As Milligan points out during Napoleon’s transformation of the French National Archives, the Archives themselves would become an important institution for the maintenance of not only the State but the social contract it held with its citizens. The transition of the National Archives reflected the gap in where the interests of the state and the interests of the public lied. The archives became a repository for various judicial, administrative, and legal documents and along with that came a restriction to public access. Milligan posits that this restriction set a new line of demarcation for democracy and state-citizen power relations especially in regard to limiting the average citizen and their ability to question state doctrine and contest it through gathering available evidence. Indeed, this new separation of historical science and government administration, “. . . would threaten not just the institution, but the legitimacy of the state as well”(177).

While Milligan’s work explores how a Nation can literally define its identity and construct a narrative for the people, Ghosh gives a more personalized view as to how a persons relationship to national pride and identity can hinder and even oppose historical research if the area of study is controversial. While exploring British colonialism in India and the interracial relationships that were formed, Ghosh received criticism about not only her academic integrity for choosing this specific topic but also experienced attacks on her gender and moral fiber. Native archivists were uninterested and unhelpful and recommended historical nationalist fiction as opposed to legitimate documentation.  Archives and the people who control and use them are central to the creation of national narratives and power because they control the flow of information about the political, social, economic, etc. history of a state and what their true intentions and interests are.

A single drop of water in a dry lake bed may not contribute to filling up a lake but a large thunderstorm has the potential to flood the lake. I believe Dickinson could contribute to the construction of a nation much in the same way. As a single drop of rain or source of information Dickinson could potentially provide information about a burgeoning nation after the Revolutionary War or U.S. relations to the Native American population a la the Carlisle Indian School. As a source for local information that can be weaved in to a larger national narrative I believe the Dickinson College Archive can contribute to nation building.