Keeping Memory Alive

Archives are an underappreciated art, a tangible example of institutional memory lovingly maintained, frequently by individuals who don’t want their personal passion forgotten. But therein lies one of the greatest challenges of the professional archivist: what happens when an amateur in charge of some vast and important archive dies without stipulating what is to become of her/his life’s work? It happens far too often, and frequently, the result is that the archive is scattered to the winds.