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What are archives, anyway?

April 26, 2017Archives

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What are archives, anyway?

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Different people define archives in different ways. The most widely accepted definition is Dr. David B. Gracy II’s: “Archives are the records, organically related, of an entity, systematically maintained because they contain information of continuing value.” In other words, archives aren’t just old, dusty papers lying around, but rather the body of documents created by a person or organization over its lifetime. In reality, though, people rarely keep every document, so most archives collections consist of only one or a few items of historical significance. To learn more about archives and archivists, see: O’Toole, James M. Understanding Archives and Manuscripts. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1990.