An Archivist Sneezes on a Priceless Document. Then What? Olivia Campbell © Luis Davilla / Cover / Getty
A year and a half ago, I found myself in an archive room at the London School of Economics, staring at 150-year-old documents complete with swirly handwriting and a red-wax seal. My mind flicked back to a few weeks earlier, when I’d gotten one of my occasional nosebleeds, and I had a random yet horrifying thought:
What if my nose starts bleeding on one of these irreplaceable pages?
What would happen if I ruined them? I was doing research for a book I was writing about the first women physicians. Examining personal letters and other original records holding speeches, notes, and letters handwritten by the women I was writing about helped answer many of the questions I had but also sparked a new one: What, exactly, does history lose when an archive-worthy text is destroyed?
The Delicate Work of Protecting Priceless Archives
theatlantic.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theatlantic.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Living the Good Life in California
architectmagazine.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from architectmagazine.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.