Business Commons^™

Old Company Records: The Effect Of Custodial History On The Arrangement And Description Of Selected Archival Collections Of Business Records, Donna Leanne Holmes

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis takes up Terry Cook's idea that through their work, archivists are active shapers rather than passive keepers. In taking this idea further, this thesis discusses case studies comparing the custodial history of the records of four companies that were created in the seventeenth century. Consideration is given to how archival practitioners influenced the arrangement and description of the records of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the English East India Company (EIC), the Royal African Company (RAC) and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) during critical periods of their custodial history.