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ARCHIVAL THEORY AND PRACTICE
Lecture notes by Todd Ellison. Copyright Todd Ellison 2015. Permission is granted for use, but not for sale or any commercial or monetary gain, and you must link to this website. |
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3rd section of this course
#3A
V. Distinctives of archives, libraries, museums and records centers
The difference in libraries and archives
is more than at first you'd surmise.
If you understand this
you'll ne'er be amiss;
you'll be able to blow their disguise.
A. Archives contain permanently valuable records; mostly unpublished materials, many of them unique; if published materials, they're apt to have been personalized: autographed or gathered thoughtfully to form a collection, but usually items that never attained commercial status
- individuals sorting their own papers become archivists, learning to decide what is ephemeral and what is worth saving
B. Distinctives
1. Libraries mostly contain published materials (books, periodicals, maps, audiovisual materials, microforms, digital publications), mostly with items obtained commercially
2. Libraries and archives all hold most of the same categories of items, but in different proportions, and the rationale for their creation/compilation is different
3. Museums also hold permanently valuable materials--but mostly artifacts, 3 dimensional
C. Eight differences in libraries, archives and museums
1. ratio of different forms of contents
2. purpose of their creation
a. librarians have a commercial interest - the materials cost money and are for the info of others
b. archivists satisfy corporate goals, to protect the institution and document its activities; manuscript and museum curators acquire collections gathered at random; may or may not have relation to reality; for personal, individual, or private reasons
3. method of acquisition
a. librarians purchase items, selecting items that fit their needs
b. most holdings of archives are transferred in or are donated after a season of active solicitation of persons who were prominent in a field, who retired, or who had prominent relatives who died
c. librarians don't mind duplicating the holdings of other libraries; archives are increasingly specializing to avoid costly competition or duplication of holdings
4. differences in status of ownership
a. library owns its books, etc.--it bought them--but not the contents (owned by the holder of copyright)
b. the recipient of manuscripts has physical ownership, but the creator still owns the content
c. archives are property of corporate body that created or received them
d. governmental entities have no copyright--are in public domain
5. access
a. libraries tend to have open access, immediately available to the user--because of their reputation for free and easy access--libraries are the point of entry for most new researchers...and thus have a responsibility for training and for referrals elsewhere
b. access to corporate archives is governed by the rules of the institution, but the underlying principle is that of preserving the integrity of the records
(1) thus, archival records must never be removed from the repository
(2) the archivist has a responsibility to maintain the content and format of the records, which could not be guaranteed if items were allowed to circulate
(3) MSS & museum collections are never open to browsing by researchers; stacks are closed due to
(a) intrinsic value of the material
(b) total chaos of the collection (only the staff knows where to locate materials)(see section 6. following)
(c) use of collections is usually limited to advanced researchers or to persons who can't be expected to find the sought info anywhere else
(4) reference librarian stands between the user and the catalog; archivist stands between the finding aid and the material itself, explaining to the user how the material is structured; museum curators provide the interpretation of exhibits before the user even arrives
6. arrangement
a. libraries usually arrange materials by a standard classification system (LC, Dewey Decimal)
b. there is no such scheme with archival collections, which may be physically located by type of materials (photos all together), by date of accession, with access driven by the descriptive guides
c. arrangement within archival collections is contextual -- that is the uniqueness of archival collections - the placement of the items in a collection reflects on the structure of the institution
d. archives takes the Aristotelian route--uses organic principles such as provenance--whereas libraries are set up according to an artificial system of classification which is abstract and Platonic
7. use
a. "libraries exist for readers; archives and manuscripts exist for writers"
b. researchers depend on books for basic knowledge and established interpretations, but they prize historical manuscripts as among the primary sources for discovering previously unknown truths and for constructing new interpretations
D. A later section will cover distinctives of records management as related to archives
E. A summary email message from colleague in Montana:
From:VAXF::IN%"[email protected]" "Archives & Archivists" 9‑APR‑1993 To:IN%"[email protected]" "Multiple recipients of list ARCHIVES"
“I must take exception to Jim Cross's recent denial of archival theory. We have just endured a budget‑dictated reorganization at the hands of the library dean. In the process the archivist position has been eliminated and reassigned the status of "reference librarian". The dean and other administrators here, cannot see any difference between formats and therefore act as if information is the same, whatever the "package". Relatedly, records management does not exist‑‑it is simply not considered.
“Try as I might, I cannot get them to understand that unlike the neatly discrete packages we call books (which includes other purposefully composed, edited, and published things such as journals or indices) are created for purposeful distribution and organize their information accordingly. They are heavily filtered through a whole series of processes that, among other things, promotes some sense of uniformity and predictability. With few exceptions, archives and manuscripts do not share the same processes. They are the lowest common material denominator in the research world, but they exist as proto‑sources (to put it in published perspective). Manuscripts are the mash in the still, the still is the writer who refines, summarizes, and literally distills what is in the mash. The end product is (if the mash is good and the still works properly) a much more potent product than the original source. Occassionally someone will say "Yuck", and want to go back to the mash to see if it was bad or the still had a crack in it; or they may like the liquor and want to check the recipiie to see if they, too, could use something of it.
“The analogy is overly mechanist, but addresses the elements of the informative process. The upshot is, that archives differ in bulk, creation, and purpose from books and other published material. Published matter concerns product, archives concern process, and there is no one‑to‑one equivalent in comparing 10 lin. ft. of archival material to one book, or to one journal issue, or one Infotrac release. But that is precisely what my administration has assumed. Only since the decision has been made have they awoken to the ideas of processing, arrangment, description, disposition, legal liability, and privacy. Those‑‑whether we call it "practice" or "theory" are issues of theory. Theory is the hows and whys of any discipline, along with fundamental assumptions that underlie the answers given to problems. It may be very practical theory, such as guides the arrangement of papers in a box; it may be political theory, such as determines the scope of collecting and disposition; it may be evaluative theory, such as sits in ponderous judgment of our discipline's actions and goals‑‑but theory it is. No Jim, I disagree (politely, I hope) that we can afford to try to ignore "theory". I know enough about the laws of motion and inertia that I put on my car's brakes long before I reach a brick wall, or I will never get where I am going.”
Source: Richard Saunders, Montana State University
Section #3B of this course
VI. History of archives and the archival profession
(cf. Ernest Posner, Archives in the Ancient World (1972)
A lecture on archival history
will take away much of the mystery,
for the oldest profession
is not what you're guessin':
Archives kept Adam real busy!
A. Archival beginnings
1. Adam was the first archivist
a. control is gained by wisely naming things
b. Genesis 2:19b-20a
2. archives in the ancient world
a. with the start of the transmitting info in written form in the 4th millenium BC, there was a need to create and preserve written data
(1) Babylonians created data on clay tablets
(2) Egyptians preserved info on papyrus
(3) Greek and Roman Empires created written documents on wooden blocks and parchment, to record and transmit info and orders--these were preserverd for future reference in what we would today call archives
b. highly unified (esp. large) societies were more apt to have archives; smaller communities were more personal and depended instead on oral traditions
c. legal records of rights and duties were prevalent--of financial debits, military obligations, land ownership; laws were not just in memory, but written, so they could be appealed to (see Ezra 4-5); same with standards of weights, dimensions, and quality
d. business houses early on set up archives to control their family businesses/estates
e. kept religious records (of history and traditions), esp. when the society was threatened
f. ancient archivists tended to be well educated, from upper classes, and well paid (earned the same as generals), because control of info was power
g. the ancient world did not differentiate between current (archivio) and noncurrent (archivio di deposito) records; that began in the Middle Ages when monks et al. copied important records for frequent use, to protect the originals in an inner sanctum
h. thus, for the ancient period we must use the second definition of archives, i.e. all kinds of records, of which the most prevalent survivors are Assyrian clay tablets and Egyptian papyri
i. archaeologists who dug them up for the most part disregarded the principles of respect des fonds and provenance; they sold the items piecemeal or rearranged them by subject; by the 1950s, archival principles began to be heeded
j. the surviving ancient archives are lacking coverage of vast areas and most peoples
k. use of clay tablets encompassed most of the civilized world, and were in use for about 3,000 years
(1) clay tablets were used in the Euphrates-Tigris region, and by the Hittites, Phoenicians, and Aegean cultures
(2) these tablets didn't hold all of the records, though; these civilizations also used operational devices (hollow tablets with stones) and wax writing tablets (on ivory or wooden boards; wood hasn't survived well)
(3) (Posner, p. 23) "For more than half the time mankind has communicated in writing, most of the writing has been on clay."
(4) clay tablet output was high because of the high level of administrative technique on which these societies functioned; "writing was invented to serve the administrator rather than the man of learning." - writing--and thus the first recorded history and the first library--originated in about 3,500 B.C. with the Sumerians, who were talented with organization and a sense or orderliness; they needed records and communication of decisions as they built a complex densely populated society in frequently flooded southern Mesopotamia by the 3rd millennium (empire collapsed about 2475 B.C.); the first libraries in history were the Sumerians' archives: they practiced provenance, climate control, and the use of permanent records (baked tablets), interpreted by a priestly class
(5) (Posner, p. 26) "The prevailing use of the clay tablet made fairly uniform [record-keeping] techniques almost mandatory."
(6) nine-tenths or more of the tablets that have been discovered are archival documents (economic records, especially)
(7) physical aspects of clay tablets: baked, they were nearly as indestructible as stone
(8) often, the tablets ended up getting baked in fire when their storage accommodations were destroyed
(9) drawback of clay: could only write in it while it was still moist;
therefore, weren't reusable and couldn't be used over a long period of time; so, the authors had to prepare summary records to inscribe all at once
(10) cuneiform was necessary because curved lines couldn't be draw with the wedge-shaped stylus, thus no more pictures; they were transformed into characters representing syllables
(11) sometimes the tablet was encased in a clay envelope, on which the text of the business transaction was re-entered (see Jeremiah 32)
(12) these ancients were aware of persistent archival problems--(Posner p. 55) tablets were durable, but bulky and heavy; therefore, these societies decided early on to provide separate accommodations for archives, usually near the city gates, which were the center of economic activity, and kept proper humidity (otherwise, the unbaked tablets could crumble) by means of water in a grooved floor (early air conditioning!)
(13) storage - 3 methods were used: pigeonhole, open shelf, and (most common) containers (baskets, jars, and boxes)
(14) (Posner p. 67) scribes came from the upper strata of Mesopotamian society and were highly regarded and paid; they were crucial in the creation and transmission of Mesopotamian culture, like the role of the clergy in medieval Europe, because they could read and write; so, they were involved administratively, not always just sticking to a custodial function
3. Pharaonic Egypt was bureaucratic
a. maintained continuity through the centuries because saw the country as a domain to exploit, not a fatherland to rule--dominion rather than relationship
b. were very record-conscious and made this consciousness integral to the life of the people
c. but only an infinitesimal part of their records survive because they used perishable materials (papyrus, an Egyptian invention, was the most common; also, leather and wood and, for ephemeral purposes, potsherds); they received clay tablets, but only used them for intellectual communication
d. Egyptians needed records because--
(1) centralized administration under the Pharaohs,
(2) the Pharoah owned all the land, so private property was held and transferred at his pleasure and by royal certification, and
(3) regular flooding in the Nile delta wiped out boundary lines and created conflicts that could only be responded to by turning to the written records of agreements
--the Egyptian vizier was the Prime Minister and chief archivist--the key office of a highly centralized government; he kept all these records
e. have today's lawyers--or business managers?--taken the ancient archivists' roles?
(1) ancient archivists focussed on the current operations of a smaller realm
(2) today's archivists would be paid more today if they controlled the same type of info as their predecessors--centralized control of powerful info
B. Greece gave us many of our archival terms (Posner, p. 92)
1. no ancient Greek documents have survived; we rely on literary sources and later developments
2. Aristotle considered the archivist's office an integral part of the government of the Greek polis (city-state)
3. deposition of private business records to government archives was compulsory
C. Rome - the Tabularium was their archives
1. this was the first monumental, fire resistant structure for housing the state archives
2. the trend was to absorb into the state archives the records of various governmental agencies and institutions, with provision for servicing records to magistrates and individuals, but lacked systematic, continuous care and protection of the national archives
3. Western archival organization has its roots in ancient Roman institutions--and in the chancery practices of the Orient (the Persians)
D. Archives in the Middle Ages
1. few documents survived into the Middle Ages from ancient times, but some did, and were copied and preserved by monks in monasteries
2. during the Middle Ages records were created re: such issues as land ownership and financial info
3. most famous is the Domesday (pronounced Doomsday) Book of Wm. the Conqueror, 11th Century--data on land ownership, documenting the social status of England's inhabitants as well as tax and religious status
E. The first modern archives was the French National Archives
1. the French Revolution (1789) marked a new beginning in archives administration: in 2 areas: citizens' access and centralization
"Although the institution of archives and something of archival administration may be traced from antiquity, archives and archival administration as they are understood today date from the French Revolution. With the establishment of the Archives Nationales in 1789 and of the Archives Départementales in 1796, there was for the first time a unified administration of archives that embraced all extant repositories and record-producing public agencies. The second result was the implicit acknowledgment that the state was responsible for the care of its documentary heritage. The third result was the principle of accessibility of archives to the public." [citation: "archives" Encyclopædia Britannica Online. <http://www.eb.com:180/bol/topic?eu=9405&sctn=1> [Accessed March 3, 2000].
2. the primary--and most lasting development--was that the French nation was recognizing its responsibility to care for its nation's documentary heritage
a. established principles of archivist's accountability to the public
(1) archives/ official records must be preserved to establish ownership of land and to protect the rights of individual citizens
(2) records were considered part of a national inheritance, owned and accessible to members of the public
3. secondly--and to achieve the goal of improved access--the framework of the new nationwide governmental system led to establishment of a centralized national archives, with subordinate depositories
a. with a few exceptions, this idea of centralizing the retention of the general archives of different creators in one place had not been practiced in the previous 200 years
b. further revolutionary movements in recent times supplied further impulse for centralization of national archives, in Germany and Russia
c. later, Napoleon used the French National Archives as part of his centralization of political control
d. then, later on, the French national system became more localized (Posner, Archives and the Public Interest (1967)--written at age 75); ironically, the Archives Nationales has had trouble acquiring the archival records of all French ministries, and has given up on its idea of centralizing all of the country's public records
4. the French (and Belgians) have given us what is today one of the few standard archival principles: respect des fonds = bodies of documents correspond to a former administrative unit and should be preserved accordingly
a. application of this principle enables the user to reconstruct as deliberately and carefully as possible the original arrangement of the files of the different fonds
b. proclaimed in Belgium and France ca. 1840
F. Great Britain established an archival system similar to that of the French, preserving the govt's official records for the access and use of the citizens--also adopted in US, at federal and state levels
G. The growth of scientific history in 19th century led to a demand for documents
1. led by the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1885)
a. Ranke was writing in the age of Darwin, the scientific age of accumulating empirical data to discover patterns and to postulate theories
b. to write a history of the popes, he used government bureaucrats' reports in the archives of Venice
(1) he sought unbiased accounts--so he could write "history as it actually happened" -- "wie es eigentlich gewesen"
(2) Ranke was studying society by looking into bureaucrats' records of revenues and budgets--using corporate and/or governmental records
(3) this was in opposition to the historiographical methods of historians like Thomas Carlyle of Scotland (1795-1885), who believed that history is the biographies of great men--using mss/personal papers
c. after Prussia defeated in France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870s, Americans went to Berlin to learn German ideas--the reaction was similar to the later American response when the Russians sent up Sputnik
2. in the 1920s, scholars using Ranke's methods trained most of the leading historians, many of whom came to the U.S. to teach the scientific method of studying historical documents
3. during this period, the second archival principle developed: provenance
a. Posner calls this the "principle of the sanctity of the original order."
b. begun in Privy State Archives in Berlin, by order of historian Max Lehmann's 1881 Regulations
c. it was more than a technical knack; it reflected the historical thinking of a new generation taught by Ranke et al., a respect for historical growth
H. United States archival history: James O'Toole describes two strong traditions--
1. development of the private historical society
a. American archival profession was/is an adjunct of the free enterprise system; started with individuals saving papers (theirs and others') from early on
b. this formed the basis of repositories (mostly in private institutions); American system, everyone doing what they felt like doing
c. early manuscripts collections were preserved by local communities trying to preserve their sense of identity in a world of flux; same thing that motivates genealogists, looking for roots
(1) it was a hobby, not a profession
(2) it was fashionable to collect literary antiques even before it was popular to write about our history
(3) this hobby was a means of the political, religious, and social elite who were seeking to justify themselves
(4) there was no federal control, but localized, and stunted by provincialism
(5) motives for collecting differed
(a) biographers' zeal
(b) patriotism/nationalistic pride (leaving a message for future generations of the valor of American heroes, to imbue those future generations with respect for their predecessors)
(6) results of this chaotic decentralization of archivy in our country
(a) many people--though, all in the elite--have had a say in what to preserve, and to establish principles reflecting individual needs
(b) there's been no system, but the result reflects what people care about, in a broad way
(c) archives are close to everyone in the U.S.
(d) but, it disperses far and wide (and sometimes irrationally) the evidence a researcher may need to see (cf. Wm. Bischoff, "Tracing Manuscript Sources," Oregon Historical Quarterly 51 (1950)),
(e) and because of the lack of published guides, users are dependent on individual archivists' personal knowledge of what their repository holds and where it's kept
d. due to tax deduction laws here, fewer collections were kept by private families than in Europe--they were given to historical societies (and, later, to gov't repositories)
(1) lawyers and ministers were significant supporters of early historical societies
(2) Puritan ministers kept their own papers
(3) Jeremy Belknap was the first American collector of manuscripts for general scholarly use
(a) spent 20 years collecting manuscripts for his History of New England)
(b) saved colonial papers in New England
(c) then with friends set up the Massachusetts Historical Society (1791)--the first one in the U.S.
i) here he institutionalized the collecting of historical manuscripts
ii) to this day, it is a membership society--one must be elected to it
iii) for the mutual benefit of people with literary aspirations, gleaning from & contributing manuscripts to it
e. New-York Historical Society
(1) established in 1804
(2) began a different process--membership by subscription--anyone who could pay the fee could join
(3) financial difficulties led to its near demise in 1990s
f. general rush to form historical societies in mid-19th century
(1) due to increased interest in historical research
g. many repositories began around one collection, building mss. around that first source
(1) Jared Sparks
(a) outdid Belknap as a master collector
(b) acquired many original mss.-- estates were willing to part with them
(c) also, he pioneered documentary editing--letters of George Washington and Ben Franklin
(2) Peter Force collected thousands--some were transcripts--which formed basis of LC'c Revolutionary War collection
(3) Francis Parkman and William Prescott collected Western history
h. many historical societies collected out of motives of local pride
(1) Civil War drew focus from national to regional history
(a) to justify the region's role in the War
(b) before the War, Americans had a progressive bias, and were looking forward, not back, so had little respect for the historical record for the most part
(c) not until 1880 did national issues predominate
i) regimental histories after the War led to family genealogical histories after that (esp. in the South)
ii) thus, emphases of historical societies reflected individual American concerns of the time
(2) the function of history then (19th century) was to instruct, prove a point, or support a cause
(a) history focussed on great men, and military and diplomatic activities
2. establishment of public archives in the states
a. growth of historical research led to development of different kinds of collecting theories
b. big shift after 1884 with first public funding of archives
c. Wisc. & Minn. were first examples of state-bolstered private repositories
(1) strong in the mid-west from the late 19th century
(2) Lyman Draper of the old NW became the first director of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and donated his collection of papers (this happens often)
d. state archives are a 20th century phenomenon
(1) state institutions holding records for and about the people
(2) first, in 1901, was in Alabama
(3) last was in New York (1970s?)
e. regional patterns are still evident today--understanding them will make your research more profitable, because you'll have an idea where to look
(1) in the North, private historical societies remain the focus of historical research
(2) in the South, state governments acquired the local historical societies and historical buildings
(a) these became part of new Departments of Archives and History
(b) greatest interest in the South (and much the same elsewhere too) has been in area of genealogy
(c) to preserve the history of "the lost cause" (O'Toole, p.34)
(d) pioneered management of state records by abandoning in-house subject classification schemes and instead arranging the gov't records in a pattern that imitated the state gov't's organizational chart
(3) in the upper mid-West, interlocking relationships of private historical societies and government and university funding and boards of directors had made for strong repositories
(4) in the West, state historical societies are separate from and generally larger than the state archives
(a) because of greater population and more funding from private sources
(b) case in point: Colorado Historical Society vs. the Colorado State Archives
(5) in Ky. and Va. the state libraries and state archives are together
(6) so, there's no set nationwide pattern for the placement of archives in the U.S.
3. a 20th century trend: collections in special fields: religious, business, labor, ethnic groups and minorities, and colleges and universities
a. many church archives were founded as part of a nationwide inclination toward preserving local history
(1) the more hierarchical the church, the better its records, reports up and down
(2) Mormons have the largest microform collection in the world
b. until mid-20th century, there was little concern to save the papers of ethnic groups or minorities
(1) debunking of the establishment in the 1960s led to new focuses on women, blacks, labor, peace, radical groups, the establishment of new small repositories and new interest in minority groups by established repositories
(2) growth was abetted by more government funding of archives in that time of prosperity (1960s)
(a) NEH, NHPRC
(b) similar to government funding of archives in the depression period of the 1930s--WPA records survey done by unemployed intellectuals
(3) spurred by use of the new social history
(a) studying large groups, not just their leaders
(b) looking at history from the bottom up
c. good universities have excellent collections, often centered around strengths of the staff and the department
(1) often, a key donation attracted similar collections
(2) a key in collection building has been to build from strength, which helped to shape acquisitions policies
4. Federal government repositories
a. origins at Library of Congress
(1) J. Franklin Jameson
(a) influenced by the German scientific approach
(b) received the first PhD in history from Johns J. Hopkins
(c) co-founded the American Historical Society in 1884 during a meeting of the Social Science Assn. in NY and became its president
(d) edited the American Historical Review for 37 years
(e) was chief of the MSS Division at the Library of Congress (LC) for about 20 years
(2) the Library of Congress has led the way in the systematic cataloging of collections
(a) the most significant mss. collection is at LC, established 1897 when the Jefferson Building (oldest of the 3 LC structures) opened and the papers were moved from the Capitol building across the street
(b) LC's collections were compiled by individuals
i) some were purchased from Presidents' widows as a form of pension
ii) LC received contributions in dribbles in 19th century until President Theodore Roosevelt's Executive Order in 1903
a) President Roosevelt established LC as the place for the nation's historical collections
b) transferred from Capitol building and Dept. of State which until then was the repository of all pre-Revolutionary documents
(c) LC has about 2 million manuscripts about 23 Presidents from GW to Calvin Coolidge
(d) MSS collection at LC grew so fast between 1899 and 1911 that the Library had to exclude archival materials to maintain its capacity to absorb MSS
(e) the high bulk of its 20th century acquisitions has forced the MSS Division to use archival techniques of cataloging and arranging
b. founding of the National Archives
(1) in the late 1890s the A.H.S. Commission on Historical Manuscripts joined forces with the more influential veterans of the Am'n Legion, genealogists and others concerned for the preservation of our national heritage to push for the creation of the National Archives
(2) the 1890 census was destroyed by a fire and received much press attention
(3) Jameson sent 26 bills through Congress for establishment of the National Archives
(4) building was contracted for in 1929, opened in 1934
(5) in ca. 1938, the LC stopped receiving federal records (to National Archives instead)
c. Presidential libraries
(1) starting with George Washington, U.S. presidents took their papers with them
(2) Presidential libraries contain personal and official papers of presidents and individuals related to their administrations
(3) President Franklin D. Roosevelt collected everything; he was a history buff
(a) had a strong ego
(b) appointed the first U.S. Archivist in 1934 and in 1938 decided to plan a Presidential Library for his papers
i) that way he could decide on the access to his papers
ii) excluded LC from his first meeting about this
(4) subsequent presidential libraries--Truman, Eisenhower (in Abilene), Hoover, etc., often have been located at the birthplace or boyhood home, on land and building donated privately, ongoing operations federally funded
(5) 1955--Presidential Libraries Act= if President donated papers, NARA would manage them
(6) with Kennedy, the precedent was not followed and a new one was set--
(a) Jacqueline Kennedy immediately donated his papers to the government to avoid inheritance tax on his non-Presidential papers, on land donated by Univ. of Mass. in Boston Harbor
(b) Johnson papers at University of Texas
(c) Ford divided his between Univ. Michigan at Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids museum (150 miles apart)
(d) the Nixon LIbrary is in Southern California; it was funded by friends of the family
(e) Reagan at Stanford University
(7) the trend has been to place Presidential libraries on university campuses
(8) by precedent and as a legal right, Presidents can dispose of their papers as they wish, due to the Constitutionally protected independence of the office, Watergate notwithstanding--this has been clarified by several acts of Congress--
(a) 1974--Congress (fearful that President Nixon would destroy the presidential papers) passed a law declaring Presidents' official papers to be government property
(b) 1978--new system (effective with President Reagan): maintain the Presidential libraries but require Presidents to deposit their official papers in the libraries
(c) 1986--Congress limited the size of each presidential library to 70,000 sq. ft.
(9) Presidential libraries have $12-15 million budgets and staffs of 50-60
(10) Presidential libraries attract tourists as well as scholars, and thus have helped to integrate popular interest and scholarly research
(11) cf. article in Chronicle of Higher Education about Pres. Libraries
d. major federal activity in archives today
(1) National Archives itself is a network: main Archives in D.C., Archives II in College Park
(2) more than two dozen presidential libraries, at least 16 regional centers (which contain over 10x the holdings of the National Archives)
(3) other agencies such as National Park Service have repositories, too
e. 20th century trends:
(1) public and private papers became more alike in their form and content and their method of archival description
(a) result of growth in the size of private agencies as well as federal and state gov't and changes in the technologies for records creatopm
(b) growth of private corporations, some of the same size as small state gov'ts, in # of employees and in income and expenditure
(2) record keeping has become more sophisticated--RM became prevalent
(3) MS repositories, once the bastion of papers of great white men, began collecting a wider variety of material
(4) as MS repositories collected some of the same sorts of papers as public archives, the archival profession began to develop greater standardization in policies and procedures--starting in ca. 1960s and accelerating
(a) consensus on elements in the finding aid
(b) descriptive standards for archival collections-- MARC format
(c) use of the record group concept to reflect the creation of a set of records by one person, organization, or agency
(d) improved and more effective means of appraising collections
(e) developing the concept of the life cycle of records
i) looking at records as soon as they are created--or before
ii) assessing their long-term value way before they become archives
iii) using Records Management techniques--scheduling records for preservation or destruction on the basis of generalized appraisal guidelines
I. The 1930s were the "crucial decade" (O'Toole) for public archives in the U.S.
1. establishment of National Archives (1934)
2. formation of SAA (1936) (American Archivist began 1938) (SW Center has complete set)
3. work of the Historical Records Survey (1933-1940), and
4. emergence of American archival theory with a strength in its application of European archival principals to the particular problems of modern records
a. concepts of the record group and the series
b. most archival progress in the modern era has been at the local--not the federal—level
J. Other national archives today
1. cf. article "Libraries to the Rescue" about the role of national libraries in the preservation of mss.
2. some national archives, such as the National Archives of Canada, have a "total archives" concept: they acquire all types of records, including private papers, not just government records. In the total archives approach, "one institution rather than a dozen looks after private papers, films, historic sites, oral history, archaeology, etc." (The Archivist, Sept.-Oct. 1984, p. 3)
K. Archival diversification since World War II has brought under archival control a far greater variety of recorded information than otherwise would have been possible
1. there are between 16,000 - 19,000 repositories of archives and mss. just in the U.S. now
2. with diversification of repositories came a consolidation of professional identity as archivists approached a consensus "on what they did, how they did it, and why they did it." (O'Toole, p. 41)
a. archival cooperation in the U.S. began when archivists began using standardized terminology
(1) prompted by NUCMC data sheets and automation of access--moving toward compatibility
(2) automation is the solution to the archival problem of dispersion of the info--standard data elements plugged into electronic pigeon holes (MARC: AMC)
b. end of previous distinctions between public records and private manuscripts traditions
c. still, we lack a strongly centralized political tradition in this country; local independence; federation
3. six trends affecting the future of the archival profession (end of O'Toole ch. 2)
a. steady growth in # of archives within the institutions that are producing the records
b. communication and exchange of info
c. blurred boundaries with other info mgmt. professionals
d. improved cooperation with those who use archives
e. broadened base of archival knowledge and a rise of a group of professional archival educators
f. public relations--projection of professionalism and demonstration of archives' usefulness to society
L. Readings for the next section:
O'Toole, ch. 3--"The Archivist's Perspective" and ch. 4--"The Archivist's Task."
Modern Archives Reader, ch. 3--"Records Appraisal," ch. 4--"Archival Acquisition," ch. 5--"Arrangement," and ch. 6--"Description."
