Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Why I Am An Archivist, Randall C. Jimerson Western Washington University

History Faculty and Staff Publications

I knew that Uriah Parmelee had died long ago, but reading the report of his death still made me slump back in my chair. For two days in the spring of 1975 I had been sitting in the reference room at the Duke University Manuscripts Department, reading his Civil War letters. From Parmelee’s enthusiasm as an 1861 Union volunteer, to his disgust with Lincoln’s slowness to embrace emancipation as a war measure, I had followed his military career and political awakening. I admired his commitment to ending slavery and had begun to think of him as a kindred soul. When …