Archival Silences and Avenues to Address Them: A Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Why do certain groups lack scholarship representing their histories? My curiosity led me to archives and then to archival silences. Thematically organized, this literature review on archival silences begins by identifying and characterizing archival silences. Defining characteristics include that archival power influences the creation of archival silences, archival silences are inevitable, and these silences impact, though not exclusively, marginalized communities. From a working understanding and definition, section two provides a general starting point with which to address archival silences, including identification, adjustment of archival practices and community inclusion, and creation of alternative archives. The article concludes by offering avenues for further study based on the literature review's limitations.

KEYWORDS:

• Archives
• archival silence
• collective memory and history
• social justice
• address archival silences

Acknowledgments

This article was originally written for the course INFO: 601-01: Foundations of Information, taught by Dr. Irene Lopatovska at the Pratt Institute's School of Information. Ellery Bruns is currently a MSLIS candidate at Pratt, and she would like to thank Dr. Lopatovska for her support, guidance, and encouragement through the preparation of this work.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Rodney G. S. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence,” Archivaria 61, no. Spring (2006): 216; Valerie Palmer-Mehta, “'It's The Truth About Women – That We Get Lost': Andrea Dworkin, Public Memory, and Archival Resilience,” The Quarterly Journal of Speech 108, no. 3 (2022): 297, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2022.2088839; Joan M. Schwartz and Terry Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory,” Archival Science 2, no. 1–2 (2002): 13, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02435628.

2. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 220–22; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 1–3.

3. Society of American Archivists, “Archival Silence,” Dictionary of Archives Terminology, https://dictionary.archivists.org/entry/archival-silence.html (accessed November 25, 2023).

4. Randall C. Jimerson, Archives Power: Memory, Accountability, and Social Justice (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2009), 10–11.

5. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 216.

6. Jimerson, Archives Power, 2–9.

7. Ibid.

8. Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 2.

9. Ibid., 2–6.

10. Ibid., 2, 13–14.

11. Jimerson, Archives Power, 4.

12. Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 10–13.

13. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, quoted in Michael Moss and David Thomas, “Theorising the Silences,” in Archival Silences: Missing, Lost, and Uncreated Archives, ed. Michael Moss and David Thomas, 1st ed. (Routledge, 2021), 10, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003618.

14. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 219; Jimerson, Archives Power, 298.

15. Jimerson, Archives Power, 12–13.

16. Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 14.

17. Michael Piggott, “What are Silences?: The Australian Example,” in Archival Silences: Missing Lost, and Uncreated Archives, ed. Michael Moss and David Thomas, 1st ed. (London: Routledge, 2021), 36, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003618.

18. University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), “Visiting Special Collections: Silences and Bias in Archives,” UMBC Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery, last modified December 1, 2023, https://lib.guides.umbc.edu/c.php?g=24920&p=7361816 (accessed October 11, 2023); Jimerson, Archives Power, 230–33; Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 217–19; Dominique Luster, “Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices,” TEDx Talks, June 29, 2018, video, 8:23, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsNPlBBi1IE.

19. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 218; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections.”

20. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 218.

21. Palmer-Mehta, “It's The Truth About Women,” 297.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Moss and Thomas, “Theorising the Silences,” 14–15.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid., 11.

27. Ibid., 11–12.

28. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 222.

29. Ibid., 223.

30. David A. Wallace, Wendy M. Duff, and Andrew Flinn, “Chapter 13: Conclusion,” in Archives, Recordkeeping, and Social Justice, ed. David A. Wallace, Wendy M. Duff, Renee Saucier, and Andrew Flinn, 1st ed. (Abingdon, Oxon and New York, NY: Routledge, 2020), 242–43.

31. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 223–31.

32. Ibid.

33. Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 13–19.

34. Michael Moss and David Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” in Archival Silences: Missing, Lost, and Uncreated Archives, ed. Michael Moss and David Thomas, 1st ed. (London: Routledge, 2021), 229, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003618.

35. Ibid., 227–29.

36. Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 1–6.

37. Ibid., 14–19.

38. UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections.”

39. Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 237.

40. Ibid., 235.

41. Luster, “Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices.”

42. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 225–27; Luster, “Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices”; Wallace et al., “Conclusion,” 244–45.

43. UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections,” accessed October 11, 2023.

44. Ibid.

45. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 227; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections.”

46. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 227–29.

47. Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 17–18.

48. Ibid., 17.

49. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 231–32; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections.”

50. Palmer-Mehta, “It's The Truth About Women,” 292.

51. Ibid., 298–301.

52. Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 231–34.

53. Ibid., 231.

54. Ibid., 234.

55. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 226.

56. Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 234.

57. Moss and Thomas, “Theorising,” 12–14.

58. Wallace et al., “Conclusion,” 243.

59. Ibid., 242.

60. Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 17.

61. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 223–31; Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 235–37; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 13–19.

62. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 225–27; Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 237; Luster, “Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices”; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections”; Wallace et al., “Conclusion,” 242–46.

63. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 227; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections.”

64. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 227–29.

65. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 227–29; Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 234; Moss and Thomas, “Theorising,” 12–14; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 17–18; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections”; Wallace et al., “Conclusion,” 242–43.

66. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 220–21; Palmer-Mehta, “It's The Truth About Women,” 297; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 17–19.

67. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 216–19; Jimerson, Archives Power, 2–9; Moss and Thomas, “Theorising,” 11–15; Palmer-Mehta, “It's The Truth About Women,” 297; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 2–6, 13–14; Piggott, “What are Silences?” 36; Luster, “Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices”; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections”; Trouillot, quoted in Moss and Thomas, “Theorising,” 10.

68. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 222–31; Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 227–29; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 14–17.

69. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 226; Moss and Thomas, “Filling the Gaps,” 234; Moss and Thomas, “Theorising,” 12–14; Palmer-Mehta, “It's The Truth About Women,” 292, 297–301; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 17; Luster, “Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices”; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections”; Wallace et al., “Conclusion,” 242–43.

70. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 215–33; Jimerson, Archives Power, 1–23; Schwartz and Cook, “Archives, Records, and Power,” 1–19.

71. Luster, “Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices”; UMBC, “Visiting Special Collections”; Jimerson, Archives Power, 230–33; Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid,” 217–19; Palmer-Mehta, “It's The Truth About Women,” 297.