Lets explore the archives

Archivists play an important role in history. They help preserve, record, categorize, and digitize key historical moments or artifacts. Without them most of history would be lost as technology advances and time progresses. As Thomas Cauvin points out in his writing, ”Archivists examine how the document connects to people, how it reflects the values of its historical context, and how its meaning may have changed over time. In other words, archivists determine to what extent the document enriches the general knowledge of the period.” Items like slave ledgers could be lost and descendants would have no way of searching their family history or discovering whomever they could be related to. Cauvin presents the importance of archiving the past and why it is so important to so important to future generations in his writing. There is an all too familiar saying “Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” this epithet holds to today’s society. For instance, the current political climate is reminiscent of mid-1930s Germany and how certain actions led to a war that claimed millions upon millions of lives. Because of the work of archivists, we know approximately how many lives were subjected to death in extermination camps and the many atrocities that were committed during that time. We as people should take a step back and thoroughly examine history not repeat actions as such and not modify history to make ourselves feel at ease with what was done to others.