Here we collect images of archives as imagined and considered by many different people in many different forms. We do so in acknowledgment that archives have long captured the imagination. In novels, films, and academic books, archives appear as open and majestic doorways, secretive and shameful enclosures, metaphors of human memory, pathways to understanding power. They are called forth in dizzying quantities of written materials on every topic imaginable. They preserve materials that convey time travel, crimp history within governmental forms, yet offer too a reminder of the magic and longevity of our human enterprise.
About us as compilers
Susan Tucker worked between 1985 and 2015 at the Newcomb Archives and the Vorhoff Library at Tulane University. Among her publications are Telling Memories Among Southern Women, The Scrapbook in American Culture (with Katherine Ott and Patricia Buckler) and City of Remembering. She is currently co-editor of the letters of Josephine Louise Newcomb (1816-1901).
Camille Craig is a library and information science master’s student at LSU. She currently resides in her hometown of Vancouver, Washington and hopes to further her career in archival sciences.
Shawna Rose Beasley is a Processing Archivist, Newcomb Archives, Tulane University. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) with a Graduate Certificate in Archives and Special Collections from Louisiana State University, complementing her Bachelor of Art in Art History from the University of New Orleans. Her interests in bookmaking and writing poetry reflect her dedication to the arts and her belief in the power of creative expression.
Keeping (and Telling) the Past 