Foote To Remember and Forget

To Remember and Forget: Archives, Memory, and Culture
Author(s): Kenneth E. Foote

Source: The American Archivist, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Summer, 1990), pp. 378-392
Published by: Society of American Archivists
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378 American Archivist / Vol. 53 / Summer 1990
Research Article
To Remember and Forget:

Archives, Memory, and Culture
KENNETH E. FOOTE
Abstract: The idea of archives as collective memory is sometimes employed as a metapho

for discussing the social and cultural role of archives. It is argued here that the idea i
more than a metaphor and is supported by theories that would view collections of doc
ments and material artifacts as means of extending the temporal and spatial range of
communication. Archives, along with other communicational resources such as oral an
ritual tradition, help to transfer information- and thereby sustain memory- from gen
ation to generation. Two examples illustrate the interrelationship of archives and memo
within this broadened view of communication and culture. The first arises from attemp
to find ways to warn future generations of the location of radioactive waste repositorie
The second revolves around pressure to efface from cultural landscapes evidence of trag
events that people wish to forget.
About the author: Kenneth E. Foote is an associate professor of geography at the University
Texas at Austin. He presented an earlier version of this article at the forty-ninth annual meeting
the Society of American Archivists in Austin, Texas, in October 1985.
To Remember and Forget 379
The Memory Metaphor

Unlike verbal and nonverbal action, which
Archivists have long been interested in

is ephemeral and disappears as it occurs,
the physical durability of objects, artifacts,
the theoretical dimensions of their work as
and documents allows them to be passed
well as its institutional and social goals.
from person to person and from place to
With a view toward improving archival
place over long periods of time. Their du-
documentation strategies, some writers have
rability defines them as communicational
drawn attention to the question of why so-
resources that can be used to transmit in-
cieties maintain archives.1 In addressing this
formation beyond the bounds of interper-
broader question, archives are sometimes
sonal contact. The first of the two key points
said to be society's collective memory. From
of this article is, then, that archives can be
this perspective, archives transcend the im-
seen as a valuable means of extending the
mediate tasks of documentation, education,
temporal and spatial range of human com-
enrichment, and research to help sustainmunication.
cultural traditions and values. Although the
The coevolution of writing systems and
view of archives as collective memory is
early civilizations provides an example of
sometimes employed metaphorically, it is
the relationship between the use of docu-
a claim that can be placed on firmer theo-
ments and communicational range. Al-
retical foundations. Previous writings in
though many factors were involved in the
anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and
rise of early civilizations, the beginning of
semiotics argue that material objects, arti-
complex social organization seemed to re-
facts, and documents- including those
quire a means of notating the spoken word.3
contained in archival collections- play a
Writing allowed information to be trans-
special role in human communication.2 ferred from place to place and from year to
year, even if the information pertained at
first only to commonplace business trans-
^rank Burke, "The Future Course of Archival actions and government decrees. In this way,
Theory in the United States," American Archivist 44 documents and archives facilitated trans-
(1981): 40-46; Lester Cappon, "What, Then, Is There
fers of information that were difficult to
to Theorize About?" American Archivist 45 (1982):
19-25; F. Gerald Ham, "The Archival Edge," Amer- accomplish through means such as oral and
ican Archivist 38 (1975): 5-13; Andrea Hinding, ritual tradition.
"Toward Documentation: New Collecting Strategies
Yet, the fact that documents and artifacts
in the 1980s," in Options for the Eighties: Proceed-
ings of the Second Annual Conference on American can extend the temporal and spatial range
College and Research Libraries, eds. V. Massman of human communication does not mean
and M. Kathman (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1982);
Michael Lutzker, "Max Weber and the Analysis of
Modern Bureaucratic Organization: Notes Toward a
Theory of Appraisal," American Archivist 45 (1982):
119-30; Society of American Archivists, Task Force and Economics (S. Hadley, Mass.: Bergin and Garvey,
on Goals and Priorities, Planning for the Archival 1983); Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, The World
Profession (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption
1986). (New York: Norton, 1979); Jean Baudrillard, Le sys-
2Kenneth E. Foote, "Object as Memory: The Ma- tème des objets (Paris: Gallimard, 1968); and Pierre
terial Foundations of Human Semiosis," Semiotica 69 Bourdieu, "Le marche des biens symboliques,"
(1988): 243-68, and "Space, Territory, and Land- L'Année sociologique 22 (1973): 49-126.
scape: The Borderlands of Geography and Semiot- 3Jack Goody, The Interface Between the Written
ics," Recherche Semiotique/Semiotic Inquiry 5 (1985): and the Oral (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
158-75. The case made in those two articles is based 1987), 1-56, and The Logic of Writing and the Or-
on a number of sources: Victor Yngve, Linguistics as ganization of Society (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
a Science (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, versity Press, 1986); Roy Harris, The Origin of Writing
1986); Ferrucio Rossi-Landi, Linguistics and Eco- (London: Duckworth, 1986), 76-157; Geoffrey
nomics (The Hague: Mouton, 1977) and Language as Sampson, Writing Systems (London: Hutchinson,
Work and Trade: A Semiotic Homology for Linguistics 1985), 46-61.
380 American Archivist / Summer 1990
terial culture such asavailable

they are the only resource monuments and me-for
morials.6
meeting this need. Oral and ritual tradition
can serve a similar function and,
This second key point- aboutindeed,
the col-
memory may even be lective,
said
interdependent
to reside
nature of institu-
in the
institutional mission tional
ofmemory-
organizations such
implies that the cultural role
as archives, museums, of theuniversities,
archives is hard to isolate from
some the
contributions
government agencies, and the of other institutions
like. In and tra-
this
light, the idea of collective memory
ditions. Setting archives as-
in such a broad
sumes a double meaning. First,
context, however, as under-
gives us a better dis-
cussed in sociology and
standing of how psychology,
social pressures influence
and shape
collective memory refers tothe beliefs
archival record.
andNo matter
ideas
held in common by many
how temptingindividuals that
it is to discount these forces,
understanding
together produce a sense of the force of solidarity
social their influence
and community.4 In isthe second
a natural outgrowth of sense- of
viewing archives
interest here- the term implies
in relation to, rather thanthat many
as set apart from,
individuals and organizations act
the goals of other cultural collec-
institutions.
tively to maintain records
The two keyof the
points past,
of this discussioneven
can
be set in bolder
if these records are shaped byreliefthe
with examples,
demands the
of contemporary life. first From this
of which arises perspec-
from recent attempts
tive, the activities of,
to isolatesay,
high-levelarchives
radioactive wastes fromand
museums are interwoven.
living ecosystems.
Each Warning
particular
future gener-
ations about
institution may sustain the location of waste sites is a of
a representation
serious
the past quite specific to public
its policy issue and raises the
institutional
mandate, but these representations
possibility of archives being usedcan to help be
interrelated.5 communicate across spans of time greater
than anyis
The value of this point single civilization
that it has ever en-
guards
against assuming that dured. The second example
collective memory emphasizes is
invested in any singlesometype of that
of the forces human insti-
shape a society's
tution, such as the archives.
view of its past. ItAnyderives fromview of
study of
the past conserved by the
landscape archival
history record
and the selective way in
which tragedies
can be placed, profitably, in and the acts of violence have of
context
been marked with monuments
the representations maintained by other and memo- in-
stitutions. The task of
rials assessing
in order to outline an this
almost archi-
mythol-
val contribution is made no easier
ogical representation by past.
of the national the
variability in the way different societies
come to sustain important information.
Sustaining Warnings for Ten MillenniaIn
one society, oral and ritual traditions may
Since the dawn of the Atomic Age dur-
predominate, while in another society they
ing
may be allied with archivalWorld War II, the United written
records, States has
produced large
documentation, and even elements of ma-quantities of high-level nu-
6Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison:

4Maurice Halbwachs, The Collective Memory, trans. University of Wisconsin Press, 1985). The literature
F. J. and V. Y. Ditter (New York: Harper & Row, of oral history is of interest also in this regard, in-
1980) and Edward S. Casey, Remembering: A Phe- cluding David Stricklin and Rebecca Sharpless, eds.,
nomenological Study (Bloomington: Indiana Univer- The Past Meets the Present: Essays on Oral History
sity Press, 1987). (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1988)
5Mary Douglas, How Institutions Think (Syracuse: and William W. Moss, "Oral History: An Appreci-
Syracuse University Press, 1986), 69-90. ation," American Archivist 40 (1970): 429-39.
clear waste.
These radioactive
regarding byprodu
the location of waste deposits was
of weapons
production
seen as crucial to this and
goal. commer
power generation The require up
key to understanding the to ten th
interplay
of archives
sand years to decay intoand communication
less indangerous
this in-
topes. No solution has
stance lies yet
in the task been
force's pursuit of long- foun
lasting means
the problem of this of communication employ-
material's safe disp
ing for
Current plans call a variety ofitstransmission techniques.
solidification
burial deep in stable geologic
Durable physical formatio
markers at the storage sites
However, were seen
quite apart as a long-lasting,
from but insuffi-
uncertainty a
natural processescient,that might
technique (figure 1). It would be breach
im-
storage chambers, human
possible violation
to hope that such markers could of
waste dumps is an
retainimportant concern.
their meaning for three hundred gen-
erations, orthe
matter how securely that theywaste
would even remain
is store
is virtually impossible physically intact.
to After all, some of the people
prevent most f
disturbing the waste- durable building materials known are, by
intentionally or
intentionally-during the
virtue of their next
durability, ten
prime quarry for mille
If some of the buried waste becomes of scavengers. The task force therefore pro-
value to future generations, it may even beposed that other techniques be employed to
"mined," supplement the warning conveyed by phys-
Recognition of the dangers of possible ical markers.
human penetration of waste deposits led to Written documents maintained in on-site
vaults and off-site document collections
the formation of a Human Interference Task
Force by the U.S. Department of Energy would be the most important of these sup-
in 1980.7 The task force included special-plements. At the site of the waste deposit,
ists in semiotics and communication and written warnings could be placed in an
was charged with proposing long-term above-ground document vault to explain the
warning systems for disposal sites.8 It rec- nature and danger of the radioactive ma-
ognized from the start that disturbance of terials. In this way, detailed information
the sites by future generations could never about the design and layout of the storage
be completely prevented. Indeed, the task area would be available for careful study.
force was unwilling to assume responsibil- Future generations would be encouraged to
ity for safeguarding the waste from delib- periodically translate the documents from
erate violation. However, it did accept the their original languages into languages that
obligation to reduce the likelihood of in-
advertant, ill-informed penetration of the
storage areas.9 Long-term communication Waste Isolation, Human Interference Task Force, Re-
ducing the Likelihood of Future Human Activities That
Could Affect Geologic High- Level Waste Repositories
(Columbus, Ohio: Battelle Memorial Institute, 1984);
7Thc following discussion summarizes an argu- U.S. Department of Energy, Statement of Position of
ment found in Kenneth E. Foote, "Object as Mem-the U.S. Department of Energy in the Matter of Pro-
ory: The Material Foundations of Human Semiosis,"posed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Rule-
Semiotica 69 (1988): 253-59. making on the Storage and Disposal of Nuclear Waste
8Thomas A. Sebeok, Communication Measures to (Waste Confidence Rulemaking) (Washington, D.C.:
Bridge Ten Millennia (Columbus, Ohio: Battelle Me-Department of Energy, 1980); U.S. Environmental
morial Institute, Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation,Protection Agency, "Environmental Standards for the
1984) and Percy H. Tannenbaum, CommunicationManagement and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-
Across 300 Generations: Deterring Human Interfer-Level and Transuranic Waste," Federal Register 47,
ence with Waste Deposit Sites (Columbus, Ohio: Bat-29 December 1982, 53196. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
telle Memorial Institute, Office of Nuclear WasteCommission, "Disposal of High-Level Radioactive
Isolation, 1984). Wastes in Geologic Repositories, Technical Crite-
9Battelle Memorial Institute, Office of Nuclear ria," Federal Register 48, 21 June 1983, 28194.
Figure 1. A schematic plan of the surface marker for a nuc

the shape of the proposed nuclear waste warning symbol.
vaults in the plan, which includes a geodetic survey coord
Institute, Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, Human Inter
hood of Future Human Activities that Could Affect Geol
lumbus, Ohio: Battelle Memorial Institute, 1984), 87, with
may emerge over the established

next ten librariesthousand
and archives would
servethe
years, thereby enhancing to extend their longevity. History has
effectiveness
of the on-site written documents. The
shown that collections task
gathered by libraries
force saw periodic translation of the ma- with care
and archives have been maintained
for long periods-
terials as a means of creating a sort in some cases for many
of tem-
poral "relay system" of information
centuries- without serious disruption.11
transmission. Worldwide distribution of warning mes-
sages
In addition to this relay in this manner
system of would mean that the
trans-
potential loss of
lation, the task force proposed a record from any one place
distributing
would be offset
information about the disposal sitesby and
the conservation
their of cop-
ies in other
location to off-site library andcollections.
archival col-
lections. Printed records The task force also on
produced recommended
acid-that
information about
free paper were judged the most durable nuclear waste sites be
for distribution, but microfilm, magnetic
added to maps and included in the national
land survey system.
tape, and electronic storage media Maps were
were seen as an
effective meansif
viewed as possible alternatives of communicating
periodi-with fu-
ture generations
cally copied and replaced.10 because they the
Entrusting are used ex-
tensively,
care and updating of these are produced
new recordsin great number,
to
and are constantly revised under the super-
10Battelle Memorial Institute, "Reducing the Like-

lihood," 67. nIbid., 72.
vision of established national,

in many otherstate,
casesand
or
cal government far
agencies. To
short of encour
sustainin
mapping of the waste
all thesites
meanslong
of into t
convey
future, each site would have
tradition was establis
judged
vertical and horizontal
assess inreference po
terms of po
fectiveness.
within the national Legend-
geodetic survey syst
These reference points
might would
well arise,
provide
or b
the dangers
veyors and cartographers with the of the w
incent
to retain information about
task force held the
little confidence location
that such
the storage areas.stories would transfer enough information
Furthermore, it was
ommended that the locations
to guarantee of
safety, unless one waste
or more of sto
age sites be included in communicational
the other long-term recently tech- crea
niques succeeded, too.
geographical information systems. T
are large computer Finally, as part of its recommendations,
databases developed
the task force
government agencies suggestedprivate
and creation of a uni- corpo
versal and
tions to store plat biohazard symbol
taxas maps a two-fold aid and p
of public utility to communicational durability.
systems. First, the
Geographical
formation systems symbol are
would depict the deadliness of
among thethe larg
databases ever waste in a form
created inthat the
could be marked
world on a of c
puter technology. wide The
variety ofhigh
monuments costand writtenof th
creation provides documents.
some Second, use of a single legible that
assurance
vestment in their symbol
maintenance
would permit its meaningwill
to be as- conti
similated more
long into the future. readily and
The accuratelyforce
task into c
oral and social
cluded that this plan of traditions.
distribution w
Taken together,
extend the longevity of these efforts reflect the by ag
warnings
entrusting their varied
care resources
to societies have at their dis-
a variety of es
posal for extending
lished and long-lived the temporal range of
organizations.12
Beyond the use communication.
of records Given the need to com-
stored in o
site vaults and off-site
municate through document
ten millennia, the Human colle
Interferenceconsidered
tions, the task force Task Force recommended thatthe po
bility of both durable markers
employing oraland documentary rec-
tradition
communicate withords be employed as thegenerations.
future cornerstones of
Disagreement long-termamong
exists warning systems. historians,
The task force
thropologists, anddid, folklorists
however, find value in other commu-
about the
nicational resources,
fectiveness of oral traditions in accurat such as legend-like
stories. The task force also
transmitting information overargued that syn-
long per
of time.14 Instances
ergistic relationships can be expected to in w
can be found
factual information
emerge from has accurately
the interplay of communica- b
maintained orally tional
for resources. For example, the of
hundreds longev-years,
ity of markers and written records could be
improved significantly if their safekeeping
12Abraham Weitzberg, Building on Existing Insti- could be made an ongoing concern of ex-
tutions to Perpetuate Knowledge of Waste Reposito- isting human institutions, such as libraries,
ries (Columbus, Ohio: Battelle Memorial Institute,
Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, 1982). archives, and government mapping agen-
13Sebeok, Communication Measures. cies. The conclusions imply that even though
14Battelle Memorial Institute, "Reducing the Like- documents and markers may be the preem-
lihood," 74, and W. L. Montell, The Saga of Coe
inent means of sustaining memory in hu-
Ridge: A Study in Oral History (Knoxville: University
of Tennessee Press, 1970). man communication, they are not the only
way, and they benefit forgetting

fromcan be gained by turning with
interaction to the
other communicational resources.
history of places that have been stigmatized
by violence and tragedy.
These are cases stemming from land-
The Effacement of Memory
scape history, an active area of research in
If archives can play contemporary
a part geography.
in extendingTo draw a par-
the range of communication, they can just
allel with archival theory, this research has
as readily be implicated in any attempt to
stressed, among other themes, the interre-
thwart communication by diminishing its
lationship between cultural landscape and
temporal and spatial range.15 In George Or-
collective memory. Such studies are based
well's novel 1984, the Ministry
on observations of the close of Truth
connection be-
("Minitrue" in the language of Newspeak)
tween the places a society values and that
revised records to reflect current dogma.
society's view- or "myths"- of its past.17
By translating documents from Oldspeak
Like archives, cultural landscapes can be
into Newspeak, Minitrue workers could
said to maintain a representation of the past.
manipulate the past to support "good-
In some early civilizations and primitive
think." In real life, people do sometimes
societies, this representation was legible in
choose to keep secrets, to lie, and to distort
the layout of cities and villages that were
information to control others. Bureaucra-
designed according to sacred cosmological
cies and corporations may seek to control
principles.18 In modern secular societies,
the flow of damaging information by de-
the organizational principles that guide the
stroying incriminating records and employ-
shaping of cities and landscapes are con-
ing oaths of secrecy.16
siderably more complex and elusive. Yet,
Despite the prevalenceas the these daysAlbanese
historian Catherine of pa- has
per shredders in highnoted,
government offices,
Americans are not without a sort of
professional archivists would not condone
"civil religion," despite claims to the con-
effacement of records in their care. None-
trary.19 This civil religion has attained a
theless, as was earlier made clear, archives
sort of cosmographical representation in the
are subject to the same social pressures that
American landscape, in the national parks,
shape the collective memory of other
battlefields, museums, insti-
monuments, and
tutions. Perhaps archivists are more suc-
cessful in resisting these pressures, but
effacement does sometimes occur with re-
spect to representations of the past main- 17Foremost among these works are those of David
Lowenthal, including "Past Time, Present Place:
tained by other institutions and by society Landscape and Memory," The Geographical Review
at large. Insight into how such forces aid 65 (1975):l-36, and The Past is a Foreign Country
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 185-
259. Other related works are: John B. Jackson, The
Necessity for Ruins (Amherst: University of Massa-
15Further discussion of the following issues can be
chusetts Press, 1980); John Gold and Jacquelin Bur-
found in Kenneth E. Foote, "Object as Memory: The gess, eds., Valued Environments (London: George
Material Foundations of Human Semiosis," Semi- Allen & Unwin, 1982); and Yi-Fu Tuan, Landscapes
otica 69 (1988): 259-63 and in "Stigmata of Nationalof Fear (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
Identity: Exploring the Cosmography of America's 1979).
Civil Religion" in Person, Place, Thing: Essays in 18Paul Wheatley, The Pivot of the Four Quarters:
Honor of Philip Wagner, ed. S. T. Wong and M. E.A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character
E. Hurst, (in press). of the Ancient Chinese City (Chicago: Aldine Pub-
16Sissela Bok, Secrets: On the Ethics of Conceal- lishing, 1971), 225-476.
ment and Revelation (New York: Vintage, 1984) and 19Cathenne L. Albanese, Sons of the Fathers: The
Lying: Moral Choice in Public Life (New York: Pan- Civil Religion of the American Revolution (Philadel-
theon, 1978). phia: Temple University Press, 1976).
memorials that are faced, either actively or passively. As the

maintained at public
pense and are the object
geographer of
David Lowenthal pilgrimage
has written,
tourists.20 "Features recalled with pride are apt to be
One of the most interesting aspects of safeguarded against erosion and vandalism;
this landscape cosmography is the selectiv- those that reflect shame may be ignored or
ity with which sites are commemorated to expunged from the landscape."22
recall great victories, watershed events, This point about effacement can be il-
historical turning points, and the women lustrated with striking, but contrasting, ex-
and men who made sacrifices for the cause amples from Salem, Massachusetts, and
of nationhood. Not infrequently, however, Berlin, Germany. Today in Salem, no one
darker events- tragedies and massacres- knows exactly where the town's "witches"
are marked as well. The value of turning were executed.23 Soon after the witchcraft
to episodes of violence and tragedy lies in episode of 1692, witnesses retracted their
the fact that the memory of such events is testimony and the trials were discredited.
so prone to be held in tension. A society's Through the years, the exact location of the
need to remember is balanced against its site of the executions was forgotten (figure
desire to forget, to leave the memory be- 2). Tourists visiting Salem today can stop
hind and put the event out of mind. Few at the Witch Museum (the building and site
events produce such strong ambivalent are unrelated to the events of the seven-
feelings as acts of violence, and as societies teenth century), and visit a house where it
grapple with these feelings in public de- is believed accusations were leveled against
bate, the struggle comes to imprint itself some of the victims. The sense of shame
on landscape. If a tragedy seems to illus- engendered by the trials, combined with
trate a lesson of human ethics or social con- Salem's subsequent growth as a prosperous
duct worth remembering, or if it demands seaport, led to the passive effacement of
that warnings be forwarded to future gen- the execution site. All records of the site,
erations, tension may resolve in favor of a both oral and written, were lost. Still, with
permanent monument or memorial.21 If the the tercentenary of the trials approaching
violence fails to exemplify an enduring in 1992, the executions remain part of Sal-
value, there is greater likelihood of the site, em's public life. Proposals to raise a me-
artifacts, and documentary record being ef- morial, and thereby publicly accept the event
as a valid part of Salem's past, are count-
ered by the desire of many to leave the
20 An informal but provocative account of cosmo- episode unmarked and unremarked.
graphical representations and "pilgrimage" routes to In Berlin, buildings closely associated
be found in the capital cities of Europe is provided with Nazi power have been destroyed. The
by Donald Home, The Great Museum: The Re-Pre-
sentation of History (London: Pluto Press, 1984). Berlin Wall was originally begun close to
21 In this context it is useful to recall that the ety- the heart of the former Nazi government
mological root of the word monument is the Latin verb
monere- "to remind, to warn." Monuments may arise
from other impulses, but their power to remind and
to warn often overshadows secondary considerations. 22David Lowenthal, "Past Time, Present Place:
Further insight into this issue is offered by Kurt Förs- Landscape and Memory," The Geographical Review
ter, "Monument/Memory and the Mortality of Ar- 65 (1975): 31.
chitecture," Oppositions 25 (1982):1-19; Alois Riegl, ^Sidney Perley, Where the Salem "Witches" Were
"Der moderne Denkmalskultus, sein Wesen und seine Hanged (Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1921). For
Entstehung," in Gesammelte Aufsätze (Augsburg: Dr. an account of the witchcraft episode, see Paul Boyer
Benno Filser, 1929); and John Ruskin, The Seven and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The So-
Lamps of Architecture (London: J. M. Dent, 1907), cial Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge: Harvard Uni-
182. versity Press, 1974).
Figure 2. View from Gallows Hill toward Salem,

of the executions of 1692; only the general location
reputation they lent the town remain a divisive issu
of the suggestion by some citizens to raise a memor
witchcraft episode. This and all following photogra
In Germany,
district as an intentional means of course,
ofthis active ef-
breaking
facement
apart this stigmatized area.of buildings
The has been matched
site of the by
Gestapo headquarters remains vacant more
than forty years after the building's de-
struction. In Berlin, topic
thisof debateconscious
in Germany and is discussed in Rein-
efface-
hard Rürup, ed., Topographie des Terrors: Gestapo,
ment of buildings was based on SS und Reichssicherheitshauptamt auf dem "Prinz-
renouncement of this vicious genocidal ep- Albrecht-Gelände'* (Berlin: Verlag Willmuth Aren-
isode, as well as on the belief that efface- hövel, 1987); Gottfried Korff and Reinhard Rürup,
eds., Berlin, Berlin: Die Ausstellung zur Geschichte
ment would waylay attempts to create pro- der Stadt (Berlin: Nicolai, 1987), 543-60; and Be-
Nazi monuments. The destruction of Span- nedikt Erenz, "Der Ort, der Stört," Die Zeit, 9 Sep-
dau Prison, following the death of Rudolphtember 1988. Debate about the disposition of this
"landscape of terror" is closely related to attempts
Hess, was predicated on the latter motive. by Germans to come to terms with the Nazi legacy,
Some Germans go so far as to call for the a topic discussed by Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The Hol-
razing of all remaining Nazi buildings, such ocaust and the Historians (Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1981) and Richard J. Evans,
as the libraries and galleries that still stand In Hitler's Shadow: West German Historians and the
in Berlin and elsewhere.24 Attempt to Escape from the Nazi Past (London: I.B.
Tauris and Co. Ltd., 1989). This debate is likely to
increase in intensity in the wake of East and West
German unification; many sites are likely to be reap-
24The fate of these sites of Nazi terror is an active praised in light of this development.
the demand that sites of Nazi atrocities be of a site to the memory of an event, martyr,
memorialized for eternity. Without ques- great individual, or group of victims. Des-
tion, the Holocaust has inspired some of ignation revolves around the marking of an
the most forceful memorials of modern times exceptional event without the religious
(figure 3). The pressure to sustain these sa- overtones borne of sanctification. Rectifi-
cred places is growing ever stronger as cation occurs, generally, after accidental
members of the last generation of Holo- tragedy, when a place or building is "put
caust survivors seek, in their remaining right" and reused. As was noted above for
years, to leave enduring testimony to the Salem and Berlin, effacement occurs both
evil of the Holocaust. actively and passively after particularly
These cases bring to mind other events shameful events and involves obliteration
of violence and tragedy where calls for of the evidence of violence.
monuments divide opinion and provoke The most striking aspect of all four out-
heated public debate. Generally, this de- comes is the length of time required for
bate is resolved in favor of one of four out- transformation to occur. Even in cases where
comes for landscape: sanctification, tragedy sites become transfigured into
designation, rectification, or effacement. As shrines of national, state, or civic identity,
was the case above with respect to concen- their sanctification frequently involves a
tration camps, sanctification entails con- lengthy struggle. In the first place, as many
struction of a memorial- perhaps a building, historians have noted, historical concep-
monument, or park - and ritual dedication tions of a national past are almost entirely
Figure 3. The rail siding leading to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Memorials to the victims
of the Holocaust are among the most compelling reminders of twentieth-century genocide. In Berlin
and elsewhere, symbols of Nazi power were effaced.
Figure 4. The Boston Massacre marker in Bosto

believed to lie where the first blood of the Revolu
March 1770. This memorial was laid in 1886. A mo
several blocks away on the Boston Common in 188
came
retrospective and take timeinterested in The
to evolve.25 identif
of the
American Revolutionary and struggle. Second,
Civil Wars had a
to be won, for instance, above, tragedies
before people carry
be- i
meaning and people may
tify sites of tragedy with
25Some of the most useful sources in this large lit- preting their meaning. Th
erature are Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds.,
a tragedy usually must pa
The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge
nificance can be assessed and its site sanc-
University Press, 1983); George Allan, The Impor-
tances of the Past: A Meditation on the Authority of tified. As a consequence, years or decades
Tradition (Albany: State University of New York Press,
may pass before sites achieve the status of
1986); Bernard Lewis, History: Remembered, Re-
covered, Invented (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Uni- national shrines. Until then, the sites may
versity Press, 1975); Richard Johnson, Gregor lie abandoned and virtually ignored.
McLennan, Bill Schwarz, and David Sutton, eds.,
Nowadays, the Boston Massacre of 1770
Making Histories: Studies in History- Writing and Pol-
is viewed as the first act of violence of the
itics (London: Hutchinson, 1982); Michael Kämmen,
Selvages and Biases: The Fabric of History in Amer- Revolutionary War era, but more than one
ican Culture (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, hundred years passed before it was per-
1987); John Lukacs, Historical Consciousness, or,
The Remembered Past (New York: Harper and Row, manently marked (figure 4). Even after this
1968); Patricia N. Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: was accomplished, people argued against
The Unbroken Past of the American West (New York:
the marker on the grounds that the massa-
Norton, 1987); and Paul Thompson, The Voice of the
Past: Oral History, 2nd Edition (New York: Oxford cre was little more than a street fight, an
University Press, 1988). undignified provocation of British troops
Figure 5. A memorial raised outside Goliad

sacred by Mexican troops after surrendering
Texas Revolution, like those of the American
being sanctified. It took Texans a century to
and state. The Goliad site is perhaps less cele
possibly because the Alamo's defenders died
before being executed.
unfit for perhaps even shameful,

commemoration as events.
part Only later
of Ame
ica's "glorious" did they become reinterpreted
struggle for - indepe
and
dence.26 Similarly, marked- many as episodes
years demonstrating
passed Chi- befo
Texans sanctified the Goliad and Alamo cago's civic spirit as a hardworking, en-
battlefields, both sites of needless massa-
during, and enterprising city.
cres (figure 5). In fact, the Alamo was al- In contrast to these landscape "stig-
most lost to urban development before it mata" of national, regional, and local iden-
was rehabilitated and enshrined to mark an tity, places go unmarked and even unnoticed
almost mythical view of Texas's origin as when defaced by other types of violence.
a republic and state. The same delay oc- Accidents, for example, seem to have little
curred in the cases of Chicago's civic tra- effect on landscape, unless they claim many
gedies: the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812, victims of a single group and induce a feel-
and the Chicago Fire of 1871. Initially these ing of community loss. Society seems to
were viewed as at least inauspicious, and find little redeeming value in accidental
tragedy. Once the immediate causes have
been deduced and rectified, the site of an
accident is usually forgotten. As a result,
26Franklin J. Moses, "Mob or Martyrs? Crispus
Attucks and the Boston Massacre," The Bostonian 1 the sites of many accidental tragedies have
(1895): 640-50. remained unmarked or have been reused.
Figure 6. Site of the former home of serial murd

Chicago. The house was disassembled during the pol
of the structure were bulldozed shortly after comp
common response to particularly shameful acts of
remain attached to the site itself.
Among these are thedental,

sitesrectification
of resulting
many fromofthe the
healing action
worst accidental tragedies inof time is not always ac- his-
American
ceptable, and
tory, such as the Iroquois this is where social
Theater fire pressure
(1903)
and the Our Lady of Angels
is most School
outwardly evident. People may be fire
(1958), both in Chicago, and
so outraged the
and shamed Cocoanut
by the appearance
Grove fire (1942) in of violence in theirBy
Boston. community, perhaps
isolating,
cleansing, and returning caused by someonesuchthey knew andsites
trusted to
everyday use, people asabsolve a neighbor, that them
they demand active,
of not guilt
in a manner common to other ritual passive, effacement. In the case of many
processes.27 mass murders, for instance, people have
In the case of accidental tragedy, the not hesitated to destroy the site of the mas-
passage of time is a useful means of ab- sacre-or even the murderer's home- as
solution. But when a tragedy is not acci- soon as possible after the violence (figure
6).28 Apart from assassinations of promi-
27Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and

Anti-Structure (Chicago: Aldine, 1969) and Arnold
Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (Chicago: Uni- 28Perhaps the best known of these demolitions fol-
versity of Chicago Press, 1960). lowed the 1984 mass murder in a fast-food restaurant
nent individuals, which tend to

an acceptable inspire
represent
morials, the disposition
general ofmurder
trend is for the tras
mirror society's
to be rectified gradually, view
as are places
accidental tragedy.29
and But slow decay is
aspirations.
acceptable in instances of particularly h
nous crimes. In some cases, the
Implications forsense
Arc
shame and stigma and Retention
is so great that a pla
once effaced, will remain isolated and
used indefinitely,The issue of sustaining
never to be or effacing
reincorp
memories of tragedy has a direct bearing
ated into the activities of daily life.30 Per
the "silence" of on debate concerning
these sites the collection
actually and d
appraisal of archival
"speak" to the senselessness of the v materials. In 1970,
historian Howard Zinn faulted archivists
lence as
eloquently as any monum
would.31 In the for neglecting
end, to collect
all these records docu-
cases s
menting significant social minorities out-
how social pressures shape landscape in
side the mainstream of American life.32
In a sense, Zinn was maintaining that ar-
in San Ysidro, California. The restaurant was razed
chives err in favor of preserving records
and the land donated to the City of San Diego. There of dominant social groups at the expense
are, however, many less well-known cases. During of the less powerful. As the discussion of
the course of the investigation of a serial murder in a
suburb of Chicago in 1978-79, the killer's house and
tragedy shows, the issue of selectivity is
garage were leveled by public officials (figure 6). In
even more involved. The American land-
the case of a series of murders discovered in 1957 in
scape, too, is notably silent in regard to
Plainfield, Wisconsin, the killer's house was de-
stroyed by arson. Many sites of mass murder are rec-
these less powerful groups. Few monu-
tified, but about half are effaced. ments mark the course of American racial
29For example, see the Martin Luther King, Jr., and ethnic intolerance. But even with re-
Memorial shown in the cover illustration for this is-
sue. The memorial is on the balcony of the Lorraine
spect to the activities of dominant groups,
Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where King was as- powerful forces may intervene to influ-
sassinated; it was created by the motel's owner, Wal- ence the record of the past, regardless of
ter Bailey. It took nearly twenty years for supporters
whether it is represented in the landscape
of a memorial to gain public funding that would con-
vert the motel into a civil rights educational center.
or in an archival collection.
Similar tensions have been aroused by attempts to The Dallas County Historical Founda-
memorialize victims of American violence of the 1960s
tion had difficulty raising funds to open an
at Kent State University, Jackson State University,
and the John F. Kennedy assassination site in Dallas,
exhibit entitled "The Sixth Floor" in the
and with respect to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial former Texas School Book Depository from
in Washington, D.C.
where Lee Harvey Oswald shot President
30Shame and stigma may have a powerful effect on
the shaping of landscape and the archival record. Fu- John Kennedy. The foundation's fund-rais-
ture research in this area is supported by a suggestive ing efforts were hampered by a division of
literature on shame and stigma and their bearing on
public opinion concerning the exhibit. Some
interpersonal relationships, including Erving Goff-
man, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled people felt that an exhibit was needed,
Identity (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963); whereas others believed it would only serve
Agnes Heller, The Power of Shame: A Rational Per-
to glorify the assassin, since Dallas had al-
spective (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985);
and Edward Jones et al., Social Stigma: The Psy- ready built a cenotaph honoring President
chology of Marked Relationships (New York: W. H. Kennedy.33 The Historical Museum of South
Freeman, 1984).
31Bernard P. Dauenhauer, Silence: The Phenome-
non and Its Ontological Significance (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1980) and Peter Ehrenhaus, 32Hindine, "Toward Documentation."
"Silence and Symbolic Expression," Communica- 33Candace Floyd, "Too Close for Comfort," His-
tions Monographs 55 (1988): 41-57. tory News, September 1985, 9-14.
Florida was severely memory criticizedis more than for collect-

a metaphor. The doc-
ing the motorcycle of umentsa and artifacts man
black they collect are im-
whose
alleged murder by portant Miami police
resources for extendinginthe 1980
spatial
sparked a major riot. andSome
temporal range
museumof human communi-
spon-
sors withdrew their support cation. This view in implies
the that attitudesof
wake
rumors that the motorcycle toward the past, as well as to
was visions
be of the
put
on display. future, can sometimes condition collecting
Archivists have never come to terms with policies. In regard to the long-term storage
the concept of the cultural effacement of of nuclear waste, it may be imperative that
memory. They have long recognized the archives be employed to protect future gen-
necessity of selective retention, but have erations from danger. Conversely, the his-
done so to avoid squandering limited ar- tory of tragedies exposes the power of social
chival resources on redundant or relatively pressure to shape society's view of the past
unimportant records. Similarly, they have as represented in cultural landscapes and,
accepted the necessity of restricting access by extension, archival collections. At the
to certain records, at least temporarily, in same time, the examples discussed in this
order to balance national security, personal article suggest how much remains to be
privacy, or competitive business consider- learned about the dynamics of collective
ations against the value of public availa- memory. Theorists must eventually come
bility. But the possibility that a positive to terms with how archives, as communi-
purpose might be served by conspiring to cational resources, are to be related to other
efface the collective memory of a particular means of memory conservation, and why
event is alien to prevailing archival values, some events are so well documented and
at least in contemporary Western civiliza- stir so much interest while others leave such
tion. The point here is not to realign those a small mark on the historical record, to
values, but to help understand the conflicts the point where archives become a memory
inherent in any society's attempts to re- of last resort. Pursued in these directions,
member and deal with its past. A critical research can yield insight into the relation-
role for archives may well be to serve as a ship of societies to their archives so that
countervailing force to effacement as a the concept of memory is not overlooked-
"source of last resort." or forgotten- in archival theory.
For archivists, the idea of archives as

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To Remember and Forget: Archives, Memory, and Culture

Author(s): Kenneth E. Foote

To Remember and Forget:

Abstract: The idea of archives as collective memory is sometimes employed as a metapho

The Memory Metaphor

Archivists have long been interested in

terial culture such asavailable

6Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison:

Figure 1. A schematic plan of the surface marker for a nuc

may emerge over the established

10Battelle Memorial Institute, "Reducing the Like-

vision of established national,

way, and they benefit forgetting

memorials that are faced, either actively or passively. As the

Figure 2. View from Gallows Hill toward Salem,

Figure 4. The Boston Massacre marker in Bosto

Figure 5. A memorial raised outside Goliad

unfit for perhaps even shameful,

Figure 6. Site of the former home of serial murd

Among these are thedental,

27Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and

nent individuals, which tend to

Florida was severely memory criticizedis more than for collect-

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