Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Chain Of Custody: Access And Control Of State Archival Records In Public-Private Partnerships, Sarah E. Carlson

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

As I write this, Ancestry.com is a central party in a lawsuit with the organization Reclaim The Records, citing that it, a private corporation, received preferential priority and access to public records before individual patrons of the public in Freedom of Information requests for genealogical records.^[i] Concern that public records may move into private hands demarcates an increasingly digital realm of record-keeping and public history. As companies and the public jockey for access to records in a race for access – one open and the other annexed behind a paywall – the blatant corruption is alarming. Yet, public records …

How Archives Shape Our Collective Memory: A Re-Examination Of The Library Of Congress’ American Memory Collection Of The 1936-1938 Federal Writers Project’S Collection Of Former Slave Narratives And Concomitant Questions Of African American Cultural Knowledge Production, Renee Neely

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

The massive compilation of oral histories of formerly enslaved African Americans by the Federal Writers Project, was an ambitious project. This case study raises questions surrounding the Collection’s provenance within its socio-political framework and its enduring legacy.

Additionally, this examination pursues areas of cultural knowledge production cited within the narratives, that merit further study. A discussion surrounding the conscious or unconscious, outcome of archival practice, and its ability to shape our historical record is the goal of this investigation.