{"title":"Confederacy, colonialism, controversy: How history serves the present in the Alabama Department of Archives and History","authors":"Sarah Chant","doi":"10.1016/j.jhg.2024.12.005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article traces the history of the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), the first government-sponsored archival institution in the United States, as a historically situated project to rebuild a particular white vision of the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. I examine how the archives offered, in tandem with the development of a racist state constitution, a way of reclaiming white Alabama as a powerful player following the liberatory potential and resultant discombobulation of Reconstruction. Secondly, I look at how recent changes to the ADAH's collections, programming, and values relating to diversifying collections rub up against the long durée of white heteronormative memory-work in the American South, putting archivists and historical accumulation at the frontline of contemporary culture wars in the U.S.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47094,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Historical Geography","volume":"88 ","pages":"Pages 74-83"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Historical Geography","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305748824001518","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article traces the history of the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), the first government-sponsored archival institution in the United States, as a historically situated project to rebuild a particular white vision of the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. I examine how the archives offered, in tandem with the development of a racist state constitution, a way of reclaiming white Alabama as a powerful player following the liberatory potential and resultant discombobulation of Reconstruction. Secondly, I look at how recent changes to the ADAH's collections, programming, and values relating to diversifying collections rub up against the long durée of white heteronormative memory-work in the American South, putting archivists and historical accumulation at the frontline of contemporary culture wars in the U.S.
期刊介绍:
A well-established international quarterly, the Journal of Historical Geography publishes articles on all aspects of historical geography and cognate fields, including environmental history. As well as publishing original research papers of interest to a wide international and interdisciplinary readership, the journal encourages lively discussion of methodological and conceptual issues and debates over new challenges facing researchers in the field. Each issue includes a substantial book review section.