Abstract:
Archival appraisal processes necessitate the rejection of unimportant material, but sometimes we recognise importance too late. As historians turn increasingly to low-culture topics, we increasingly need records that archivists have long rejected. I give examples of how the vagaries of value affect not only the archive, but also the histories that can be written from them, thereby demonstrating a need for historians and archivists to understand each other's processes and needs — in other words, a need to revive curatorial thinking.