70.Historical Perspectives on Records and Recordkeeping. Understanding the historical development of the profession and the nature of records and recordkeeping systems is critical for understanding the field. Too often current debates and discussions occur within the records professions without a suitable historical context, meaning that the discussions cannot really fathom the full implications of the particular issue. While there has been a steady writing about the history of archives and records within the field, there is an increasing amount of research and writing being done on these topics by individuals from other disciplines. An understanding of the nature of the archival community's interest in its own history is described in my cluster of essays, "American Archival History: Its Development, Needs, and Opportunities," American Archivist 46 (Winter 1983): 31-41; "On the Value of Archival History in the United States," Libraries & Culture 23 (Spring 1988): 135-51;"Library History and Library Archives," Libraries & Culture 26 (Fall 1991): 569-93; and "The Failure or Future of American Archival History: A Somewhat Unorthodox View," Libraries & Culture 35 (Winter 2000): 141-154.

71.Some of the best historical articles describe the origins and subsequent development of the principles of records and archival administration. The pioneer in such writing was the archivist Ernst Posner, principally in his Archives in the Ancient World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972) and American State Archives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964). The former is a pioneering examination of the origins of archives in ancient Greece, Rome, and the Mesopotamian region. The latter is a commissioned analysis of American government archives, with both state-by-state descriptions and chapters summarizing the development of these programs. Luciana Duranti, "The Odyssey of Records Managers," Records Management Quarterly (July 1989): 3-6, 8-11 and (October 1989): 3-6, 8-11 provides the broadest portrait of the roles of archivists. Nancy Bartlett, "Respect des Fonds: The Origins of the Modern Archival Principle of Provenance," Primary Sources & Original Works 1, nos. 1/2 (1991): 107-115; Maynard Brichford, "The Origins of Modern European Archival Theory," Midwestern Archivist 7, no. 2 (1982): 87-101; and Brichford, "The Provenance of Provenance in Germanic Areas," Provenance 7 (Fall 1989): 54-70 provide an insight on how such basic concepts developed in the European crucible of archival theory, and they are especially good at reminding us that they are not just about theoretical concepts but that they emerged in relationship with real records and recordkeeping systems. Lawrence J. McCrank, "Documenting Reconquest and Reform: The Growth of Archives in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," American Archivist 56 (Spring 1993): 256-318 provides a glimpse into a much earlier society than ours undergoing a revolution in records production and struggling with how to manage these records., "The Incunabula of Archival Theory and Practice in the United States: J. C. Fitzpatrick's Notes on the Care, Cataloguing, Calendaring and Arranging of Manuscripts and the Public Archives Commission's Uncompleted 'Primer of Archival Economy,'" American Archivist 54 (Fall 1991): 466-82 is one of the best examples of an in-depth analysis of the origins of cataloguing standards in the archives field, especially for its use of archives in understanding the emergence of standardized approaches to records descriptions.

72.That the development of archives is not merely a simple story of progressively better management of records can be seen in the emerging debate about the origins of ancient records and archives. James P. Sickinger's Public Records and Archives in Classical Athens (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999) is a response to Rosalind Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) and Thomas is a response to Posner’s Archives in the Ancient World. Posner, the most prominent archival historian of the twentieth century, stresses the consolidation of archives and records operations into centralized and authoritative organizations. Thomas, investigating literacy, believed Posner had superimposed modern ideas of records and archives onto the ancient world. Thomas, instead of seeing the gradual change to more efficient records programs, saw a more panoramic movement to the fourth century when a "new spirit of professionalism creeps in and the written word seems to be accorded greater respect" (p. 14). Athens became "document-minded," but she put the focus on the stone steles Posner had seen as merely convenience copies or symbolic representations of written documents.

73.Sickinger, a classics professor, disagrees with Thomas about the progress to a "document-minded" society and sees instead that the use of stone inscriptions was quite limited and quite peripheral to either records or archives. Sickinger sees the fourth century establishment of an archives building as part of a long, slow process that does not necessarily represent progress but instead reflects a mixed bag of approaches to the administration of records. Most telling for readers of Sickinger's study is his repeated reference to the fact that we really do not know much about how recordkeeping and archives were viewed by the ancients. At the start of his book, the classicist writes that the origins of public recordkeeping are "obscure" (p. 8) and the bulk of his writing supports this. Remarkably, the nature of Sickinger's argument is more in line with what Posner wrote three decades ago, except that Posner writes with a greater authority about what ancient archives represented. With Posner one sees the connection to modern records regimes, with Sickinger one finds how much we still do not know, and with Thomas we perhaps see that studies of orality/literacy tend to flavor the nature of what we conclude about document-mindedness (detecting a stronger reliance on records and writing than actually existed). Given that the massive numbers of studies about orality/literacy have become a major source of documentation about records and recordkeeping for modern records professionals, it may be that modern records professionals need to look at this a bit more closely as they draw conclusions about the evolution of archives and records management.

74.With all this, however, there is much that one can glean from a reading of the more recent study by Sickinger, even if risking a false reading of modern attitudes and approaches on past practices. For example, at one point Sickinger describes how "not all Athenian public records were housed in the Metroon [the central archives]. Athenian magistrates continued to keep their own records of business they oversaw, and although copies of some of these may have been transferred to the Metroon, not all were, and the Metroon's character as a central archive was limited" (pp. 192-193). This provides a useful dose of reality in the current debates about archival custody, vis-à-vis electronic records management, where some write as if centralization was always the norm and always the only logical objective. If nothing else, an immersion into the new archival history wars suggests the need for those with sensitivity to records and archives to investigate and question assumptions about their profession and institutions.

75.Historians and other researchers interested in topics such as orality and literacy have written some excellent studies with insights on the development of recordkeeping and, sometimes, archives. The first edition of M. T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066- 1307 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979; rev. ed. 1991 Blackwell) was a pioneering study and it has been much commented upon and imitated by other scholars interested in how writing took hold as the dominant means of communication. Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (London: Cambridge University Press, 1986) and many of his other writings have looked at this topic the most broadly, discerning interesting connections to religion, culture, government, and other socio-economic factors with the emergence and subsequent use of writing and recordkeeping systems. One of the most comprehensive volumes is Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), providing a panoramic sweep of the origins of writing (with many references to recordkeeping) in human society. Patrick J. Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) provides an interesting contrast to Clanchy's work, especially in how the medieval scholars and chroniclers often fabricated evidence; for more on how the concept of forgery and fabrication has changed, consult Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990). Finally, Tamara Plakins Thornton, Handwriting in America: A Cultural History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996) considers the cultural implications of handwriting manuals, instructors, and practice with numerous implications for early recordkeeping and autograph collecting; Thornton’s volume is extremely useful for archivists working with eighteenth and nineteenth century personal, family, and business records because of its many references to the principles on which individuals were taught to write and record.

76.Some historians of information technology have provided a historical context for understanding the more recent development of records and recordkeeping systems. James R. Beniger, The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986) is the best known of such histories, examining the development of office technology (among other things) from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Information on the history of recordkeeping can be found in unlikely places. Mary Poovey, A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998) is a study about the development of attitudes about the emergence of the concept of the “fact” in Britain from the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. Poovey provides a lengthy discussion of the rise of double-entry bookkeeping, “one of the earliest practices where a prototype of the modern fact was generated” (p. 29). Poovey’s study, dense and complicated, also considers other information sources such as newspapers and periodicals as well as records systems created to produce statistics. Such analyses demands that the records professions develop a better means for creating and maintaining reading lists on the evolution of writing, archives, and records systems.

77.There have also been studies of specific types of records, especially diaries and letter writing. One of the best introductions to diary writing is Thomas Mallon, A Book of One's Own: People and Their Diaries (New York: Hungry Minds Publishing, 1984), an informative account of the various types of diaries kept, their purposes, why some were published and others not, and so forth. Suzanne L. Bunkers and Cynthia A. Huff, eds., Inscribing the Daily: Critical Essays on Women’s Diaries (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996) considers diary writing as part of an activity assisting women in maintaining their own private space and in fostering their unique identities. The most useful essay in this volume is by Lynn Z. Bloom, skillfully comparing and contrasting the characteristics of private and public diaries, considering purpose, scope, style, form, structure, and other attributes. Andrew Hassam, Sailing to Australia: Shipboard Diaries By Nineteenth-Century British Immigrants (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1995) is an interesting study about how diaries were created not just to document experiences but to help others in their journeys to this new world. Alexandra Johnson, The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life (New York: Anchor Book, Doubleday, 1997) provides a literary perspective, considering how writers use diaries to support their writing or how they write diaries as a form of literary expression. Johnson examines seven female writers and why and how they kept diaries and the relationship of these diaries to their literary pursuits. James G. Moseley, John Winthrop's World: History As A Story, The Story As History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992) considers the nature of Winthrop's journal in the settlement of seventeenth century Massachusetts. One might ask how the insights by these historians and literary scholars on diary writing have or have not affected the manner in which archivists appraise, describe, and administer their examples of diary writing. To date, there have been no efforts to relate this external scholarship to the day-to-day labors of records professionals.

78.The most outstanding exploration of diary writing is Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), a study emphasizing the extraordinary insights very ordinary documents can provide. Ulrich describes Ballard as an unofficial town historian, as well as exploring the very personal reasons why she keeps this diary for so long. What makes this publication even more interesting is a film of the same title. Based on the diary kept by Maine midwife Martha Ballard from 1785 to 1812 and drawing from the Pulitzer Prize winning book about Ballard and the diary by historian Ulrich, the 90-minute film is both a powerful story about early frontier conditions and the meaning and nature of diary writing. The film provides a closer understanding of the meaning of personal recordkeeping. Ulrich’s depiction of Ballard’s role as an unofficial town historian ought to play a substantial role in how such ordinary journals are considered by archivists, and it would be interesting to know just what sort of impact it has had through the past decade.

79.We are discovering much more about how early, particularly seventeenth century, Americans used and thought of records and information, and this knowledge is helpful for understanding our present situation. A useful book for teaching about archives and records is Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity (New York: Vintage Books, 1999). Lepore’s study is not about records but it is about paper, books, ink, and volumes forming a critical part of being white, colonial, and English. Lepore demonstrates that this late seventeenth century conflict was as much about waging war as it was about writing and fighting for the meaning of the war. The historian argues that learning to read and write by Native Americans was the first step towards cultural conversion, putting Native Americans at a distinct disadvantage in winning conflicts with the English. This study provides an excellent context for the development and importance of literacy and recordkeeping.

80.Another study concerning seventeenth century records, and one of the most intriguing historical studies on recordkeeping to appear in years, is Donna Merwick, Death of a Notary: Conquest and Change in Colonial New York (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1999). Merwick’s study follows the life of Adriaen Janse van Ilpendam, a Dutch émigré to New Netherland, whose career as a notary leads him to an uncertain existence after the English take over and their language replaces Dutch as the official language. In fact, the notary takes his own life in 1686, as his place in society has all but evaporated. The historian provides many insights into the importance and nature of records in the seventeenth century. In addition to describing the work of a notary and the sources for a notary’s authority, Merwick discusses how the notary’s papers form a sort of archives and uses considerable iconographic evidence to reveal how a notary’s activities supported both government and private life in the colonial era. Merwick relates an ironic tale as writing and recordkeeping become more important in the growing colonial settlement, but the Dutch notary’s form of records service fades in significance. One of the beauties of this study is the historian’s remarkable in-depth research into existing documentation in both this country and Europe to recreate the struggles of the notary (as recounted in the detailed “notes and reflections” section at the conclusion of the study). For example, Merwick reveals the notary's struggles with English through the misspellings and other problems with the documents at the end of the notary's life. Merwick’s book is a moving story, one with poignancy for today’s recordkeeper struggling with technology, technique, authority, and status. Merwick’s book, as the subtitle suggests, is intended to be an exploration into cultural change. The last paragraph of the study suggests that Janse had to “read the performances of each cultural system in such a way as to find enough meaning to survive, if not to prosper or acquiesce with equanimity. While others could do it, he could not” (p. 186). While Merwick wonders about such struggles of three centuries ago, there is much to ponder for the modern recordkeeper and his or her own cultural transitions.

81.Organizational recordkeeping’s evolution is a topic that has still not received enough attention, although knowledge managers and other modern information specialists focus on how records (among many other information sources) are used. One of the preeminent examples of this historical analysis is Barbara Craig, "Hospital Records and Record-Keeping, c. 1850-c. 1950 Part I: The Development of Records in Hospitals," Archivaria 29 (Winter 1989-90): 57-87 and "Hospital Records and Record-Keeping, c. 1850-c. 1950 Part II: The Development of Records in Hospitals," Archivaria 30 (Summer 1990): 21-38. A number of studies also consider how information technology has transformed the office, especially how it affected the roles of various types of workers and women. Margarey W. Davies, Woman's Place Is At the Typewriter: Office Work and Office Workers 1870-1930 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982) is an example of such a study, and it is rich in its discussions about the nature of emerging office technologies and their impact on office work. Graham S. Lowe, "'The Enormous File': The Evolution of the Modern Office in Early Twentieth-Century Canada," Archivaria 19 (Winter 1984-85): 137-151 examines the same period.

82.One of the oldest types of writing about the history of records has been about particular groups of records either that are contested or that represent stories of famous discoveries. Paul Russell Cutright,. A History of the Lewis and Clark Journals (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976) describes the history of the journals, especially the contest about whether they were public or privately owned documents. The reason these kinds of studies are prepared is because they make for good stories, just as writings about collecting often do. This may be why there are so many writings on the origin and development of historical societies and archival programs. The development of American archival programs has been well, but not thoroughly, described. Classic explorations of this topic include Leslie W. Dunlap, American Historical Societies 1790-1860 (Madison, WI: Privately printed, 1944); Victor Gondos, Jr., J. Franklin Jameson and the Birth of the National Archives 1906-1926 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981); H. G. Jones, For History's Sake: The Preservation and Publication of North Carolina History, 1663-1903 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966); Donald R. McCoy, The National Archives: America's Ministry of Documents 1934-1968 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978); David D. Van Tassel, Recording America's Past: An Interpretation of the Development of Historical Studies in America 1607-1884 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960); Timothy Walch, ed., Guardian of Heritage: Essays on the History of the National Archives (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985); and Walter Muir Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies: An Enquiry Into Their Research and Publication Functions and Their Financial Future (Boston: Boston Athenaeum, 1962).. For a very personal, and unique, contribution to the development of archival programs see Robert M. Warner, Diary of a Dream: A History of the National Archives Independence Movement, 1980-1985 (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1995).

83.Another useful group of studies concerns how particular societal groups create records and other information sources. Important studies of this ilk include Anne Ruggles Gere, Intimate Practices: Literacy and Cultural Work in U.S. Women's Clubs, 1880-1920 (Urbana: University of Illinois press, 1997). Intimate Practices provides a view of how women’s groups created identity for these women through reading, writing, performing, and education – all contributing to the formation of an “alternative public” through “intimate practices”. Many of these activities were built about the maintenance of files of their activities, from minutes to scrapbooks to the publications. One of the interesting points made by the author is that many of these clubs were reluctant to put their materials into archives because of a general public tendency to view these groups “negatively” (p. 3) and because of the predilection to form a “lack of appreciation” for the value of these records (pp. 3, 45).

84.Scholars of rhetoric and communications have also contributed to our understanding of how certain records are created. Carol Gelderman’s All the President’s Words: The Bully Pulpit and the Creation of the Virtual Presidency (New York: Walker and Company, 1997) documents how our twentieth century Presidents’ use of speechwriters has moved from having them intimately involved in policy making (since the working on speeches often led to changes in the policies themselves) to having them completely uninvolved and often distant from the President, what she terms the “virtual” Presidency. The book stimulates one to reflect on how recordkeeping systems are created and used, and certainly Presidential speechwriting creates what appears to be an important body of public records.

85.A recent study provides an interesting way of assisting students comprehend how the public views archives and historical manuscripts. Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998) provides an important answer to the question about whether Americans are interested in the past or not. As they summarize, based on an extensive survey of a cross-section of the populace, “Almost every American deeply engaged the past, and the past that engages them most deeply is that of their family” (p. 22). The book makes many references to the creation of diaries, photographic albums, and other such documents and the interaction of Americans at historic sites and history museums. This is a useful volume for archivists and other records professionals to read, since it provides some important clues as to how Americans approach sources and the potential of archives to be used more widely. For a glimpse into one aspect of the nineteenth century antecedents to such matters, see Shawn Michelle Smith, American Archives: Gender, Race, and Class in Visual Culture (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999), examining how “photographic archives” transformed the ways Americans looked at themselves and others in the 1839-1910 period. The photographic archives are not institutional archives but the processes enabling new forms of photographs, ranging from calling cards, carte-de-visites, cabinet cards, family photograph albums, to police photographic records. As the author states, this is not a history of photography but “an examination of visual paradigms that fundamentally influenced the conception and representation of American identities” (p. 7). The study “examines how nineteenth-century middle-class Americans utilized visual conceptions of identity to claim a gendered and racialized cultural privilege” (p. 4). Much of the study leaves one unconvinced as to the real degree that photographs contributed to issues of gender, race, and class, as ordinary photographs and photographic processes are over-interpreted. But there is some discussion that seems truly compelling, such as the connection of family photographs to the eugenics movement of the period. Smith’s work will provide a different perspective on those photographs residing in archives, government repositories, and family closets.