Articles

Administrative History: A Proposal For a Re-evaluation of its Contributions to the Archival Profession

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Abstract

Archivists are generally in agreement that a basic knowledge of administrative history, applied through the central principles of provenance and respect de fonds, is essential to the organization and arrangement of archives. The importance of administrative history for this purpose was recognized by the pioneers of modern archives administration in both the United States and Europe. In his well-known paper, "The National Archives: A Programme," and in other of his writings, Waldo Gifford Leland emphasized the importance of a knowledge of administrative history to what he called the "classification" of records. The same point was made in greater detail in the archival manual by the Dutch archivists Muller, Feith, and Fruin; in the manual by the English archivist Hilary Jenkinson; in the writings of the dean of American state archivists, Margaret C. Norton; and by many other archivists.

How to Cite:

Larson, A. D., (1982) “Administrative History: A Proposal For a Re-evaluation of its Contributions to the Archival Profession”, Archival Issues 7(1), 35–45. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/archivalissues.8178