Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 3)

Whenever I begin a research project, I tend to follow some first key steps in the research process every time. At first, I start with a general search engine, such as Google, and usually read up on the topics Wikipedia page for a general review of what I’m going to be researching (keeping in mind that Wikipedia comes with its flaws and mistakes now and then). Then I turn my focus to databases. Before beginning to search on the topic, I brainstorm several key words and phrases that I think may lead me in the right researching direction. As I find articles that work well with my focus, I look for the keywords section, often placed above the article, to see which words the author designated to represent and bring a basic definition to the article’s topic. When I come across a bigger concept or topic, especially if I find it mentioned in several articles, I will add that to my search to see how the secondary concept applies to my research. In the past this has helped me broaden my search, and I have been more successful in finding primary and secondary sources that address my topic.

The workbook outlined the difference between primary and secondary sources, and also gave several examples of primary sources that may side closer to being secondary sources then originally thought. For example, autobiographies, and often memoirs, can be considered primary sources because the person that they are about writes them. However, the author’s hazy memory, or reliance on friends and family to remember stories and the past, can take away from a single author’s voice being represented.

The workbook also discussed the complications that arise when making inferences about primary and secondary sources. I began to see how skeptically I needed to approach a source after doing the exercise in class where we debated the actual birth date of Benjamin Rush. This past week, while completing the exercises, I found myself picking apart each of the sources more and more because I felt that I couldn’t really be certain about any of them. During the one exercise of having to choose who I thought fired the first shots of the Revolution, I found myself trying to justify my answer by the number of American v. British sources, and other rudimentary details, but then stopping myself midway, realizing those were tendencies that would lead to a poor interpretation of the evidence. Instead, I now know to look at the author and his or her credentials, their connection to the topic, when they wrote and their choice of references. Although I am far from mastering the art of interpreting evidence, I feel that I have gained many tools and tips to improve my skills.

My approach to research and papers normally varies depending on the topic. If I am given a lot of choice on my topic, and only given a specific region or era to go off of, I will read through the relevant Wikipedia pages until I find a topic that I find both interesting and appropriate for a research paper. From there, I will use JumpStart on the Dickinson College website, including both key and broad search terms to look at relevant articles, and begin to hone my topic even farther. As my research progresses, I will begin to look at the sources and footnotes of articles I found particularly helpful, and then use those as new search terms. Sometimes this is helpful, while other times it leads me down a rabbit hole.

However, search engines have their limitations as well. Google Scholar, while helpful, does not always bring up relevant articles, while other times the sites charge exorbitant prices. Some search engines are difficult to use and only helpful while using specific terms. However, the college library website has subscriptions to a wide array of excellent websites, including ones for specific subjects, such as ancient art, or neuroscience. Learning how to navigate these sites and search engines is essential to researching and writing a paper. While this takes some time, now that I have had some experience with them, I feel much better equipped to tackle intimidating research papers.

This week’s reading has not taught me new information, but rather it has articulated thoughts and notions that I had learned from my own experiences, but was not actively aware that I applied them to my work. It has also taught me some terms, such as “summary” versus “limited interpretation” generalizations. While these are not knew concepts, I was not aware of them terms used to describe them. This week’s work has taught me to slow down and carefully examine historical evidence and documents to truly understand its implications and information.

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.

Archives, and the countless documents they hold can be considered the remains of the physical foundations of a nations history. Archival evidence is arguably the most well kept archaeological evidence of the past. But is it the most honest? Paleontologists who uncover bones and fossils are the first people to touch the artifacts for years; their bare hands don’t disorient the evidence until the evidence surfaces for the first time. However, as historians uncover artifacts in an archive, they lay their hands on documents and papers that have been sorted through and filed away by others before them who have sorted through and organized the evidence with more subjective viewpoints. Archivists, as organizers of history, are just as much the deciders of history as the historians that choose what they want to write about and how they want to frame it. Ghosh, in her piece, National Narratives and the Politics of Miscegenation, points this out in her comparison of the archives in Britain to the archives in India. The Indian archive attained bundle of unorganized documents that were unwanted by the British archives. Ironically, it was in these documents that Ghosh eventually found the evidence that she was searching for to complete her research.

As Milligan pointed out in her piece, “What is an Archive,” archives have limited power in telling the stories of history. Milligan’s focus on the debate between burning papers to quell a private family’s concerns or to protect papers in the interests of the archive and public access demonstrates how history can become more molded to the walls of an archive than we realize. In this specific case, the papers were protected and kept safe for future public access. In how many other cases though, were important papers disposed of upon personal and private requests? Milligan’s anecdote cites another example of how the actions taken by archivists have direct effects on the history that is told, remembered and tangible in a nation.

Dickinson’s story begins amidst the story of colonial America and the birth of the nation. It’s close proximity to key cities such as Philadelphia make for an interesting analysis of the college’s archives. Did Dickinson’s location influence what kinds of evidence were stored and how they were stored in the Dickinson archives? For instance, how was the history of the college’s beginnings organized? What is John Dickinson’s presence like within the archives? What is the presence of Native Americans who attended the Carlisle Indian School like? Perhaps story of our nation’s beginning that we recite today is missing a few chapters, or is longwinded at telling others. The answers to questions like these may add to our understanding of the relationships between archives and the histories we learn and teach today.

By McKinley Knoop

As Ghosh notes in her article “National Narratives and Politics of Miscegenation,” the very smell of the archives has been preserved from ages past. Within the archives exists a time and place lost to modernity, from the very smell of the records down to the individual books. Hidden among the numerous records and accounts lies the secret history of nations, remaining in wait for someone to uncover the past. Without the archives to safeguard the remaining remnants of our past, we would be unable unlock the motives and causalities of bygone times. It is through archives that we can read letters from Revolutionary War celebrities John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, as well as from the politically insignificant farmers and peasants. Without archives, historians would have to resort to wild guessing, using modern-day frameworks and lenses to view a historical mystery.
While archives are not necessarily integral to the creation of a nation, they are essential for upholding and supporting its continual existence. In her article “What is an Archive,” Milligan writes of a battle between the recognition of the laws of the state and the preservation of family honor. If Chabrier had allowed the private letters to be burned in order to uphold the Praslin name, he would have compromised the integrity of the archive, while setting precedence for the government to cave to private demands in the future. However, what right did the public have to access private records, to besmirch the name of innocent children? When and why were the public allowed to access the archives? Chabrier’s decision, while not directly influencing the creation of modern France, did set a model for future actions. The national archives of France thus established itself as a place of probity, constructing morals for a new nation.
Were the Dickinson archives the same way? Were they also important for the creation of the United States? While the Dickinson archives did not play the same role as those at say, the Library of Congress, they did play an important role in establishing a system of independent, reliable archives across the United States, unconnected to the whims and impulses of the federal government. Along with thousands of other archives and private libraries across America, the Dickinson archives provide a check to the factuality and inclusiveness of the government archives. If the government decided to erase or destroy certain records of history, our independent documents would be able to account for gaps or inconsistencies. Although the Dickinson archives were not in and of itself important for the creation of our nation, they do play an important role in establishing and maintaining honesty in history.