Collected, Curated, Other?
10am 25 May 2022
As anyone who has perused the contents of an archival catalogue entry for ‘family papers’ will be aware, family collections can contain a huge variety of material, from carefully arranged and annotated family books to piles of unlabelled receipts and old silk shoes. How should we understand the sheer variety of ‘stuff’ which comprises these collections? What ‘hierarchy of value’ enables us to sort the significant and deliberate safekeeping of certain items from seemingly chaotic accumulations of clutter? And is there any merit in doing so?
Speakers: Dr Katie Barclay (University of Adelaide) and Dr Liesbeth Corens (Queen Mary, University of London)
Family Archives and their afterlives in England, 1650-1838 