CHM Reading Group presents Fear and Loathing in the Archive

Using archival sources for our historical research can be challenging. Have you felt intimidated by the physical environment of the archive repository, and the mysteries and silences of its reading room? Or baffled by complexity of on-line catalogues where word searches are not finding what you want, or your terminology doesn’t fit the cataloguing standards? Or perhaps you are comfortable with the archives you have seen, but unsure what archives you have missed?

For our first reading lunch of the new term, we would like to invite you to share both the difficulties and success stories of your own archive research as well as considering some short readings on the topic of sense-making in the archive. The first reading is from a social science perspective - Lipartito’s chapter in the book Organisations in Time. History, Theory, Methods. The second reading is a short extract from Jordanova’s book, History in PracticeHistory in Practice. Our session will include contributions from experts in archival research, but the main point is for us to share thoughts on how archival research can be made easier and more valid.

We will provide a light lunch, so let us know if you intend coming.

Katie Gardner and Katey Logan