Interpretive seeing: art in the archive

Abstract

According to recent historical research trends, the iconography within art offers researchers new insight into past events, behaviors, and ideologies. Images tend to capture aspects of the past absent from textual records. Paintings and drawings have been employed by the United States army, past political leaders, and Western explorers to record the surrounding social, political, and/or physical environment. And, paintings often carry ideological arguments and critiques on the surrounding political and economic environment. These art records are creations and participants in the surrounding socio-political environment. As institutions of collective memory and preservers of public documents, archives are obligated to preserve and promote the documentary nature of the iconography within art. This thesis built upon studies in archives (Canadian and American), history, art history, and content-based image retrieval to argue that documentary art belongs in archival repositories. By accepting the documentary contributions of art, archivists serve to expand the documentary record and enhance our understanding of the past.