The International Conference on the History of Records and Archives 2022 special issue

The International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (ICHORA) has been held on a bi- or tri-annual basis since 2003 (when it was hosted by the University of Toronto). Subsequently, it has been held in Amsterdam (2005; 2015), Boston (2007), Perth (2008), London (2010), Austin (2012), and Melbourne (2017). In 2020, amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, it was held online for the first time, virtually hosted by the University of Michigan’s School of Information. This special issue records its 10th incarnation, when it was again held online, this time from 25 to 29 July 2022 hosted by The National Archives (UK).

Despite its virtual nature, ICHORA10 was strongly rooted in a specific place and time. The year 2022 marked the centenary of two events that have significantly shaped recordkeeping in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first of these, the publication of Sir Hilary Jenkinson’s Manual of Archive Administration has led to a legacy of intellectual tradition that has been critically interrogated in recent years, including in the pages of this journal. The second, the destruction of seven centuries of Ireland’s records in the Four Courts explosion in Dublin, has left a legacy of loss only partially filled by the excellent work behind the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.¹ The reminder of these two centenaries prompted a desire for both reflection and renewal, and it was in this contemplative mood that ICHORA10 had its genesis.

The contemplative mood also extended to the form of the conference. The drama of the radical shift to online events engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic had eased by this point and there was reflection too, on the experience and forms of participation brought about by this change. Another desire was then to undertake experimentation around what had, by that time, become routine and expected in the modes of engagement available.

As a result, what was sent out in late 2021 was not a call for papers around a particular theme or topic, but rather a call for participation around an invitation to do one of the following:

• discover and present stories about aspects of recordkeeping or figures associated with it

• reflect on recordkeeping historiography (the sources, techniques and theories that are used to study and shape the history of recordkeeping).

Two streams or modes of participation were also set out. The first for a short postcard from the past—introductions to people, places, objects, events, or ideas which meant something to their authors in, however they chose to construct, the terms of recordkeeping. The second for a longer reflection; a paper or presentation more in the standard academic mode.

Contributions from the second stream were to constitute the body of the conference, a series of synchronous sessions held over the afternoons of 25–29 July 2022. Contributions from the first were to constitute an online exhibition—‘Postcards from the Past’²—a fascinating and varied miscellany to be browsed as and when the whim took you. Space was also made during the conference week for a less intensive ‘dipping in’ mode of synchronicity. Following the keynote address, a session was held based on a platform that enabled participants to wander their avatars at will, and to chat, poster session like, with some of the postcard authors and others inhabiting that virtual space. There were also two less formal sessions in which content was not pre-programmed, but reflections could be shared.

In planning the conference programme, an attempt was made to group paper contributions along roughly thematic grounds, but as ever many more excellent contributions were received than could be accommodated. To try to be as inclusive as possible, those for whom room could not be made within the main paper sessions were invited to participate in the virtual poster session like event. One of the papers included in this special issue arises from this mode of engagement. The remainder are drawn from just two of the conference’s eight paper panel sessions: ‘Reflecting on records and recordkeeping’ and ‘Reflecting on recordkeeping histories’.

Many papers in the conference took the same broad starting point, exploring the questions of what it is of the things that individuals do that make them archivists and what qualities an entity possesses that makes it a record. The papers included here demonstrate the breadth and diversity of the answers to these basic questions and reflect both the diffuse contemporary use of the term ‘archive’ and the contemporary significance attached to ideas of community and the person. By challenging the idea of the record, archive, and record keeper that was held by the archivists whose centenaries formed ICHORA10’s starting point, the papers in this special edition remind us of the historic embeddedness of the concepts at the heart of what we do and highlight the value of looking to the past to cast the contingency of the present into relief.

In terms of the conference’s aim of renewal, within these covers you will find early-stage reports of historical investigations into recordkeeping pioneers in Malta (Farrugia and Vanesio) and gatherings of recordkeepers in Latin America (Ogass Bilbao). You can learn about a scrap-book competition undertaken across the UK (Watton), and a memorial to the victims of witchcraft trials in Sweden (Willumsen). You can read of the archive of a country house (Brownson) and of a country house as an archive (Bochman and Engseth). These new stories add to those we already know, whilst also prompting reflection as to all those we still do not.

In his keynote address to open the conference, Geoffrey Yeo highlighted the difference between writing the history of the record or archive as a concept and the history of creating and keeping records. He also commented that what distinguishes his work on the history of recordkeeping from that of other disciplines, such as archaeology or anthropology, is his ‘background in archival science.’ While it is difficult to define what these disciplinary distinctions are, it seems undeniable to the editors that they do matter—they do make a difference.

As you read the articles in this special issue, we invite you to reflect on this difference and on the questions it prompts: In what way is the history of archives and records different from history more generally? Is it conducted using different methods to the history of other topics? What does it mean for those who identify as recordkeepers to write the history of records and archives? And finally, when the purpose is to write the history of your own practice, to work through your own identity, is it possible to avoid positioning yourself as either a break from or a continuance of a longer tradition?

Notes

1. Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, ‘Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland’

2. The National Archives, ‘Postcards from the Past’