Taylor Swift performs at the Paris La Défense Arena as a part of her Eras Tour concert, May 9, 2024.
(AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
Swift positions herself in a long history of women accused of ‘behaving badly’ while revealing the importance of revisiting our understanding of the past based on shifting evidence.
LGBTIQ+ Angolans share their stories in an oral history project: (from left) David Kanga, Roquiana Gunza, Ema Domingos.
Courtesy Mwana Pwo/GALA Queer Archive
LGBTIQ+ life in Angola can be traced to before colonialism, though it has not been well documented. A recent project brings these stories to life.
Educator Mary McLeod Bethune regularly wrote of her travels abroad.
Robert Abbott Sengstacke via Getty Images
A former archivist at Mary McLeod Bethune’s last residence in Washington, DC, recounts how the experience led her to see Bethune as a global figure.
‘The Travellers’ Tour Through the United States’ is the earliest known board game to depict a map of North America.
Library of Congress
Few copies remain of the earliest known board game produced in the US.
Demonstrators gathered on Parliament Hill in 1975 calling for equal pay and equal child custody rights for LGBTQ+ parents.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Grimshaw
The Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada project uses a new online database to record the events, places, people, organizations and publications that have formed Canada’s LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Photo: Doug Atfield. Special Collections, Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex/Copyright Estate of J.A. Baker
John Alec Baker’s 1967 novel, The Peregrine, recounts the story of a bird over ten winters, but his archive is the story of a very private man.
Scholars say Israel is intentionally destroying education and cultural institutions in Gaza. Here smoke rises following Israeli bombardments in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Jan. 17, 2024.
(AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Scholars say Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s schools, universities and museums are part of an ongoing project to destroy Palestinian people, identity and ideas.
Detail from a 14th-century miniature Greek manuscript depicting scenes from the life of Alexander the Great.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Digitising manuscripts may promise preservation and accessibility, but technology does not future-proof our access to the past.
Archivists are needed to help users of archives make good use of AI-powered technologies for effective research.
(Shutterstock)
ChatGPT can explain key concepts and information that can help people make the most of their time locating, accessing and interpreting archives. But ChatGPT can also give false information.
Louisa May Alcott took part in a 19th-century literary culture of anonymity and guessing games.
Universal Images Group/Getty Images
By disguising her name, Alcott could publish in less prestigious venues without worrying about tarnishing her literary reputation.
Members of the Hamilton Gay and Lesbian Alliance at a Pride Parade in 1991. 2SLGBTQ+ organizations have a long history of countering hate directed toward them.
(Hamilton Public Library, Local History & Archives, Michael Johnstone Collection)
Anyone concerned about 2SLGBTQ+ struggles today can learn from the history of resistance and activism preserved in these archives.
The late Sathima Bea Benjamin, jazz singer and composer, has a track on As-Shams Archive Volume 1.
Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
The legendary As-Shams jazz label has released the first of several compilation albums recovered from its archive.
Retro Clip Art/Shutterstock
Many of these women worked hours to make the work of psychiatrists accessible to a general readership without any recognition
Hundreds of thousands of hours of broadcasting history are available for the first time.
National Library of Wales
The Wales Broadcast Archive in Aberystwyth brings together the archives of the BBC, ITV and S4C under one roof.
© Cross family trust
These disappearances demonstrate deep flaws in the way Australia maintains our rich cartoon heritage.
Men wait for at a railway station for transport to a mine.
Ernest Cole/© Ernest Cole Family Trust/Courtesy Wits Historical Papers/Photography Legacy Project
Cole was a master of portraying the violence of apartheid through scenes of everyday life.
Readers reports, scripts and selected photographs. From top left Garland Anderson, Una Marson and Isabel Cooley who appeared in the ethnic Players Theatre Guild productions of Anna Lucasta.
Alamy/Fair Use/Creative Commons
Theatre censorship laws stifled Black playwrights for more than 200 years – here’s what we found in the archive.
Niklas Ohlrogge/Unsplash
In a post-truth era, with limited resources, archivists face difficult decisions about what should be preserved, but the problem is not new.
Since its founding in 2006, Twitter has become one of the largest digital datasets of a record of human history.
(Shutterstock)
Over the past 16 years, Twitter has amassed an incredible amount of user-generated data which contains a detailed and extensive record of cultural moments. Musk’s takeover threatens these archives.
A copy of the VOC’s registers for April 1789. These daily registers contained rich detail - including about the weather.
Tracing History Trust
A project to transcribe Dutch colonial records of the weather in Cape Town can benefit modelling of future climate scenarios and assist in forecasting weather now.