Difference between revisions of "Methods & Sources of Historical Research"

Revision as of 13:47, 11 July 2016

Notes from a course on methods and sources of historical research at IHR, 11 July 2016 - 15 July 2016

The Nature of Archives and Primary Source Material

• Notion of difference between primary and secondary sources... but its quite fuzzy
• Primary = unmediated access to past (not processed by another mind)
• Newspapers = a report of what has been told. testimonies are primary but the reporter has chewed thru the material.
• Historians make statements about things which should be believed - by people who don't have access to primary sources
• Having looked at the primary sources = is the reason why people listen to historians
• Does digitization undermine the authority of the historian who derives his/her authority on basis on having the ability to find the primary source material? - should not be - because the historian should define his/her role based on his/her ability to contextualise
• Primary sources tend to be gathered and held in institutions called archives. historians tend to be interested in written material. others look at other types of materials , objects, material culture, etc.
• archive - gatekeepers? destroyed by organisations because deemed not of interest?
• uk? governments destroy 90%? of records - horrifying but also liberating
• previously history was dead white male europeans, now there is a broadening of history
• an archive is a set of staff to administer a procedure of cataloguing and ordering
• the diff between archival and library catalogue is that libraries have certain systems which attempt to divide human knowledge into recognisable chunks
• archive - institutional procedure orders it rather the dewey
• archive - not published material
• library - published
• brick and mortar reality to an archive (not pure virtual)
• talking about it in relation to organisation / but also there is question of power of access / gatekeeper

• point is that we will need to apply a different method of accessing / searching when using archives (compared to libraries) as they are accessed differently

• surrogacy: what is an original? today we like copies, we think of them as being useful.
• digitisation processes
• money, power, etc

• archives -> state / nation building --> even church was doing this

• newspapers - pdf ocr - things missed out: compositor (context of what was around this article, what else would be seen by a real reader of newspaper with many articles), marginalia, emphasis, etc

• Qn to ponder: what is a public record?

Public Records

• public interest, clearly important, to governments, related to the public affairs
• https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-freedom-of-information/what-is-the-foi-act/
• http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/legislation/public-records-act/
• Public Records - "extremely accurate and almost valueless" (as a definition) - it is basically defined by the Public Records Acts
• http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

• 5 year weeding through materials - if they are useful keep, if not useful destroy - a system of reviews / 25 year second weed of material --> designated places of public deposit (local record offices) - see: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/our-archives-sector-role/legislation/approved-places-of-deposit/ (eg: records of surrey might be kept in surrey)

• WHY ARE MOST BOAT RECORDS AT Greenwich , National Maritime Museum? - cos boat stuff seems more suitable there
• WHY IS INDIA OFFICE RECORDS IN BL: Kew rationale that anything outside of English, Latin, French - they have no specialisation, so they gave it to British Library.

Online searching

• http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/advanced-search

National Archives Research Guides

GUIDES! we have to think of it in terms of records being scattered to the wind and for various reasons being held at different places and we have to find out where these archives might be kept. Never give up hope!

• How to look for: Abbreviations in merchant seamen’s records (DECODED!) - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/abbreviations-merchant-seamens-records/
• How to look for: Crew lists and agreements and log books of merchant ships 1747-1860 - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/crew-lists-agreements-log-books-merchant-ships-1747-1860/
• Great list of other maritime history records held by other archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/maritime-history-records-held-by-other-archives/
• Royal Museums Greenwich / National Maritime Museum - http://collections.rmg.co.uk/archive.html#!asearch

Notes

• DEBBIE'S NOTES: copies of letters, drafted until perfect....