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The article discusses the papers of Rhodesian liberal Diana Mary Mitchell, known as the Mitchell collection, held at the Manuscripts and Archives Department of The University of Cape Town (UCT). It notes that the archive also contains papers concerning several opposition politicians in Rhodesia in the mid- to late-twentieth century, including Morris Hirsch, Pat Bashford, and Allan Savory. The author suggests that the archive is useful for the study of the historical role of women in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.

Copyright of History in Africa: A Journal of Method is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is provided to various articles in the issue on topics based on the work of historian David Henige including Henige's impact on the discipline of history, the relationship between literacy, oral traditions and historiography, and African archives.

The contents of the Rawlinson papers have now been sorted into a meaningful order and the contents listed, this note contains a brief description of its contents, in order to make clear what it does and does not contain. Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810-1895) is mainly remembered as a pioneer in the decipherment of cuneiform scripts but it will be seen from the documents in the collection that his interests covered a rather wider range of topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the correspondence in the Royal Asiatic Society's (RAS) archives that offers more details on the acquisition of its Rawlinson papers. Topics covered include a letter from archivist Elmira Wade to the RAS on June 26, 1972, the appointment of Wade at Corsham Court in Wiltshire, England, and the disposal of the Rawlinson papers.

The article lists repositories on Irish history in Great Britain and Ireland including Historical Manuscripts Commission (T.N.A. H.M.C.) National Register of Archives, and Directory of Irish archives.

Copyright of History in Africa: A Journal of Method is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

BackgroundWhile the media may significantly influence public attitudes and government policies affecting the research agenda, how mental health research is reported in the media has been virtually unstudied. The aim of this study was to examine stories concerning mental health research published on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website between 1999 and 2008 and in New Scientist between 2008 and 2010.MethodStories were retrieved from on-line archives. Story content was coded and assessed against: ‘disease burden’ of mental disorders; the general corpus of research papers in mental health and the countries from which they originated; the journals in which cited papers were published; and funding sources.ResultsA total of 1015 BBC stories reporting mental health research and 133 New Scientist stories were found. The distribution of stories did not reflect ‘disease burden’; research on dementia was over-represented, while depression and alcohol were under-represented. There was an emphasis on biological research while stories on psychological interventions were rare. UK research was over-represented. Research funded by government and private non-profit sources was over-represented. Commentators from Alzheimer's Disease charities were prominent.ConclusionsConsideration of reported stories may suggest approaches to working with the media to improve the public understanding of, and support for, mental health research. The role of commentators may be especially important. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kivebulaya's contemporaries among Buganda's Protestant elite were avid assemblers of archives and committed authors of historical narrative. This book makes Kivebulaya's archive accessible and intelligible. For his Ganda compatriots Kivebulaya's career was a form of outreach, an index of the civilisational hierarchy that separated Buganda from its uncivil neighbours. [Extracted from the article]

IAU Commission 41 (History of Astronomy) was founded in 1948, and between 1991 and its termination in 2015 this Commission hosted seven different Working Groups (one of which was shared with Commission 40 (Radio Astronomy). In this paper we list the objectives of these seven Working Groups and track their progress. We conclude by evaluating the role that each C41 Working Group played in furthering research on the history of astronomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores archival material concerning the reception of Leonard J. Savage's foundational work of rational choice theory in its subjective-Bayesian form. The focus is on the criticism raised in the early 1960s by Daniel Ellsberg, William Fellner, and Cedric Smith, who were supporters of the newly developed subjective approach but could not understand Savage's insistence on the strict version he shared with Bruno de Finetti. The episode is well known, thanks to the so-called Ellsberg Paradox and the extensive reference made to it in current decision theory. But Savage's reaction to his critics has never been examined. Although Savage never really engaged with the issue in his published writings, the private exchange with Ellsberg and Fellner, and with de Finetti about how to deal with Smith, shows that Savage's attention to the generalization advocated by his correspondents was substantive. In particular, Savage's defense of the normative value of rational choice theory against counterexamples such as Ellsberg's did not prevent him from admitting that he would give careful consideration to a more realistic axiomatic system, should the critics be able to provide one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 1989, at least one in five Soviet citizens lived outside of "their" titular territories or did not have one, yet their lived experiences—especially poignant when the USSR dissolved—are not well understood. Using archival evidence and oral interviews, this paper focuses on two events pivotal to these communities: fatal unrest over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory from 1988–1990, the first perestroika conflict that produced the phenomenon of Soviet "refugees" in the country; and the Fergana Valley Massacre of June 1989, the first mass casualty event in Central Asia that displaced tens of thousands more. It argues that these conflicts became major regional and Soviet-wide issues that exposed the growing impotency of the center and contributed widely to the impetus to flight. This paper underscores how Soviet internationalism created the foundation for intercommunal "groupness," or the various cross-ethnic nexuses that became especially apparent vis-à-vis these episodes of titular violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A close reading of Yvonne Rainer's archival papers reveals new insights into the postmodern iconoclast. Revivifying Rainer's early choreographic practice and verbalembodied explorations, Rainer's own notes and journals illuminate and challenge reductive interpretations of a writing dance artist's work over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1963 and 1966, John Cale, Tony Conrad, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and a handful of other collaborators rehearsed together on a daily basis. Held since then in the archive at Young and Zazeela's Church Street apartment in New York City, the tapes of the Theatre of Eternal Music have become obscure objects of fascination and mystery for experimental music fans. They have also been at the centre of disputes over the authorial propriety of the drones that they record. This paper offers a material history of those tapes as they circulate online. By tracking and organizing the available bootlegs, I trace the ensemble's changing sonic self-conception as it moved from a composer-led ensemble supporting Young's saxophone improvisations to an egalitarian collective constituted in its dedication to the daily practice of listening from 'inside the sound'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I examine the editing and publishing of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man by Albert Erskine. Over the course of the piece, I deploy letters, drafts, and other material drawn from both Ellison's archive in the Library of Congress and Erskine's own archive at the University of Virginia to unpack how Erskine, as a white editor at a powerful international publishing house, conceived of his role in shepherding to market and marketing what he saw as a major literary work by an African American author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of History in Africa: A Journal of Method is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Departing from the proposition that, in the sociological debate about whether there has been a shift towards a de-standardised lifecourse in advanced economies, little attention has been devoted to the infrastructural arrangements that would support such a transition, this paper explores the changing role of standards in the governance of ageing societies. In it, I outline a sociological theory of age standard substitution which suggests that contradictory rationalities used in the implementation of chronological age fuelled the emergence of a critique of chronological age within the diverse strands of gerontological knowledge during the 20th century. The paper analyses how these critiques were linked to a proliferation of substitute, ‘personalised’ age standards that aimed to conjoin individuals’ unique capacities or needs to roles or services. The paper suggests that this configuration of age standards’ production, characterised by uncertainty and an opening of moral and epistemic possibilities, has been shrouded by another, more recent formation where institutional responses to decentred processes of standardisation moved research and political investment towards an emphasis on biological age measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the library of Winchester College is a multi-lingual psalter formerly owned by the diplomat and scholar, Richard Pace (c.1483–1536). Pace left extensive notes in this volume, the product of his study of the Hebrew Scriptures in comparison with the Vulgate and Greek Septuagint. They demonstrate his engagement with a variety of Jewish, patristic and humanist learning. A broader set of theological and devotional themes also emerge. For Pace, the Psalms were primarily a prophetic text, foretelling the coming of Christ and the Gospels, but they likewise reflected an interest in devotion, rhetoric and prayer typical of humanists of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This thematic issue of Itinerario brings together a selection of papers presented at the international conference Beyond the Islamicate Chancery: Archives, Paperwork, and Textual Encounters across Eurasia, which was held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna in early October 2018. The conference was the third instalment in a series of collaborations between the Institute of Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh examining Islamicate cultures of documentation from different angles. Surviving precolonial and colonial chancery archives across Eurasia provide an unparalleled glimpse into the inner workings of connectivity across writing cultures and, especially, documentary practices. This particular meeting has attempted to situate what has traditionally been a highly technical discipline in a broader historical dialogue on the relationship between state power, the archive, and cultural encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Grey Street Casbah and surrounding" is a closed Facebook group about the historically "Indian" neighborhood in downtown Durban, South Africa. It creates an informal archival repository and provides a new space to reify contemporary understandings of historical places within the Durban Central Business District. The informal nature of this space allows the layperson the ability to participate in historical inquiry and exhibits the diverse ways places in Durban are remembered and memorialized. In this paper, I argue the wealth of knowledge generated on informal online platforms, such as this Facebook group, should influence and inform historical interpretations of our urban pasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, much scholarship has revealed how archives and archival artefacts mediate processes of knowledge extraction, production, and representation. Yet, there remains a certain assumption of the archive's transparent availability as a given location for disciplinary work. This essay asks how less visible forms of mediation organize the critical conceptualization and experience of archival inquiry. It examines these conceptual questions through a focus on the 1971 JVP (Janata Vimukti Peramuna—People's Liberation Front) insurgency, a pivotal but now neglected event in Sri Lanka's political history. I explore how an authoritative monograph on the insurrection and its archive have mediated its problematization and enabled its nationalist recuperation. I ascertain the political stakes of returning to the event by locating the supervening context for my own interest in the insurgency, a discursive archive of the disciplinary conceptualization of Sri Lankan political modernity, its characteristic preoccupations, and their effects. I suggest that the event of 1971 offers a locus from which to examine a normative narrative that this archive yields. Recounting how these stakes animated my experience of the liberal archive, the paper's final section asks how different forms of archive implicate distinctive ethical practices and subjects of reading. I pursue this question through the representation and reading of 1971 within what I term the JVP's own pedagogical "archive." I conclude by reviving a postcolonial concern with the critical stakes of disciplinary investigation and suggest a different approach to the problem of "ethnicized" postcolonial modernities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the months before the Spanish-American war began in April 1898 and addresses two related questions: first, why was the op- position to the war so strong in the United States; second, why did it not prevail? To explore these questions, the papers of the McKinley administration are examined, along with the Congressional Record and forty-one US newspapers, as well as twelve major European newspapers (British, French, German and Spanish) and the relevant documents from the British and Spanish archives. It is only in the press that one can find a coherent, well-articulated and explicit explanation of the antiwar position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a personal narrative of writing African history and mentions archives and African historians.

In most contexts, personal names function as identifiers and as a locus for identity. Therefore, names can be used to trace patterns of kinship, ancestry, and belonging. The social power of naming, however, and its capacity to shape the life course of the person named, becomes most evident when it has the opposite intent: to sever connections and injure. Naming in slave society was primarily practical, an essential first step in commodifying human beings so they could be removed from their roots and social networks, bought, sold, mortgaged, and adjudicated. Such practices have long been integral to processes of colonization and enslavement. This paper discusses the implications of naming practices in the context of slavery, focusing on the names given to enslaved Africans and their descendants through baptism in the Lutheran and Moravian churches in the Danish West Indies. Drawing on historiographical accounts and a detailed analysis of plantation and parish records from the island of St. Croix, we outline and contextualize these patterns and practices of naming. We examine the extent to which the adoption of European and Christian names can be read as an effort toward resistance and self-determination on the part of the enslaved. Our account is illuminated by details from the lives of three former slaves from the Danish West Indies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

’Nothing is less reliable, nothing is less clear today than the word “archive”,’ observed Jacques Derrida in his book Archive Fever: a Freudian Impression (1996). This paper reflects on the unsettling process of establishing (or commencing) an archive for the Melbourne Workers Theatre, to form part of the AusStage digital archive which records information on live performance in Australia. Glenn D'Cruz's paper juxtaposes two disparate but connected registers of writing: an open letter to a deceased Australian playwright, Vicki Reynolds, and a critical reflection on the politics of the archive with reference to Derrida's account of archive fever, which he characterizes as an ‘irrepressible desire to return to the origin, a homesickness, a nostalgia for the return to the most archaic place of absolute commencement’. Using Derrida's commentary on questions of memory, authority, inscription, hauntology, and heritage to identify some of the philosophical and ethical aporias he encountered while working on the project, D’Cruz pays particular attention to what Derrida calls the spectral structure of the archive, and stages a conversation with the ghosts that haunt the digitized Melbourne Workers Theatre documents. He also unpacks the logic of Derrida's so-called messianic account of the archive, which ‘opens out of the future’, thereby affirming the future-to-come, and unsettling the normative notion of the archive as a repository for what has passed. Glenn D’Cruz teaches at Deakin University, Australia. He is the author of Midnight's Orphans: Anglo-Indians in Post/Colonial Literature (Peter Lang, 2006) and editor of Class Act: Melbourne Workers Theatre 1987–2007 (Vulgar Press, 2007). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented which provides a backstory and biography for "The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Peoples," a published archive of papers written by anthropologist James Stuart detailing documentation of the oral history of the Zulu people of Africa. Topics discussed include the impact of the archive's publication, its relevance for historians, and its role beyond scholarly applications.

The article discusses South African archives that provide information concerning the foreign policy of the South African government and of anti-apartheid groups during the era of apartheid. Archives examined include the African National Congress (ANC) Liberation Archive, the Mayibuye Archive, and the South African History Archive (SAHA). The author also comments on the Historical Papers Archive and the Foreign Affairs Archive. Issues of historical censorship and the destruction of archival documents are also discussed.

Source materials for investigating the life of James Croll are examined and collated. This is organised around the topics of: Croll's Autobiographical sketch and the Memoir of his life and work, both contained within the volume produced by James Campbell Irons; publications by Croll; aspects of his genealogy; manuscript sources in publicly accessible archives and in private ownership; and other published sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trudy Huskamp Peterson, an archival consultant and certified archivist, discusses the importance of archives in enriching our understanding of the past and transforming lives. She highlights the challenges that archives face, such as underfunding and the misconception that digitization solves all problems. Peterson explores the unique practices of archives in the United States, including the impact of federalism on archival responsibility and the concept of continuous custody. She emphasizes the role of archives in resolving conflicts, asserting rights, and providing a sense of place, family, and history. However, archives can also be influenced by biases and omissions, leading to silences and gaps in the historical record. Access to archives can be restricted due to concerns over misuse, political interference, and national security. Building human rights archives requires careful consideration of acquisition policies and objectives. Many archives remain underused, and the UNHCR archives, in particular, hold valuable records on global conflicts and displacement. Access to archives is essential for understanding and addressing the complexities of the past. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on historians' roles in the Belgian Parliamentary Commission on the Colonial Past, reflecting on the challenges and implications of engaging in public academic work. Topics include the shaping of the report, the limitations imposed by a politicized context, and the complexities of balancing historical research with public and political expectations, particularly in debates about colonialism.

The form-critical method found an English-speaking champion in R. H. Lightfoot of Oxford University. Through multiple publications he promoted the ideas of Rudolf Bultmann, Martin Dibelius and Ernst Lohmeyer. However, a close comparison of their texts reveals that Lightfoot sometimes simply translated the words of Dibelius and Lohmeyer, at times without appropriate attribution, and presented their ideas as his own. Recently discovered letters in the Lightfoot archive at Oxford University provide a more complete picture of Lightfoot's travels and interaction with German NT scholars. These discoveries call for a reassessment of Lightfoot's place in the history of NT scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research project Digital Archive of Belgian Neo-Avant-garde Periodicals (DABNAP) aims to digitize and analyse a large number of artists' periodicals from the period 1950-1990. The artistic renewal in Belgium since the 1950s, sustained by small groups of artists (such as G58 or De Nevelvlek), led to a first generation of post-war artist periodicals. Such titles proved decisive for the formation of the Belgian neo-avant-garde in literature and the visual arts. During the sixties and the seventies, happening and socially-engaged art took over and gave a new orientation to artist periodicals. In this article, I wish to highlight the challenges and difficulties of this project, for example, in dealing with non-standard formats, types of paper, typography, and non-paper inserts. A fully searchable archive of neo-avant-garde periodicals allows researchers to analyse in much more detail than before how influences from foreign literature and arts took root in the Belgian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of History in Africa: A Journal of Method is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Ear and Nose existed in Nottingham for over 60 years, but there is little knowledge or documentation regarding its existence. Methods: The following resources were searched to find out more about the hospital: the Nottinghamshire Archives; Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham Libraries; and Nottingham Central Library. Information was also obtained from the founders' relatives. Results: The hospital was founded in 1886, by Dr Donald Stewart, supported by political and clerical leaders. Initially, it treated out-patients only; in-patients were admitted for surgical treatment from 1905. Suitable accommodation was purchased in 1925, on Goldsmith Street, but required much building extension and alteration. Building restrictions during and following World War II prevented expansion. The National Hospital Survey conducted in 1945 considered the clinical work undertaken to be of a minor character, and recommended closure and amalgamation with the services provided by the Nottingham General Hospital. The hospital closed in 1947. Conclusion: The specialist hospital was deemed unfit and unsuitable to compete with the comprehensive service provided by the Nottingham General Hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides the first detailed overview of an archive that once belonged to Austen Henry Layard and his family. The collection, deposited in the Special Collections and Archives at Newcastle University, consists of handwritten letters, a dozen books, hundreds of folios, photos, maps, and various other objects: all this material is still unpublished. The archive is particularly interesting due to its nature: it was kept and bequeathed for generations as a family assemblage, and it includes materials that help to better understand several data contained in Layard's publications, his excavations in the ancient Assyrian capitals and his commitment to the dissemination of the knowledge of Assyrian culture. The archive also sheds light on previously unknown private aspects of Layard's wife, Enid Guest, and offers a wealth of information on the cultural legacy left by Layard within his own family, among his descendants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship has explored the dynamics between families and colonial lunatic asylums in the late nineteenth century, where families actively participated in the processes of custodial care, committal, treatment and release of their relatives. This paper works in this historical field, but with some methodological and theoretical differences. The Foucauldian study is anchored to a single case and family as an illness narrative that moves cross-referentially between bureaucratic state archival material, psychiatric case records, and intergenerational family-storytelling and family photographs. Following headaches and seizures, Harry Walter Wilbraham was medically boarded from his position as Postmaster in the Cape of Good Hope Colony of South Africa with a ‘permanent disease of the brain’, and was committed to the Grahamstown Asylum in 1910, where he died the following year, aged 40 years. In contrast to writings about colonial asylums that usually describe several patient cases and thematic patterns in archival material over time and place, this study’s genealogical lens examines one white settler male patient’s experiences within mental health care in South Africa between 1908 and 1911. The construction of Harry’s ‘case’ interweaves archival sources and reminiscences inside and outside the asylum, and places it within psychiatric discourse of the time, and family dynamics in the years that followed. Thus, this case study maps the constitution of ‘patient’ and ‘family’ in colonial life, c.1888–1918, and considers the calamity, uncertainty, stigma and silences of mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Fluvial Archives Group (FLAG) was founded in 1996 to bring together researchers looking at the development of fluvial systems over multiple timescales and global spatial scales. Fluvial archives of various types are important not just because they provide insights into past landscape dynamics, e.g., driven by climate or crustal processes, but also because they frequently contain fossil or archaeological material for which they provide stratigraphic control. Since 1996, FLAG has evolved from a research group of the British Quaternary Research Association into an organisation with around 500 members in over 20 countries. The research group held 12 biennial meetings, comprising both presentations and field excursions, as well as multiple themed sessions at international conferences. These had resulted by 2017 in 19 journal special issues, all fully detailed by Cordier et al. (2017). The goals of FLAG are: provision of a community for discussion of key issues concerning fluvial archives, including organising the aforementioned biennial discussion/field meetings, sessions at relevant international conferences, and special issues of journals; continued promotion of the value of fluvial archives by means of readily accessible published information; and coordination of activity with other research groupings with overlapping interests, e.g., by co-convening sessions and collaborating on publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The narrow dating of some of the early New Testament papyri and the methodological approach that is used must be brought into question in the light of the acknowledged difficulties with palaeographical dating and especially the use of assigned dated literary papyri. The thesis of this paper is that the way forward in dating New Testament papyri, or for that matter any undated literary papyri, is first to locate the manuscript in its graphic stream and using, on the whole, dated documentary papyri belonging to the same stream, come to an approximate understanding of where in the history of the stream the manuscript lies. The following New Testament Papyri will be so treated: P52, P67+ and P46. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Continuity & Change is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The collection of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, preserves a manuscript titled Risala-i-Padakah which was formerly in the library of the ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan (d. 1799). This manuscript has descriptions of medals with drawings illustrating their forms. We investigate the design of these medals and assert that Tipu Sultan understood the importance of rewarding his loyal subordinates with medals, thus transferring his authority down to them. The 'People's Medals' given to non-combatants, a novel award for those times, are also covered here in detail. We show that some of these medals, reflecting Deccan jewellery traditions, were actually awarded by Tipu Sultan himself to his men, who wore them; and we draw attention to the plunder of these medals, along with other treasures, during the sack of Seringapatam. The authors also view this as a demonstration of Tipu Sultan's regard for loyalty, rank, as well as good governance in opposition to estimates of him by contemporary British biographers. This article is the first documentation of these medals, which were the earliest to be awarded by any state in pre-modern India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]