Archival records might include documents such as letters, reports, files, photographs, films, audio recordings, maps and even computer records. An archival agency or institution preserves those records which have enduring value and are worthy of long-term preservation, including those of individuals, institutions and governments.
Most archival materials are unpublished and are often referred to as primary documents.
Reading archival documents (or any historical material) requires a certain amount of critical analysis. In general, you should looking at a document for (a) what material/information it provides and (b) the manner in which it provides that information. Here is a short series of questions that you should keep in mind as you read an archival/historical document.
- What type of document is it? For example, newspaper, letter, memorandum, map, telegram, diary, report, drawing.
- A phone book is different than a diary. Thus, one can expect to extract different kinds of information from different kinds of documents.
- Does the document have any unique physical characteristics? For example, handwritten, typed, colors, signature or
notations.
- What is the date of the document?
- Who was the author of the document?
- Until you know this you know little about the document. Sometimes you can figure this out from the document itself.
- Was the author a political or private individual?
- Was he educated or not?
- Did the author have a particular bias or motive in creating this document?
- Where and how did the author get his information?
- Was s/he an eye-witness or a second-hand witness?
- What are the basic assumptions made by the author?
- For example, did he assume that the reader could understand certain foreign or engineering terms?
- Why was the document written?
- Everything is written for a reason. Is it just a random note, or a scholarly thesis or a political memorandum?
- Who was the intended audience?
- This will tell you about the author's use of language and the knowledge that he assumed on the part of the reader.
- What is the story line or the main point?
- What is going on in the document? What did you learn in reading it?
- What can you learn about the society that produced this document?
- All documents reveal information about the people who produced them. It is embedded in the language and assumptions of the text. Your task in this course will be to learn how to "read," or analyze, a document to extract that information.
- Does this information in the document say more about the author or the subject of the document?
- Can you believe this document?
- Is it reliable? Is it likely?
- Finally, What does this document mean to you?
- This is the "so what" question, but it still requires an answer.