I couldn’t
agree more. As Chris suggests, it’s difficult to extend the appeal of
archives to the wider public, as required by the policy makers and funders,
without risking a distortion of their real value. They are, first and foremost,
evidence of activity and the concentration on the ‘pretty pieces’
breaks that link. It defines archives as individual units with a display value
like museum objects, rather than as an aggregation of evidence and information in
context which connects the past directly to the present. As such, their
primary value is to support the rights of the ordinary citizen and to allow
that ordinary citizen to hold authority to account. They also, almost
coincidentally, provide the source material for retrospective research of more
or less seriousness and for strengthening community relationships. If widening
the appeal of archives achieves a greater understanding of these fundamentals
then it will be worth the effort. Otherwise it’s just so much
misdirected resource.
I was
raised in the ‘total archives’ tradition which allowed the national
institution I worked for to hold three dimensional objects, films, photographs,
etc. as well as the records of the government (the official archives) and
private individuals and corporate bodies (the historical manuscripts
collection). The key concern with the three dimensional objects was that they
should have direct connection to the documentary materials. Context is
everything. What’s really interesting about the Chinese parasol is just
what Aviva or one of its predecessors was doing to acquire it.
Peter
Emmerson
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