archives

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• 10/10/2021
  

  Recovering Women's Reproductive Lives, One Mutilated Record at a Time

  by Catherine Prendergast

  "Far too often, archives resemble graveyards with marked tombs for men in which a few bones of women are scattered. It’s time to dig up all of the bones and ask them what story they tell."

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• SOURCE: Atlas Obscura
  9/22/2021
  

  The Curious Task of Preserving Darwin's Beans and Butterflies

  Although his voyage to the Galapagos is famous, much of Darwin's work on natural selection was based on correspondence with horticulturalists and naturalists who sent him samples from around the world. Cambridge University's libraries are at work to preserve that correspondence.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/9/2021
  

  Reconstructing an Urban Archive Lost on 9/11

  The archives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which held important information about the history of the region's politics and infrastructure, was housed in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Agency retirees have sent documents, pictures and artifacts to start rebuilidng the record.

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• SOURCE: UChicago News
  5/25/2021
  

  The Hidden History Of “Guerrilla Television”: UChicago Scholars Preserve Decades-Old Videos

  Technological innovation in the 1960s allowed more people to shoot video and push for community-based television. University of Chicago scholars are working to digitize and preserve "guerrilla television." 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  5/22/2021
  

  Why Has Australia’s History Been Left To Rot?

  Historians are criticizing the Australian government's decision not to supply the funding the National Archives needs to digitize and preserve fragile and deteriorating documents, calling the "digital cliff" a potential national embarrassment. 

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• SOURCE: Contingent
  5/1/2021
  

  How Amalia Levi Does History

  Amalia Levi's work as a freelance archivist with cultural organizations in several countries shows that much greater resources are needed to make a wealth of historical documentation accessible, and many talented workers could put those resources to work. 

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• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  3/31/2021
  

  Working with Histories that Haunt Us

  by Marius Kothor

  The author responds to a recent essay on the traumatic aspects of archival research. As a political exile from Togo, her identity and experience converged with subject matter she couldn't study at a remove. 

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• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  3/30/2021
  

  One Man’s Quest to Crack the Modern Anti-Immigration Movement—by Unsealing Its Architect’s Papers

  John Tanton donated 25 boxes of documents related to his work with anti-immigration advocacy organizations beginning in the 1960s. The gift stipulated that much of the collection be sealed until 2035. An immigration advocate says that Tanton's connections to right-wing anti-immigrant groups and the pro-eugenics Pioneer Fund means the university should unseal the papers now. 

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• SOURCE: Asian American Writers' Workshop
  3/25/2021
  

  Exploring Black and Asian American Lesbian Archives: Aché and Phoenix Rising

  Two newsletters by and for queer communities of color in the Bay Area are a primary source for understanding how Black and Asian American lesbians created and maintained community. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  3/15/2021
  

  The Race to Collect COVID Ephemera Before It’s History

  "Last year, on March 13th, as Americans began to restructure daily life in response to covid-19, one curator, Rebecca Klassen, had an idea."

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• SOURCE: Columbia Post and Courier
  2/16/2021
  

  Veteran Journalist Donates Trove of Civil Rights-Era Research to University of South Carolina

  “I think that’s what I find amazing. Even in terms of the curriculum in the state of South Carolina, that those kind of moments are not necessarily common knowledge, where you have an Orangeburg Massacre,” Crump said. “No pun intended, it’s almost like an educational blackout.”

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• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  2/12/2021
  

  Lawsuit Saves Trump White House Records

  The lawsuit also required the preservation of WhatsApp messages from figures including Jared Kushner. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/16/2021
  

  Police Unions Lose Bid to Keep Disciplinary Records a Secret

  The records would include records of civilian complaints, internal investigations of misconduct, and interdepartmental claims of harassment by superior officers. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  1/28/2021
  

  UCLA Wins $3.65-Million Grant to Build ‘Age of Mass Incarceration’ Archive with LAPD Records

  In addition to 177 boxes of LAPD records, which the university fought for and won access to in court, the project will seek out and include oral histories and other ephemera from community members who were affected by the region’s aggressive criminal justice pipelines, said professor Kelly Lytle Hernández.

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  1/22/2021
  

  Please Stop Calling Things Archives: An Archivist's Plea

  by B.M. Watson

  "As many historians currently use the word “archives,” they seem to imply that an archive is the natural state in which primary sources arrange themselves after being discarded or left by their creators."

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• SOURCE: Associated Press
  1/16/2021
  

  Will Trump’s Mishandling of Records Leave a Hole in History?

  Historians and potential prosecutors are concerned about the White House's noncompliance with the Presidential Records Act, but the truth is that the act is toothless. 

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• SOURCE: WDET
  12/31/2020
  

  Michigan State University Launches Online Database Chronicling North-Atlantic Slave Trade

  Enslaved.org is a searchable database that contains millions of records representing enslaved Africans and their descendants.

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• SOURCE: The Hill
  12/23/2020
  

  Democracy, History and the Presidential Records Act

  by James Grossman and Richard Immerman

  It's time to update the Presidential Records Act to clarify the kinds of materials that must be preserved and create real penalties for destroying them. 

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  12/15/2020
  

  Working With Death: The Experience of Feeling in the Archive

  by Ruth Lawlor

  A researcher of sexual assault against women by American troops in World War II confronted the problem that the archive captures only a traumatic event and leaves the human being affected in the shadows. 

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• SOURCE: Contingent
  12/9/2020
  

  How Spencer McBride Does History

  History Phd Spencer McBride describes his work on the Joseph Smith Papers project, which poses unexpected challenges to learn about the world of the LDS founder.