The Archivist’s Nook: Making Memories Through Preservation

Posted on by Shane MacDonald

“Preservation is documents and artifacts, recordings, digital media and all the tangible information that requires our professional advocacy and stewardship–the love and sweat of our labor. However, beyond all of that, most importantly, preservation is MEMORY and memory is the people and the communities who make them…”
– Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty, Preservation Week Honorary Chair

Since 2010, the American Library Association has hosted Preservation Week to encourage libraries and archives to consider their preservation practices but also to educate the public about best practices around preserving the documents, artwork, photographs, and digital records that collectively make up our shared cultural heritage. Each year has a theme, with this year’s being: Is This Thing On? Preserving Memory and Building Archives.

Preservation Week is a time to pause and think about how we are approaching the records under our care, whether you work as a librarian/archivist or are looking after your own or your community’s collection(s).

In past blog posts, we have discussed persistent issues in preservation, strategies for individuals to preserve their personal records, and the challenges involved in preserving digital records. In light of this year’s theme on memory and building archives, I want to step back and get a little philosophical on the importance of preserving one’s records/stories as an exercise in memory creation and archival building.

Your Documents Matter

We can all likely think of personal or familial items that have been preserved through the generations – wedding photographs, family Bibles, love letters, etc. We may even think of records that we keep for legal or financial reasons — tax forms, receipts, deeds, etc. The maintenance of these records — and their passing down — are a form of memory creation. You or your family are preserving the stories that you wish to tell and leaving traces for future generations to reconstruct narratives of the past.

Archives are built upon the documents and the context that surrounds them. Researchers formulate ideas about the past by utilizing these documents to construct narratives.

The satchel and a sample of its contents.

We have many examples in our institutional archives about how personal or familial actions have provided materials for future historians to study the past. For example, we have the correspondence of an Irish-American family during the Civil War. These letters, stored by the family over generations in a chest, have come down to us over 150 years later. We have even received materials saved by families in a small satchel, preserving the story of relief workers during the First World War.

These personal letters provide insights into immigration history, wartime experiences, and local organizations. But it doesn’t mean that records need to tell grand stories to be valuable and worth preserving. Stories of our ancestors, our lives, our achievements, and our emotional journeys are important. We can value a photograph, a letter, or an email simply because it has emotional value to us, our family, or our community. Do not let the idea of being of “institutional value” dictate what records you value and preserve. Protect and encourage the memories you would want to share with the world.

It may feel daunting to preserve the documents you wish to add to our shared memory. But there are a few shorthands that can help ease the process. Remember:

  • Items will always deteriorate over time: No matter what the record — analog or digital — it is not immune to time and the elements.
  • Limited resources necessitate planning: We cannot do everything, so prioritize what objects you wish to preserve and actions you wish to take.
  • This selection process will involve value-laden judgments: When deciding what to keep, you may have your own standards to decide what is most important. Institutional archives have collecting policies to keep our decisions focused and well-documented, but for personal collections, you are okay to make decisions based on historical, monetary, or emotional meaning.
  • Doing something is better than doing nothing: You do not need to be a preservation pro to make a difference. The smallest of actions will make a difference in safeguarding your records.

Preserving Memories

I grew up in Nebraska and spent a lot of time on my maternal grandparent’s farm. In 2016, my family decided to sell the family farm. At that time, it had been in our family for 99 years with generations raised on the land. Understandably, there were a lot of emotions bound up in this decision and fears of subsequent generations losing the connection to “the Farm”.

The family farm, tidied up before the auction, 2016.

During this process, documents were located within the attic that had weathered much over the previous century. These included the original sale note for the land. As this chapter of our family history was ending, the preservation of this document was of great import to us — it would allow us to preserve a small piece of the memory, a memory that we hoped would let future generations know the value of this time in our family’s history.

Recognizing the need to preserve this document, it was removed from similar items and stored separately to be reviewed for further care in the future.

Unfortunately, life gets busy and by 2019, the sales note was at risk. Historic floods hit the Midwest and the document suffered water damage. Despite this setback, I did not give up. I continued to do what could be done to preserve the document: Disaster planning, digitization, and rehousing. There is still a lot of work to be done to save this memory, but the steps taken are still steps made in guaranteeing the preservation of this memory. It is never too late to preserve the documents and stories that are important to you or your community.

We’re all cheering for you!

When discouraged, remember that doing something is better than doing nothing!

Plus, there are some great resources out there to help guide you:

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