Archival Resources Research Articles

Revisiting the ‘Darwin–Marx correspondence’: Multiple discovery and the rhetoric of priority

Between the 1930s and the mid 1970s, it was commonly believed that in 1880 Karl Marx had proposed to dedicate to Charles Darwin a volume or translation of Capital but that Darwin had refused. The detail was often interpreted by scholars as having larger significance for the question of the relationship between Darwinian evolutionary biology and Marxist political economy. In 1973–4, two scholars working independently—Lewis Feuer, professor of sociology at Toronto, and Margaret Fay, a graduate student at Berkeley—determined simultaneously that the traditional story of the proposed dedication was untrue, being based on a long-standing misinterpretation of the relevant correspondence. Between the two, and among several other scholars who became their respective allies, there developed a contest of authority and priority over the discovery. From 1975 to 1982, the controversy generated a considerable volume of spilled ink in both scholarly and popular publications. Drawing on previously unexamined archival resources, this article revisits the ‘case’ of the so-called ‘Darwin–Marx correspondence’ as an instance of the phenomenon of ‘multiple discovery’. A familiar occurrence in the natural sciences, multiple discovery is rarer in the humanities and social sciences. The present case of a priority dispute in the history of ideas followed patterns familiar from such disputes in the natural sciences, while also diverging from them in ways that shed light on the significance of disciplinary norms and research infrastructures.

“Printed follyes”: Mountebanks and the Performance of Ambivalence within the Archive

This article analyzes the ability of archival resources to make the especially transient and unstable performances of early modern mountebanks accessible and meaningful for performance studies research. Because mountebanks were itinerant performers and medical practitioners whose multiple roles challenged regulatory authorities and generated few lasting records, this article argues that mountebank performances may be best recovered and accessed by approaching the available archival materials not as records of fact, but of function. Documents like handbills associated with mountebanks were, after all, functional, inviting their readers to witness performances and test medical services. Self-authored documents like bills as well as representational and fictional texts replicate and reenact performative strategies attributed to mountebanks, namely, the cultivation of ambivalent rhetoric and compulsion to independent judgment of truth.

Archives Serving Science: Historic Maritime Records as Sources for Indian Ocean Climate Change Research: Potential and Problems

Climate scientists have identified the establishment of historical baseline data from which to determine degrees of climate change as a significant challenge. In this article the use of ships’ logbooks and other sources for maritime history, to provide evidence of weather and climatic conditions pre-dating the era of modern meteorological data measurements, is discussed. The CLIWOC and TANAP projects utilising international archival resources to provide climatological and related information are examined. The discussion is then focused on the Indian Ocean rim countries and the archival and historical resources that may yield similar information. The article concentrates on sources in the Republic of South Africa, and sources in the Sultanate of Oman and Western Australia are discussed for comparative purposes. Utilising archival sources to provide historical climate-change related data aligns archivists and information scientists with the major imperatives of the South African Government. A beginning can also be made with developing south-south scientific and archival co-operation that can unlock new sources of historical and climatological knowledge.

Unreliable Accounts: How Regulators Fabricate Conceptual Narratives to Diffuse Criticism

Abstract In 2010, the U.S. accounting rulemaker (FASB) updated its longstanding constitution to eliminate “reliability” as a fundamental accounting property. FASB argued that “reliability” was misunderstood in practice and that this amendment clarified its original intent. Drawing on primary archival resources and field interviews with regulators, I provide evidence that the change also sought to legitimize the rise of fair-value accounting. By eliminating the need for accounting to be “reliable,” the change attempted to neutralize concerns about the subjectivity in fair-value estimates. Such subjectivity can facilitate accounting manipulation, and some fair-value rules can be attributed to lobbying by managers who stand to benefit. The change illustrates “conceptual veiling,” wherein regulators, seeking to diffuse criticism, including suspicions of capture, manufacture costly conceptual narratives for justifying their actions.

Better learning through history: using archival resources to teach healthcare ethics to science students

While the use of archives is common as a research methodology in the history and philosophy of science (HPS), training in archival methods is more often encountered as part of graduate-level training than in the undergraduate curriculum. Because many HPS instructors are likely to have encountered archival methods during their own research training, they are uniquely positioned to make effective pedagogical use of archives in classes comprised of undergraduate science students. Further, because doing this may require changing the way HPS instructors think about the aims and varieties of archival research, archivists themselves can be valuable resources in developing archives-based learning activities for science students in HPS classrooms. In this article, we describe an archives-based learning activity developed for a population of primarily pre-medical students in a healthcare ethics class and discuss the pedagogical benefits of this activity. This activity was developed via a collaboration between an HPS instructor (Bursten) and an education archivist (Strandmark). Our hope is that this discussion may serve both as a proof of concept for the use of archives-based learning activities as tools for teaching HPS to science students, and as an argument for the unique benefits that archival engagement can impart to science students.

Dieci inedite schede dantesche di Edoardo Sanguineti: prime ricognizioni nel Fondo Eredi della Wunderkammer

In the early months of 2021 Inter-University Study Center Edoardo Sanguineti got new archival resources from Edoardo Sanguineti’s studio, then collected in the Eredi Sanguineti fund. In the collection of papers, ten typescript tiles stand out, similar to those intended for UTET dictionaries, but probably meant for other destination: indeed, in the ten unpublished tiles the author focused on Dante’s verses honored in Franco Sacchetti’s and Girolamo Savonarola’s works.

An Analysis of Gendering of Space in Historical Hospitals of Anatolia

Medical ethics, clinical practices, as well as privacy considerations affected the gender-space relationship in spaces of healing. Researchers to date have been analysed the historical hospitals of Anatolia in terms of their architecture, planning, art history, history of medicine, and even in terms of their functional systems, but not yet regarding their gendered space segregation. There are also limited studies related to the gender, religion, and secularism in historical hospitals outside of Anatolia. Hence, in this paper, historical hospitals of Anatolia have been chosen as case studies and analysed from the point of gendered perspective including how privacy, religion, culture, and gender issues shaped their architecture and planning. In Ottoman Empire, it is known that among the palace elites, there was limited access of women patients to the male doctors, but documented evidence of female attendants being employed in Ottoman hospitals belongs to later periods. In Ottoman dynasty there were also female patrons constructed hospitals for women and for the general public, demonstrating the power and status of women in the Ottoman palace. In addition, based on travellers’ accounts, old drawings, gravures, and archival resources, it is understood that there were separate units for women in Anatolian historical hospital. Those units included the patients’ rooms, wards, latrines, and even courtyards. The research showed that in Anatolian hospitals as the spaces for physical healing and medical training, gendered-space segregation have been acknowledged, at least to some extent in some certain space arrangements.

“To Make Some Extra Money”: Smuggling and black marketeering by Czechoslovak transport workers (1970s and 1980s)

The paper focuses on various forms of illegal and semi-illegal activities, mainly smuggling and black marketeering as experienced by transport workers during the 1970s and 1980s in former Czechoslovakia. It is based primarily on several dozens of oral history interviews recorded with people from river, sea, air, and road transport. The interview analysis (together with archival resources) shows that while there were significant differences in the scope and types of these “transactions” in various transport fields, the risks and benefits were very similar. The second part reflects on “negotiations” between the uses of the opportunity to obtain money and goods abroad (sometimes in semi-illegal or illegal ways) and the fear of losing this chance, and eventually of losing the job, which was one of the most common punishments. This was a great threat, often more for the very love of the profession than for material benefits.

Archival Brand Management: Theoretical Fundamentals and Prospects

The purpose of the article is to explore the content, main directions, tasks, prospects of archival brand management in Ukraine. The research methodology is based on a system of modern basic scientifi c approaches of interdisciplinary, sociocommunication, system content and a set of general scientific methods, including methods of deduction, induction, modeling, abstraction, structural-system analysis, comparative studies, etc. The general tendencies of development of archival science of modern Ukraine are investigated, the evolution of science from critical archival studies to the newest interdisciplinary searches, one of which is archival brand management is pointed out. At the same time, genetic, comparative, generalizing methods, as well as structural-systemic methods were used. The object-subject sphere of research led to the application of the sociocommunication method, which made it possible to present the archive as a complex information system. The scientifi c novelty of the research lies in the actualization of the newest direction – archival brand management, as a fact of objective necessity and importance for the development of archival business. The content of the basic terms and concepts of archival brand management is determined, its expediency is substantiated, and the models of brand identity for corporate brand management, the basic directions, tasks, prospects are offered. Conclusions. Talking about archival fi eld as a specifi c area of application, one should consider brand management as a set of measures aimed at maintaining a system of values which form, in society, a distinctive image and status of an archivist and of an archive as a multifunctional and socio-communicational institution. According to its functional purpose, archival brand management is designed to form and maintain a positive image of the archive as an institution and profession of archivist, based on a system of corporate content and a strong foreign information policy aimed at developing a competitive environment between institutions of culture, science, education, etc. to ensure the promotion of archival resources, products, services in the information market. The leading branding strategy is to develop a brand identity, the success of which is the quantitative and qualitative growth of the target audience. For the success of branding in the archival industry, it is advisable to resort to a number of managerial, organizational, personnel, and other changes, focusing on long-term brand management programs.

A „Katolikus Akció” néven társult szervezkedés Marosvásárhelyen és Ágotha Endre papi életútja

With the available archival resources and through exploring the life, work and political actions of Endre Ágotha, the dean and parish priest of Nyárádselye I trace the unfolding and failing of the schismatic catholic peace movement legitimated in Marosvásárhely in the period 1950-1956. The state backed “Catholic Action” did not succeed in severing the Catholic Church in Romania from Rome by settling the “pending cases” between the church and the state and only a small portion of the clergy joined the movement, yet it has made significant moral damages by dividing the believers and the clergy. The Holy See condemned the movement and it’s key figure Endre Ágotha has brought upon himself the harshest punishment of the Catholic Church: excommunicates vitandus. He received absolution only on his deathbed.

Early Life Leadership Dimensions of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: An Exceptional Political Leadership Model

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was an unparallel political leader of Bangladesh who gained leadership qualities from the early days of life. He is popularly known as Bangabandhu and was a great philanthropist. Mujib was the unique political personality and the creator or father of the nation of Bangladesh. His 'Historic 7 March Speech' of 1971 now is the documentary heritage in the Memory of the World Register of UNESCO-United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. By his captivating leadership, the people of Bangladesh snatched the country's independence. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman captured the ideals of life, education and learning of the love and sympathy to the people, communal harmony, securing the right of the 'have not' people since his boyhood. These leadership traits made Sheikh Mujibur Rahman an exception character ever since his early days, and peoples are knowledgeable about his trademarked political career and venerated his artisanship in crafting Bangladesh. However, the concept of childhood leadership that Mujib belonged merely came to light. This article aims to examine the significant small events of domestic surroundings, dynastic background and family education, schooling, right-based activities, and the gradual involvement in the country's politics of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. These fundamental elements translated into charismatic and democratic political leadership and made him a tremendous humanitarian personality. As a method, analyzing the archival resources and related published literature as books and journal articles, this study has crafted a vivid picture of an unsophisticated but the foundation of moral learning of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from early life. The significant result of this study is that it would present an exceptional model of political leadership and fulfil the gap about the information over his early life leadership. Most importantly, the outcome will provide the leadership capability to achieve goals personally set by the Mujib through his distinguishing attributes and response to the social and environmental situation during early life that would contribute to the discourse of political leadership studies.

A bodily mental lexicon: Documenting a choreographer’s method through a multimodal archival resource

A bodily mental lexicon: Documenting a choreographer’s method through a multimodal archival resource

Taking the Livonians into the Digital Space

The Livonians are a Finno-Ugric nation indigenous to Latvia. They are presently the most endangered culture in the European Union and their language is one of the most endangered languages in the world. The Livonian speech community lost its last compactly inhabited territory during the Soviet occupation of Latvia and since then has experienced a steady but continuous loss of Livonian language speakers. Today, only approximately 20 people are able to hold a conversation in Livonian. While presently living scattered across Latvia, with their language no longer used as a medium of daily interaction, the Livonian community has taken this challenging reality and turned it to its advantage in its approach to creating language resources from a limited set of human and archival resources. This article is devoted specifically to the subject of digital humanities in the service of endangered languages and cultures. Understanding the specifics of endangered and especially critically endangered languages and cultures, which actually form the majority of the world’s cultural and linguistic diversity, is critically important both in building tailor-made digital resources for such communities and applying ready-made instruments for their benefit. This article offers a broader picture of the challenges and opportunities that developers of digital resources for critically endangered languages and cultures have to take into account, based on the Livonian experience. The article summarises and presents some of the findings and ideas deriving from the creation of digital resources and tools for the Livonian language and culture, approaches for overcoming a lack of resources and limited data issues, as well benefits and experiences that low resource – especially extremely low resource – cultures and languages can derive from the Livonian experience.

Wikidata Support in the Creation of Rich Semantic Metadata for Historical Archives

The research question this paper aims at answering is the following: In an ontology-driven annotation system, can the information extracted from external resources (namely, Wikidata) provide users with useful suggestions in the characterization of entities used for the annotation of documents from historical archives? The context of the research is the PRiSMHA project, in which the main goal is the development of a proof-of-concept prototype ontology-driven system for semantic metadata generation. The assumption behind this effort is that an effective access to historical archives needs a rich semantic knowledge, relying on a domain ontology, that describes the content of archival resources. In the paper, we present a new feature of the annotation system: when characterizing a new entity (e.g., a person), some properties describing it are automatically pre-filled in, and more complex semantic representations (e.g., events the entity is involved in) are suggested; both kinds of suggestions are based on information retrieved from Wikidata. In the paper, we describe the automatic algorithm devised to support the definition of the mappings between the Wikidata semantic model and the PRiSMHA ontology, as well as the process used to extract information from Wikidata and to generate suggestions based on the defined mappings. Finally, we discuss the results of a qualitative evaluation of the suggestions, which provides a positive answer to the initial research question and indicates possible improvements.

Ottomans: Unwanted Immigrants in Brazil at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

Abstract This article addresses the Ottoman migration to Brazil from current Lebanon and Syria. The article explores reasons for the migration, the Ottoman State’s attitude towards this migration and the measures taken to control it. It also analyses the socio-economic and political relations between the Ottoman State and Brazil, and the socio-economic situation of the Lebanese and Syrians who migrated to Brazil as well as the attitude of the Brazilian government. In addition, the article highlights the attitude of the Brazilian government to Lebanese and Syrian migrants. The article is mostly based on Ottoman archives accessed through the State Archives Department of the Turkish Presidency. These documents give a distinctive character to the article compared with other studies in this field, namely that it is one of very few focusing on migration from Lebanon and Syria to Brazil in the Ottoman period that uses archival resources of the country of emigration.

Materials Development for an Archival Science Course in Iran: An ESP Mixed Methods Study

This study addressed the demand for an ESP course for Archival Science, a profession often overlooked in Iran. The existing literature offers little research on specific materials for Archival Science students; hence there is a paucity of relevant materials in this field. The present study explored the development of printed materials for an ESP course conducted in the National Library and Archives of Iran to compensate for the absence. It examined the effectiveness of using such materials on the language learning of a group of archivists taking part in a 16-sessions mid-career course in Archival Science. The needs analysis processes, course design, materials development, teaching and learning, and evaluation were followed to achieve the objectives. The results demonstrated that the newly developed materials compared to materials prepared for other ESP courses could considerably promote the participants’ proficiency. The developed materials were archival, work-related, and professional-based resources and had significant effects on participants’ language learning. The study revealed that focusing on the learners’ specific educational needs in their workplace and incorporating authentic, practical materials in ESP courses would improve language learning and skill development in archivists.

Conflicts over common rights to cattle grazing on common lands and manorial properties in Austrian Galicia (1772–1918)

AbstractThe research presented in this article concerns common rights to cattle grazing on common lands and manorial properties in nineteenth-century Austrian Galicia. The findings – obtained by analysing sources from archives and libraries in what is now Ukraine – shed light on the right of peasants and townspeople to graze cattle, along with the circumstances and sources of mass social antagonisms. The rich archival resources permitted a representative group of sources concerning each type of existing conflict to be chosen. The key research problems addressed in this article are the sources for a variety of disputes and their impact on relations between the main social groups and people’s standard of living, the processes of pauperisation and modernisation, and the consequences of abolishing these common rights.

Scratching the surface: the use of sheepskin parchment to deter textual erasure in early modern legal deeds

Historic legal deeds are one of the most abundant resources in British archives, but also one of the most neglected. Despite the millions that survive, we know remarkably little about their manufacture, including the species of animal on which they were written. Here we present the species identification of 645 sixteenth–twentieth century skins via peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS), demonstrating the preferential use of sheepskin parchment. We argue that alongside their abundance and low cost, the use of sheepskins over those of other species was motivated by the increased visibility of fraudulent text erasure and modification afforded by the unique structure of their skin.

Examining Democratic and Republican National Committee Party Branding Activity, 1953–2012

Recent scholarship on the role of national party organizations in American politics—specifically, the Democratic and Republican National Committees—has argued that political science research has thus far undervalued the importance of these organizations. These studies have noted the importance that party leaders—including presidents, Congressional leaders, and governors—place on the national committees’ role in shaping a party brand. Notably, these studies are all qualitative historical accounts—perhaps because finding consistent quantitative data from within the DNC and RNC across time is complicated due to limitations in access to archival resources across both parties and time. I present a new quantitative data set measuring DNC and RNC activity on the basis of an external source: New York Times coverage of national committee activity in the period 1953–2012. I use this data to test the claim that, while “party branding” is a core national committee goal, the DNC and RNC do not consistently engage in it. I find that monthly New York Times references of party branding operations decline for parties that hold the White House. Meanwhile, coverage of other service operations does not decline, suggesting committees step back their branding role when their party has control of the executive branch of the federal government.

Blockchain for social memory institutions: Functional value and possibilities

De-centralized storage and the closely-coupled related constancy of loaded data, immunity against hacker attacks, transaction history recording and complete transparency make the blockchain technology attractive not only for developing cryptocurrencies and economic transactions. The author reviews the world experience in applying the technology to various activities of social memory institutions and, in particular, individual programs based on the blockchain. The technology enables to provide control and insurance for pieces of art, to ensure copyright, to prevent illegal copying, to store digital copies and ori- ginal works created in the digital environment, to integrate resources using the key functionality of distributed databases. The possibilities and prospects for Russia are evaluated; the need for regulative foundation to define core functionality and legal liability of blockchain processes is emphasized. The possibility for using the technology for building the single knowledge space as the integrative model of digital museum, archival and library resources is analyzed.