Course:ARST573/Archives – History (Late Modern North American)

Overview

Archives have existed for hundreds, and arguably thousands, of years. The act of retaining and preserving the records of a culture or juridical body has always been necessary; and in the later stages of the modern era in North America, archival practices have evolved at the most rapid pace in history. During 19th and 20th centuries, North American archives began to grow significantly while pioneering new developments in archival technology, theory, and practice. Most of the developments often varied to some degree between the archival systems in the United States and the Canada. These variations stem from both countries' differing cultures and archival influences.

Labeled Archive Drawers

Rise of Archival Consciousness

Archival consciousness in the United States primarily began in the late 18th century, with the realization of national identity through historical revolution records. However, development of secure repositories and record keeping practices came slowly. Though there have been historical societies in the United States throughout the 19th century, it was not until the early 20th century that any state public archives were formed. The U.S. National Archives did not achieve a permanent home until 1930. As the archive profession and its awareness grew in the United States, the Society of American Archivists was formed in 1936 as "North America's oldest and largest national archival professional association." The SAA also has a related journal for archival publications called The American Archivist

United States National Archives Building Circa 1950's

Though Canada is younger as an independent nation, its history of archival consciousness goes back just as far. It shared most of the archive and record keeping practices of its European governing bodies with repositories beginning to take form in the mid-late 19th century. The Dominion Archives was founded in 1872 and continued on throughout Canadian independence under different titles and government departments The Dominion Archives is now known as Library and Archives Canada. Canada has also developed its own professional archive association called the Association of Canadian Archivists established in 1975, with a very successful accompanying journal for archival publications called Archivaria.

Influences

Canada

Due in part to its development and extended ties to European culture, Canadian archives developed with resemblances to British institutions and theories. During the period of British dominion over Canada, many records regarding the country were kept in England. The 20th century gave rise to the most influential figures in Canadian archival history beginning with Sir Arthur Doughty. Doughty was one of the earliest and most famous Dominion Archivists in Canada, serving in the Dominion Archives (later known as Public Archives of Canada during his time) from 1904 until 1935.

Sir Arthur Doughty

Sir Hilary Jenkinson was a British archivist who has been one of the most influential figures in Canadian archives. Throughout the 20th century, his theories and manuals have been used in archival developments across North America. Jenkinson’s archival definitions and theories are still currently used in many Canadian archives. An example would be his description of an archivists main duties stating; "In the first place he has to take all possible precautions for the safeguarding of his Archives and for their custody, which is the safeguarding of their essential qualities. Subject to the discharge of these duties he has in the second place to provide to the best of his ability for the needs of historians and other research workers." Many Canadian archivists since Jenkinson's work continue to take his words to heart and place the well being of a records provenance and physical well being above any other duties archivist may perform.

Though undoubtedly influential, Jenkinson's ideas do not make up the entirety of Canada's archival theoretical core. As always, there have been archivists than disagree with many of his views, including some dominion archivists such as W. Kaye Lamb who worked towards enhancing the idea of "Total Archives" and expanding public programming. The concept of Total Archives is the main goal for most modern Canadian archives. It is reported as an “attempt to document all aspects of historical development, seeking the records not just of officialdom or of a governing elite but of all segments of a community....” by “combining official administrative records and related private files, architectural drawings, maps, microfilm, and other documentary forms all touching on the development of the organization or region”

United States

Archival practice in the United States were primarily influenced internally, maintaining the country’s distance from its European counterparts. Two of the earliest influential archival figures in the United States were Ebenezer Hazard and Jeremy Belknap. Though not officially archivists, they both influenced the profession as collectors of American documentary sources in 1774 and pioneered theories in early preservation practices. Hazard and his heirs and followers believed in multiplying copies of irreplaceable copies to ensure their survival; whereas Belknap believed in creating secure repositories and focusing first on the protection of the original documents.

One of the most controversial yet influential archival theorists in the United States was Theodore Roosevelt Schellenberg. His publications such as Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques serve as foundations for archive practices in the United States, providing more pragmatic approaches to process the growing amount of modern records. According to Ernst Posner, Schellenberg's first paper, entitled European Archival Practices in Arranging Record "cleared the ground for his future constructive efforts by pointing out that European experience has only limited applicability to the processing of records in this country." Since this publication, Schellenberg continued to influence the archival profession within the United States toward its own practices, far from the original methods in European archives and the "Total Archives" perspective that was taking place in Canada.

Development

Theoretical

Archival Theories developments in North American archives are the most varied between institutions in the United States and Canada. The principle of provenance and original order, also known as respect des fonds, originated in Europe around 1841 and is arguably one of the most important theories in modern archive practices. According to the Society of American Archivists; “Provenance is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, family, or organization that created or received the items in a collection. The principle of provenance or the respect des fonds dictates that records of different origins (provenance) be kept separate to preserve their context.” Archivist Steven Hensen explains the importance of the theory stating; “This principle holds that significance of archival materials is heavily dependent on the context of their creation, and that the arrangement and description of these materials should be directly related to their original purpose and function.”

Theory in the United States seems typically more molded by Schellenberg's theoretical approaches to archival practices, attempting to cut processing workloads and make the massing of modern records more manageable. An example would be the American standards of appraisal through Schellenberg’s view, focusing on a record’s “value that depends on the importance of the matter evidenced, i.e. the organization and functioning of the agency that produced the records.” These are just a few theoretical developments, for more information or to explore these in further detail, refer to the references and external links.

Political

Archives have been related to politics since their first development. A bond between archives and current political entities still remains in most archives, however, the role of of the archives within their respective governments continues to evolve in the modern era. Since the late 1800’s, archives, libraries, and museums began to emphasize the importance of their materials creation, not just their contained information, thus further tying the creators within a political body to their records. This grew the role of the archives serving as sources of accountability for current political states. .

How archives and similar public institutions are maintained have also changed due to the political developments in late modern archives. Modern government archives are often sub-sections of government branches and survive through them while other archives remain entities that are not self-sustaining, both depending on advocating their importance for their external funding. As a result of their new limitations of that external funding, the decisions of modern archivists are “influenced by budgets, finite amounts of both physical and computer storage space and limited staff resources.”

Technical

From a technical standpoint, archives in North America have grown the most rapidly during the 19th and 20th centuries. The technological changes are most often involved with the preservation of archival holdings and the growing variations in formatting within those holdings. One example being the development of photography, the first reliably documented photograph successes appearing in the mid 1820's by Nicéphore Niépce. Photographs were then followed by film and eventually digital materials within the archives towards to end of the 20th century.

35mm film reels and boxes

As these new technological formats came about, so too did measures to properly archive them. The advancement of chemistry and understanding of dangerous acids within paper and other records, specialized archival containers such as acid free boxes, folder, and other containers that their way into archives through special suppliers. With the development of technology for environmental controls, such as air conditioning and dehumidifiers, North American archives in the 20th century have been able to preserve the new and old record formats more effectively, keeping storage areas within the preferred 65-68˚F () and 30-50% relative humidity.

Challenges

Throughout late modern archive history, prominent issues have arisen that had not effected previous generations of archival practice. During the late 19th and throughout the 20th century, the production of records had grown exponentially with the expansion of North American Bureaucracies. These Bureaucratic and other masses of records were sparked by american wars, primarily from World War I throughout World War II, and began accumulating faster than they could be processed. In turn, modern archives have been faced with increasingly difficult decisions in appraisal, being unable to retain all records being produced in the modern era, and having to decide what must be destroyed.

This fundamental change in a modern archivist’s duties from only guardianship to making destruction decisions gave rise to the records management profession to aid in the early retainment decisions of modern records. Currently new practices of destruction planning are carried out, such as retention schedules to set life-spans to certain records that may not be deemed necessary for permanent retention. Despite these new professions and practices, the inability to preserve the bulk of modern records remains a challenging problem for the archives profession; one that is often contemplated in archival theory and publications.

Archives and Records Management

The development of modern archival methods are to a significant degree, related to current record management practices. The records management profession is a young one, having emerged from the 20th century’s drastic increase of records being created. The records officers that arrange and maintain records during their time of administrative utility, set the stage for an archivists work in appraising those records and maintaining that order from the creating body. “The principles and practices that have been evolved by archivists in various countries all relate specifically to the conditions in which they receive public records.” The variations in records management in the United States and Canada therefore contribute to the differences in archival practices. Historically records management was not as necessary as it has been in the 20th century due to the significantly fewer records existing to retain. As that changed, despite North American archives having a history that stretches further back than the modern records management profession, records management history is now forever tied to archives.

Modern training in archives and records management has also changed a great deal from pre-modern archives. Developed countries have official archival training programs that are a part of larger institutions; such as national archive services, or more commonly, universities. This allows the use of such an institutions resources, spaces, and appropriate instructors for a higher quality training in correct archival practices and theoretical development. The creation of International standards has also been attempted through Unesco's Records and Archives Management Programme (RAMP), which would have to be adhered to within North America. The standards developed serve more as general guidelines on curriculum for archivist training and tackling major problems, not to impose complete uniformity.

See Also

• Course:ARST573/Archives – History (Ancient)
• Course:ARST573/Archives - History (Medieval)
• Course:ARST573/Archives – History (Early Modern)