Archiving: Why & How
WHY
Have you ever encountered an archive? When you hear that question, you might be thinking about a physical institution that stores really old things that you have to make an appointment to see. Most people haven’t been to one of those. But we’d be willing to bet that you have encountered archives. Those photo albums your mother or grandmother has? That’s an archive. Those boxes and boxes of papers with important family documents or memories? That’s also an archive. As humans, we are inclined to protect and hold on to things that are important to us. Archives—whether formal or informal—are one way to preserve legacies and to tell stories that might not otherwise be told. It is no secret that many institutional archives have not focused on marginalized histories, or that in many cases, history is narrated by the most powerful. That can make it seem like they don’t exist. But they do! Part of the work we’re interested in is recovering those histories and stories as a way to counter historical inaccuracies but also as a means of allowing people who have impacted the course of history to emerge as central figures in stories where they may have been erased or downplayed.
HOW
Archiving methodology and materials.