Re-defining 'evidence': appraising for historical value as historians turn to media and materiality

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.