Decolonising the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's Archives Service

ABSTRACT

This article will give an in-depth analysis of our journey in decolonizing the archives of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) which began in 2019 and is ongoing. It will give readers the opportunity to understand how an institution created by the Colonial Office is confronting its history and its colonial legacy, and how the Archives Service is changing its practices in a way that seeks to confront and disrupt the colonial narrative. This has been achieved through an overview of the colonial history of the School by a research fellow and the development of decolonizing principles covering cataloguing practice, archival practice, dissemination, education and inclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Decolonization
• archival practice
• colonial history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. GB 0809 Admin/11/13, “Manson’s speech,” 7.

2. Hatzipanagos, “’The Decolonization’”.

3. Hirsch, “Is it Possible”.

4. Jansen et al., Decolonization in Universities, 2–3.

5. Stoler, “Colonial Archives”; Luker, “Decolonising Archives: Indigenous Challenges”; Bailkin, “Where did the Empire.”

6. Bailkin, “Where did the Empire,” 886.

7. Luker, “Decolonising Archives: Indigenous Challenges,” 112.

8. See note 6 above.

9. Ibid; Elkins, “Looking beyond Mau Mau.”

10. Lowry, Displaced Archives.

11. Stoler, “Colonial archives.”

12. Ibid; Ghaddar and Caswell, “To go beyond”.

13. Hartman, “Venus in two Acts”; Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives.

14. Nuttall, Entanglement, 1.

15. FO2/890, 14–20, 40, “London and Liverpool Schools”.

16. Johnson, ““An All-White Institution””.

17. Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism.

18. Ibid.

19. Ahmed, What’s the Use?

20. Ibid, 5.

21. Anderson, “The Useful Archive”.

22. See note 12 above.

23. See notes 19, 21 above.

24. See note 21 above, 85.

25. Guha, Subaltern Studies; see note 10 above.

26. See note 13 above.

27. Bressey, Empire, Race; Linebaugh and Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra.

28. Chilcott et al., “Against Whitewashing”.

29. Brownson, “Anti-Racism Resources”.

30. Islam, “Diversity”.

31. Chilcott, “Towards Protocols”; Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia; Modest and Lelijveld, Words Matter.

32. Chilcott, “Towards Protocols,” 372.

33. Ibid.

34. Theti, “Archives and Inclusivity”.

35. Bennett, “Decolonising the Archive”.

36. Ibid.

37. Schmidt, “Africa is Not a Country,” 40.

38. Tai, “View of Cultural Humility,” 17.

39. Christen and Anderson, “Towards Slow Archives,” 87.

40. Lewis, “Omelettes in the Stack”; Tai, “View of Cultural Humility”; Caswell and Cifor, “From Human Rights”; Christian and Anderson, “Towards Slow Archives”.

41. Tai, “View of Cultural Humility,” 3.

42. Ibid., 6.

43. Caswell and Cifor, “From Human Rights,” 31.

44. Ibid., 23.

45. McDonald, “First World War Commemoration,” 49.

46. Hirsch, “Decolonising the Archive”.

47. Buchanan et al, “Towards Inclusive Reading Rooms”.

48. Fife and Henthorn, “Brick Walls and Tick Boxes”.

49. Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Victoria Cranna

Victoria Cranna is the Archivist & Records Manager at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She established the LSHTM Archives Service in 2002 and is responsible for managing, preserving and making accessible the historical records of the School and operating the records management service. She makes several contributions to the Archives profession including AIM25 trustee, Higher Education Archives Programme steering group member, ARA Professional Development Programme Assessor and ARA Diversity Ally.

Lioba Hirsch

Lioba Hirsch is a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is the sole researcher on the School-commissioned LSHTM’’s colonial history project for which she undertook extensive research in the LSHTM Archives, covering the period 1899 to 1960. She holds a PhD in Geography and Global Health and works on antiblackness in and the coloniality of global health with a particular focus on the United Kingdom and West Africa.