How are Archives a repository of knowledge?

What are Archives:

“Archives” is traditionally a name for a room that stores and documents information about something or several things. This can be for history or general information etc.. Archives have been used throughout human history and they have been very helpful among historians who are studying a specific era in human history. These days, while archives still remain in use, digital archives are now very well used and are much easier and quicker to access, digital ones contain images, documents and many more things that you wouldn’t be allowed to even touch in a physical archive. Despite the rise in technology and the internet, physical archives have seemed to push through as it has done so for many centuries as one of Man’s most reliable resources for information.

Archives in Jersey:

There are a few Archives here in jersey too. Such as The Société Jersiaise and the Jersey Archive. In The Société Jersiaise, you will find a lot of work from the well known photographer, Henry Mullins. His work consisted of many portraits of Jersey during the 1800s. His work helped him be recognised as the person who played an important role in the early development in Jersey’s photography. In the Jersey Archive, it stores information on Claude Cahun, another well known photographer that is linked to jersey. In the Jersey Archive you can find her work, or what is left of it after the Germans destroyed most of it during WW2. Her work covers alot on sexuality and gender identity, quite interesting especially since it’s from the 30s to 40s. Appealing to anyone who wants to study the history of gender identity and sexuality.

Conclusion:

To conclude, archives are a great way to tap into the history of a certain event or era. It is a very reliable source as it will tell you the truth on something and nothing but the truth, it wont be altered by other people’s stories that you would hear online. Using an archive to gather information is a more authentic way of learning from the past as you will likely be in a different atmosphere and have different surroundings from that era, like in The Societe Jersaise where you are inside a real building that was built from that time.