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ABSTRACT
Focusing on the inter-war period, this article examines the context of the publication of Sir Hilary Jenkinson’s Manual of Archive Administration alongside the less well-known contemporary publication of Arthur Schomburg’s ‘The Negro Digs up his Past’. By placing these publications together, this article raises questions about the production and reproduction of the professional canon, as well as highlighting Schomburg’s contribution to key archival questions on the nature of collecting. This work discusses Schomburg’s articulation of the purpose of archival collecting which offers a radically different conception of the value and use of archives, one that focuses on the concepts of recovery and transformation. This article also places Schomburg within the wider emergence of the Pan-African movement and situates his work within the developing Pan-African ideologies and the networks in which he operated, and argues that Schomburg’s legacy can be found in the development of Black-led archives in London.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Sir CH Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration Including the Problems of War Archives and Archive Making, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1922, p. 15.
2. ibid., p. 12.
3. AL Stoler, ‘Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance’, Archival Science, vol. 2, no. 1–2, 2002, p. 98.
4. ibid.
5. ibid., p. 91.
6. Defined as ‘the pluralism of evidentiary texts, memory-keeping practices and institutions, bureaucratic and personal motivations, community perspectives and needs, and cultural and legal constructs with which archival professionals and academics must be prepared, through graduate education, to engage’. AJ Gilliland, ‘Archival and Recordkeeping Traditions in the Multiverse and their Importance for Researching Situations and Situating Research’, in AJ Gilliland, S Mckemmish and A Lau (eds), Research in the Archival Multiverse, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, 2017, p. 50.
7. ibid., pp. 50–1.
8. T Cook, ‘Evidence, Memory, Identity, and Community: Four Shifting Archival Paradigms’, Archival Science, vol. 13, nos. 2–3, 2013, p. 113.
9. A Flinn, ‘Community Archives, Community Histories. Some Opportunities and Challenges’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, vol. 28, no. 2, October 2007, pp. 157–9.
10. S Pell, ‘Radicalizing the Politics of the Archive: An Ethnographic Reading of an Activist Archive’, Archivaria, vol. 80, Spring 2015, p. 38.
11. JM Schwartz and T Cook, ‘Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory’, Archival Science, vol. 2, nos. 1–2, 2002–03, pp. 171–85.
12. British Library, ‘Europe Before 1914’, available at <https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/europe-before-1914>, accessed 15 August 2018.
13. P Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double-Consciousness, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993, pp. 8–9.
14. M Caswell, ‘Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives’, Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, vol. 87, no. 3, 2017, pp. 222–35; AW Dunbar, ‘Introducing Critical Race Theory to Archival Discourse: Getting the Conversation Started’, Archival Science, vol. 6, 2016, pp. 109–29; E Kim, ‘Appraising Newness: Whiteness, Neoliberalism, and the Building of the Archive for New Poetry’, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017; MH Ramirez, ‘Being Assumed Not to Be: A Critique of Whiteness as an Archival Imperative’, The American Archivist, vol. 78, no. 2, Fall/Winter 2015, pp. 339–56; and T Sutherland, ‘Archival Amnesty: In Search of Black American Transitional and Restorative Justice’, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017. available at <https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v1i2.42 >, accessed 10 June 2017
15. Caswell, p. 224.
16. MA Greene, ‘A Critique of Social Justice as an Archival Imperative: What is it We’re Doing that’s All That Important?’ The American Archivist, vol. 76, no. 2, Fall/Winter 2013, p. 303.
17. ibid., p. 305.
18. ibid., p. 321.
19. ibid., p. 311.
20. ibid., p. 312.
21. RC Jimmerson, ‘Archivists and Social Responsibility: A Response to Mark Greene’, The American Archivist, vol. 76, no. 2, Fall/Winter 2013, p. 336.
22. ibid., p. 337.
23. ibid., p. 338.
24. ibid.
25. ibid., p. 339.
26. M Caswell, ‘Not Just Between Us: A Riposte to Mark Greene’, The American Archivist, vol. 76, no. 2, Fall/Winter 2013, pp. 605–8.
27. ibid.
28. ibid.
29. Dunbar, p. 113.
30. ibid.
31. Ramirez, p. 341.
32. ibid., p. 343.
33. ibid., p. 347.
34. ibid., p. 351.
35. ‘Jenkinson, Sir (Charles) Hilary (1882–1961), Archivist’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 3 January 2008, Oxford University Press, available at <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-34177>, accessed 21 August 2018.
36. The source for this assertion can be traced to Sir Hilary Jenkinson’s obituary in the Times newspaper (see ‘Sir H Jenkinson: Higher Standards in Archival Work’, The Times, London, Tuesday 7 March 1961, p. 15), although the author of the obituary is unknown and it is unclear where this information came from. Francis Jenkinson was born in Scotland to John Henry Jenkinson and his wife Alice Henrietta Gordon-Cumming, both descendants of prominent members of British society (cited in D McKitterick, ‘Jenkinson, Francis John Henry’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, available at <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-34178/version/0>, accessed 21 August 2018). However, genealogical research has revealed Charles Jenkinson’s grandparents were Charles Thomas Jenkinson and Elizabeth Ann Cooper (see London Metropolitan Archives, London, England, ‘Board of Guardian Records, 1834–1906/Church of England Parish Registers, 1754–1906’, Reference Number: P69/MRY1/A/01/Ms 24,742/, available at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 21 August 2018), born in London. There is also no evidence that either of Charles Jenkinson’s grandparents or Francis Jenkinson’s parents ever re-married. The only connection that can be found is that they were both at Cambridge (although different colleges) at the same time.
37. Small collections exist at University College London and the University of Aberdeen.
38. The National Archives, PRO/30/75. This material was deposited by Roger Ellis and consists mainly of records generated through Jenkinson’s work.
39. J Conway Davis, ‘Memoir of Sir Hilary Jenkinson’, in J Conway Davis (ed.), Studies Presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1957, p. xiii.
40. T Eastwood, ‘Jenkinson’s Writings on Some Enduring Archival Themes’, The American Archivist, vol. 67, Spring/Summer 2004, p. 32.
41. JA Bastian, ‘Taking Custody, Giving Access: A Postcustodial Role for a New Century’, Archivaria, no. 53, Spring 2002, p. 83.
42. ibid.
43. Sir CH Jenkinson, ‘Jewish History and Archives’, in Robert Ellis and Peter Walne (eds), Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1980, p. 309.
44. Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration, p. xi.
45. Conway Davis, Studies Presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, p. xviii.
46. ibid., p. xix.
47. Sir CH Jenkinson, ‘The English Archivist: A New Profession’, in Robert Ellis and Peter Walne (eds), Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1980, pp. 236–60.
48. Eastwood, p. 36.
49. For the full list see J Conway Davis, Studies Presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, p. xxix.
50. Conway Davis, Studies Presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, p. xxvi.
51. ibid., p. xxviii.
52. ‘Jenkinson, Sir (Charles) Hilary’.
53. As noted by his biographers, Schomburg was born Arturo but anglicised his name to Arthur when he moved to America, however he would shift between Arthur and Arturo at different points in his life.
54. VK Valdés, Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, SUNY, New York, 2017, p. 3.
55. ibid., p. 6.
56. K Meehan, People Get Ready: African American and Caribbean Cultural Exchange, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, 2009, p. 54.
57. E Des Verney Sinnette, ‘Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile and Curator: His Contribution to the Collection and Dissemination of Materials about Africans and People of African Descent’, unpublished thesis, Columbia University, 1971, Doctor of Library Science, p. 18.
58. ibid., p. 23.
59. ibid., p.48.
60. ‘Alexander Crummell’, Britannica Academic, available at <http://www.academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Alexander-Crummell/2974>, accessed 23 August 2018.
61. Des Verney Sinnette, p. 2.
62. J Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 2002, p. 8.
63. E Kaplan, ‘We Are What We Collect, We Collect What We Are: Archives and the Construction of Identity’, The American Archivist, vol. 63, no. 1, Spring/Summer 2000, p. 131.
64. S Garner, Whiteness: An Introduction, Routledge, Oxford, 2007, p. 122.
65. Kaplan, p. 131.
66. Des Verney Sinnette, p. 45.
67. Meehan, p. 61.
68. ibid.
69. ‘Harlem Renaissance’, in Hazel Arnett Ervin (ed.), Handbook of African American Literature, University Press of Florida, Gainsville, 2004.
70. Des Verney Sinnette, p. 136.
71. ibid.
72. ibid., pp. 137–8.
73. ibid., p. 142.
74. ibid., pp. 144–5.
75. ibid., p. 145.
76. Fisk University, ‘About’, available at <https://www.fisk.edu/about>, accessed 15 June 2018.
77. Des Verney Sinnette, p. 169.
78. ibid., p. 177.
79. ibid., p. 221.
80. New York Public Library, ‘About the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’, available at <https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schomburg>, accessed 23 August 2018.
81. J Conway Davis, Studies Presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, p. xx.
82. T Cook, ‘What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift’, available at <http://www.mybestdocs.com/cook-t-pastprologue-ar43fnl.htm>, accessed 22 August 2018; R Stapleton, ‘Jenkinson and Schellenberg: A Comparison’, Archivaria, no. 17, 1983, p. 77.
83. Sir CH Jenkinson, ‘The Librarian as Archivist’, in Robert Ellis and Perter Walne (eds), Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1980, p. 115.
84. Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration, pp. 44–106.
85. K Rietzler, ‘The War as History: Writing the Economic and Social History of the First World War’, Diplomatic History, vol. 38, no. 4, 2014, p. 827.
86. Carnegie Endowment, ‘About’, available at <https://carnegieendowment.org/about>, accessed 15 August 2018; Carnegie Corporation of New York, ‘Our History’, available at <https://www.carnegie.org/about/our-history>, accessed 15 August 2018.
87. Rietzler, p. 828.
88. ibid.
89. ibid., pp. 836–8.
90. ibid., p. 830.
91. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ‘Economic and Social History of the World War’, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC, 1924, p. 3, available at <https://archive.org/details/economicsocialhi00carn>, accessed 22 August 2018.
92. JT Shotwell, ‘Editors Preface’, in Sir CH Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, London, 1922, p. ix.
93. Rietzler, p. 830.
94. ibid., p. 833.
95. Imperial War Museum, ‘History of IWM’, available at <https://www.iwm.org.uk/corporate/IWM-history>, accessed 10 August 2018.
96. Des Verney Sinnette, pp. 108, 112.
97. AA Schomburg, ‘The Negro Digs up his Past’, in A Locke, The New Negro, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1925, reprint 1997, p. 670.
98. ibid.
99. C Bergin and A Rupprecht, ‘History, Agency and the Representation of “Race” – An Introduction’, Race & Class, vol. 57, no. 3, 2016, p. 5.
100. ibid., p. 6.
101. ibid., p. 12.
102. C Prescod, ‘Archives, Race, Class and Rage’, Race & Class, vol. 58, no. 4, 2017, p. 77.
103. ibid., p. 79.
104. ibid., p. 84.
105. A X, T Campbell and M Stevens, ‘Love and Lubrication in the Archives, or rukus!: A Black Queer Archive for the United Kingdom’, Archivaria, no. 68, Fall 2009, p. 291.
106. ibid., p. 277.
107. ibid., p. 279.
108. S Hall, ‘Thinking the Diaspora: Home-Thoughts from Abroad’, Small Axe, vol. 6, 1999, p. 3.
109. ibid.
110. RDG Kelley, ‘But a Local Phase of a World Problem: Black History’s Global Vision, 1883–1950’, The Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 3, December 1999, p. 1054.
111. J Jenkinson, ‘The 1919 Race Riots in Britain: Their Background and Consequences’, unpublished thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1987, pp. 6–7.
112. Kelley, p. 1056.
113. ibid., p. 1066.
114. Gilroy, pp. 16–19.
115. ibid., p. 120.
116. SJ Lemelle and RDG Kelley, ‘Imagining Home: Pan-Africanism Revisited’, in SJ Lemelle and RDG Kelley, Imagining Home: Class, Culture and Nationalism, Verso, London, 1994, p. 2.
117. H Adi and M Sherwood, ‘Preface’, in H Adi and M Sherwood, Pan African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, Routledge, London, 2003, p. viii.
118. Lemelle and Kelley, Imagining Home, p. 2.
119. ibid., p. 5.
120. Schomburg, p. 670.
121. The Royal African Company was set up under a Royal Charter and operated as a monopoly to trade in enslaved Africans between 1672 and 1713. ED Somerville, ‘Royal African Company’, The Oxford Companion to Black British History, available at <http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192804396.001.0001/acref-9780192804396-e-358>, accessed 23 August 2018.
122. Formed under Royal Charter, the East India Company was created in the 1600s to trade in spices from the Indian subcontinent and acted as an agent for British colonisation of India during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. ‘East India Company’, Britannica Academic, available at <https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/East-India-Company/31775>, accessed 23 August 2018.
123. Jenkinson employs this term to denote Europeans who traded on the African continent, rather than traders of African descent.
124. CH Jenkinson, ‘The Records of the English African Companies’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 6, 1912, p. 191.
125. AD Roberts, ‘The British Empire in Tropical Africa: A Review of the Literature to the 1960s’, in Robin Winks (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume V: Historiography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2011, available at <http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.001.0001/acprof-9780198205661-chapter-30>, accessed 22 August 2018.
126. A Holton, ‘Decolonizing History: Schomburg’s Afrodiasporic Archive’, The Journal of African American History, vol. 92, no. 2, 2007, p. 219.
127. Schomburg, p. 215.
128. Holton, p. 233.
129. Schomburg, p. 220.
130. ibid., p. 219.
131. ibid., p. 220.
132. W James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth Century America, Verso, London, 1999, p. 211.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Hannah J. M. Ishmael
Hannah J. M. Ishmael is an archivist currently researching a PhD at UCL investigating the development of Black archives in London, and working at the Black Cultural Archives in London, UK.