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August 2023

Storytelling in Archival Contexts

John Marshall filming ≠Toma throwing an assegai
Display Title: [No folder title]: John Marshall filming ≠Toma throwing an assegai (print is a cropped image) 2001.29.656

 

The Marshall Family Archives at the Peabody Museum is rich with stories. The collection as a whole tells us about a family that pushed the boundaries of anthropological research in taking eight expeditions into the Kalahari Desert of South West Africa from 1950 to 1961, intending to document people – primarily the Ju/’hoansi – who were on the brink of transitioning from living as semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers to being settled on a reserve. The images in the collection vividly tell stories about the Ju/’hoansi and other Kalahari peoples in what is now Namibia, Botswana, and Angola. As archivists, our goal is to uncover and convey the many stories buried within the Marshall Family Archives through the processes of cataloging and digitization.

 

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The Marshall IMLS Grant and Resources for Reparative Description

Woman and her daughter standing, with Lorna Marshall squatting next to them, on Fritz Metzger's farm
Woman and her daughter standing, with Lorna Marshall squatting next to them, on Fritz Metzger's farm
2001.29.2352
 

Describing archival collections from marginalized and oppressed communities is hard work for archivists. It’s emotional and triggering when we are confronted with racist ideologies baked into the language used in historic materials, especially for those of us who identify with marginalized groups we see in the collections. Reparative description is the practice of deciding how to use language to accurately describe the people and history of a collection without perpetuating harm and how to use language to accurately describe and inform users.

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