The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents visitors with a carefully designed, poignantly illustrated narrative of the most fatal genocide in human history. Its prominent location, alongside the Mall in Washington D.C, reflects its position as the official national recognition of and tribute to those who died in the Holocaust. Furthermore, its proximity to the nations leading commemorative monuments and political institutions conveys an implicit message that Holocaust has become enshrined as a part of the national memory forever, lending both a permanence and a prominence to memory of the Holocaust that would seek to defy any historical reinterpretation over the passage of time.
Struggles with the Archives
Historian, Durba Ghosh, began her research in the British and Indian archives, taking interest in the intimate relationships between British men and Indian women during the early British colonial period in India. In the India Office Library in Calcutta, Ghosh came into conflict with archivists who harbored incompatible viewpoints about the suitability of her topic, and who ultimately had the power to provide her with materials for her project. After her frustrating encounters with the Indian archives, she concluded, “While I was busy reading the archives, I found the archives were busy reading me.” Continue reading
Mechanisms of Power: How National Governments and Archivists Influence the Archives
National archives are widely understood as records of a country’s history, culture, and government activities. Though we hold ideals that these collections will be complete, neutral, and available to anyone who has an interest in them, this is rarely the case. Both national governments, and the archivists employed by them, influence the archives with their own political and cultural agendas, both on purpose and unintentionally. Examples of these occurrences are documented in Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History, a recent collection of essays by historians with experience working in national archives from around the world. The “Historians Workshop” course at the University of Richmond studied these “archive stories” alongside two UR historians who visited our class and shared their own experiences: Dr. Manuela Meyer, a historian of Brazil, and Dr. David Brandenberger, a Soviet historian. Their stories raise an important question: In what ways do national governments and archivists affect the neutrality and accessibility of national archives? Continue reading
Allure of the Archives
What attracts historians to the archives? How do we experience them? How do they shaper our work? Over the last two weeks, the 395 seminar at UR has been talking about the experience and politics of the archive. We read Arlette Farge’s Allure of the Archives. (Here’s a review by the historian Robert Darnton). We’ve also been reading and thinking about “archive stories” and how archival practices shape us as historians. More soon…
New UR Seminar on Archives, Museums, & Digital History
Are you interested in museums, archives, or digital history? If so, take a look at the UR history department’s new 300-level seminar, “The Historian’s Workshop.” History 395 takes you into the “historian’s workshop,” the spaces and forums where each day history is being preserved, crafted, discussed, exhibited, and debated. Continue reading