Archives generally play an important role in the building of a nation. They are home to countless sources of information regarding how nations came to be politically, as well as how the social attitudes of countries developed. Jennifer S. Milligan and Durba Ghosh help to explain the role of archives in building a nation.

As readers can see in Milligan’s “What is an Archive?” governments usually have control over their nation’s national archives. This allows the creation of a government to become closely tied with the creation of an archive. An example of this occurred in France, according to Milligan’s piece. The National Archives, in this case, were central to the creation of France in that they developed alongside the nation-state. Rules regarding public access and the importance of different documents changed alongside the different governments. Even at the time did people realize how important archives were to a nation, as the archive of the Archives was created, documenting how the institution came about.

Ghosh, in “National Narratives and the Politics of Miscegenation,” is more concerned with how archives shape the social relations of a nation. In her attempt to study the interracial relationships between British men and Indian women during the time of British colonization, she notices that the attitudes of those at the archives often reflect modern social trends. In Britain, where people like to brag of any Indian heritage they might have, she came across people supportive of her in her research (however, at the time, British did not like to keep records of their illicit relationships with Indian women, making her research more difficult). In India, those she met in the archives were not as accepting of her research topic, since the idea of Indian women having sexual relations outside their race and caste was abhorred. Ghosh concludes that such attitudes reflect the still-present colonial views of both peoples: the British, who once tried to hide any Indian heritage, now like to claim heritage for the purpose of “recolonizing the Indian family yet again and adopting women to the British fold” (pg. 33), while the Indians keep quiet on the subject in an attempt to preserve their independence as well as the idea of the “pure” Hindu woman. Her experiences in the archives reflect the social beliefs of both nations today.

Dickinson College has the privilege of being founded during an important time in American history: three years before the Revolutionary War. Although the archives mostly contain information on the Carlisle area and the founding of the school, the attitudes of those who helped create the school could reflect the attitudes of the country as a whole: keep in mind that the founder of the college signed the Declaration of Independence. In this case, the Dickinson Archives may not contain factual information regarding the building of a nation, like the National Archives of France do, but they can help us understand the social norms of the time, like the archives that Ghosh comes across.