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The Secret Life Of Archives: Sally Siddons, Sir Thomas Lawrence, And The Material Of Memory, Laura Engel

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

This essay is in two parts, in the first I attempt to map out strategies for considering archival materials through the lens of performance, and in the second I enact or perform some of those strategies through a close reading of a letter from Sally Siddons, daughter of the famous actress Sarah Siddons, to the renown portrait painter and rakish bad boy, Sir Thomas Lawrence. I present a methodology that considers archival researchers as tourists who approach archival objects and images as material for curating a virtual exhibition. I argue that this strategy allows us to recognize and attempt to …