archives

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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. 

• 
• 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."

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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."

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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. 

• 
• SOURCE: Valley Public Radio
  12/11/2020
  

  UC Merced Acquires Photo Collection Documenting Farmworkers In The 1960s

  Historian Mario Sifuentez discusses the photographs of Ernest Lowe and the activism of Central Valley farm workers. 

• 
• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  12/3/2020
  

  Narratives and Counternarratives: Building Digital History Projects in the Classroom

  by Allison Robinson

  A PhD candidate reflects on building a class around primary source research for digital history, finding it "encouraged students to experiment with unfamiliar methodologies and new sources, challenging their historical thinking." 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  12/1/2020
  

  Reckoning With Slavery: What A Revolt’s Archives Tell Us About Who Owns The Past

  by Marjoleine Kars

  Researching the history of the 1763-1764 Berbice slave rebellion demonstrated that key records for understanding slavery in the Americas are held in archives in Europe and written in the language of colonial powers, making the history of enslaved people difficult to access for their present-day descendants.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  12/1/2020
  

  The Struggle to Document COVID-19 for Future Generations

  by Pamela Ballinger

  Images of suffering have been powerful spurs to humanitarian action in history, but the process has the potential to reinforce messages of fault, blame, and separation. Assembling a visual archive of the age of COVID must avoid those traps to be useful in the future. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/30/2020
  

  Smithsonian Archives of American Art Gathers an Oral History of 2020

  The National Archives of American Art has been moving aggressively to document artists' responses to the concurrent social traumas of 2020, including the pandemic, police violence and protests, and a tumultuous election campaign.