Articles

Conservation: What's an Archivist To Do?

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Abstract

"All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books." So Thomas Carlyle believed—and so must archivists of today. As caretakers of history, they are now recognizing that their responsibilities go beyond mere collecting. It is not enough simply to gather together papers that will pursue a course of self-destruction if left to their own devices—let alone the devices of those who use them. It is ironic that Carlyle spoke of the "magic preservation in the pages of books." Obviously he did not know, writing in the eighteenth century, that by the year 1985 the expected useful life of a piece of ordinary paper, with normal handling and storage, may be no more than twenty-five years!

How to Cite:

Fortson-Jones, J., (1984) “Conservation: What's an Archivist To Do?”, Archival Issues 9(2), 83–89. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/archivalissues.10433