Where Narratives Meet: Archival Description, Provenance, and Women's Diaries.

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  • Author(s): Beattie, Heather
  • Source:
    Libraries & the Cultural Record. 2009, Vol. 44 Issue 1, p82-100. 19p.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      DIARY (Literary form); BIOGRAPHICAL sources; ARCHIVES; PERSONAL archives; WOMEN'S writings; HISTORICAL source material
    • Abstract:
      The article discusses the common archival description of diaries and richer portrayals often provided by academics in other disciplines. A description of the form and content of three women's diaries held by the Hudson's Bay Company Archives (HBCA) and the Archives of Manitoba is provided. The difference between archival and nonarchival description of these diaries suggests that archivists need to use an expanded notion of provenance and reexamine what constitutes relevant contextual information for personal records. Archives can implement changes to their descriptive systems that would offer users with much more information about the provenance of personal records.