management
as a paraprofessional to a professional practice grounded in theory and stand-
ardized methods adequate to the digital age. She ends with reflections on the
growing recognition of the role of effective records management in enabling
people “to establish and reconstruct their lives” in instances when institutional
behavior or community trauma has affected them.
Fiorella Foscarini approaches the discourse about the function of archival
appraisal using Terry Cook’s idea about the four shifting concepts that have
animated archival discourse over time in what he calls the evidence para-
digm, the memory paradigm, the identity paradigm, and the community
paradigm. Foscarini walks us through the considerable appraisal literature
assessing the tenor and strengths and weaknesses of the ideas expressed in
each of these paradigms. Her exemplar in the evidence paradigm is Hilary
Jenkinson, whose prime aim was to protect the evidentiary value of archival
documents. She concludes that although “evidence has become a more com-
plex and contested notion, the relationship between recordkeeping and
accountability is still a guiding idea for archivists, especially those
embedded in some organizational context, where protecting the authenticity
and integrity of the records remains a fundamental aspiration.” In the
memory paradigm, the use of archives in the writing of history was the guid-
ing frame of reference for appraisal. Here memory is primarily “conceived
x INTRODUCTION
SHIFTING FRAMEWORKS
For much of the twentieth century, discussions about the purposes of
archives and the societal role played by archivists and archival institutions
were framed largely in terms of the needs and interests of history,
administration, and law. Contemporary discussions about those purposes
are framed in relation to more broadly defined societal needs and interests
xii INTRODUCTION
among libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs), reviews the arguments for
and against convergence, and considers what archives stand to gain and lose
in the so-called urge to converge. As with debates about participatory
archives, debates about LAM convergence are fueled, in large part, by
uncertainty about its impact on core values and concepts. As Bastian puts
it, “Archives, libraries and museums each have strong and specific theoreti-
cal frameworks that have been carefully honed and shaped . . . [and] that
are difficult to reconcile in ways that are equitable, both to the materials
themselves as well as to the stewards and users of the materials.” Without
disputing the value of increased collaboration among LAMs, Bastian
emphasizes that such collaboration must be built on a foundation of respect
for the distinctiveness and integrity of the professions involved.
Rebecka Sheffield’s essay, “Community Archives,” concludes the
Frameworks section, and in it we return to the theme of the mutability of
the concept of archives as place explored by Cunningham in Foundations.
Sheffield demonstrates the ways in which community archives and commu-
nity archiving practices are simultaneously enriching our understanding of
shared cultural heritage and challenging traditional understandings of what
it means to create and preserve archives. She traces the history of the com-
munity archives movement, examines a number of frameworks that help
to elucidate how and why communities come together to build collections,
and, drawing on the life cycle of social movements, charts the trajectory of
activist-oriented community archives from emergence to decline. Her analy-
sis underscores the critical importance of community archives as “democra-
tizing projects” and the consequent need for the mainstream archival
community to “engage with community archives and to support those
organizations in a manner that is respectful, constructive and meaningful.”
It is evident in reading these essays that the historical and contemporary
currents of archival thinking they trace are the result of a complex interplay
of human, social, and technological forces. Also evident is the breadth and
depth of reading and reflection—drawing on insights from a range of
humanities and social science disciplines—that have informed thinking
about the archival endeavor and the multiplicity of opinions and perspec-
tives that have been brought to bear on particular issues and topics. And,
as was the case with the first edition of Currents, each contributor has put
his or her own distinctive stamp on each essay, offering diverse and nuanced
interpretations of the evolution of thinking on a given topic. Taken
altogether, the essays also attest to the thriving state of archival literature.
Many of the contemporary issues and debates investigated in Currents2 were
in their infancy when the first edition was published in 2010. The welcome
growth in the diversity and depth of the archival discourse in just six years is,
we believe, an encouraging sign of the vitality and increasing maturity of the
archival profession and discipline more generally.
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Whome they had lost in Turneyment of late,
And seeking long, to weet which way she straid,[161]
Met here together, where through lewd vpbraide
Of Ate and Duessa they fell out,
And each one taking part in others aide,
This cruell conflict raised thereabout,
Whose dangerous successe depended yet in dout.
There[162] gan they change their sides, and new parts take; xxvi
For Paridell did take to Druons side,
For old despight, which now forth newly brake
Gainst Blandamour, whom alwaies he enuide:
And Blandamour to Claribell relide.
So all afresh gan former fight renew.
As when two Barkes, this caried with the tide,
That with the wind, contrary courses sew,
If wind and tide doe change, their courses change anew.
FOOTNOTES:
[150] lxiii 5 and 1596
[151] Arg. 2 Pœana] Æmylia conj. Church rightly
[152] 3 Knights 1596
[153] i 8 vertuous] vertues 1596
[154] 9 hart, 1596, 1609
[155] iii 3 these] this 1609
[156] 7 Trustie squire 1596
[157] xi 9 him] them conj. Church
[158] xiii 2 Pæana 1596 &c.
[159] xvii 5 guest 1596, 1609
[160] xviii 8 represse. 1596
[161] xxiv 4 straid 1596, 1609
[162] xxvi 1 There] Their 1596: Then conj. Church
[163] xxx 7 th’other 1609
[164] 8 repayred 1596
[165] xxxvi 4 publique 1609
[166] xxxvii 2 Knights conj. Upton
[167] xxxix 8 wretch I and 1596
[168] xl 2 you, 1596
Cant. X.
Yet all those sights, and all that else I saw, xxix
Might not my steps withhold, but that forthright
Vnto that purposd place I did me draw,
Where as my loue was lodged day and night:
The temple of great Venus, that is hight
The Queene of beautie, and of loue the mother,
There worshipped of euery liuing wight;
Whose goodly workmanship farre past all other
That euer were on earth, all were they set together.
FOOTNOTES:
[169] Arg. 1 conqust 1596
[170] ii 8 Since] Sith 1609
[171] vii 8 nanner 1596
[172] 9 maintaine, 1596
[173] ancients 1596
[174] ix 1 yearne 1609 passim
[175] xvii 5 award 1609
[176] xix 1 meanest] nearest 1596
[177] 2 disdeigning 1609
[178] xxiii 2 ghesse] bee 1596 (Malone 616), 1609
[179] 8 bee] ghesse 1596 (Malone 616), 1609
[180] xxv 1 all eyes 1596
[181] dight, 1596, 1609
[182] xxvi 9 aspire] inspire 1611
[183] xxvii 1 Hyllus 1596: Hylus 1609. Cf. III xii 7, l. 9
[184] 7 tyde, 1596, 1609
[185] 8 friendship 1596
[186] xxxi 9 adowne 1609
[187] xxxv 6 hell] hele or mell conj. edd.
[188] xxxvi 3 loue 1596: Loue 1609
[189] xxxvii 9 may 1596
[190] xxxviii 7 bathe 1609
[191] xl 5 forlore 1596
[192] xlii 6 elder 1609
[193] li 9 girlonds] gardians conj. Church: guerdons conj. Collier
[194] lv 2 conceald 1609
[195] 8 warie] wearie conj. Upton
[196] lvi 4 at] on 1609
[197] lviii 1 daunger 1596: danger 1609
Cant. XI.