National Council on Public History

Paul C. Thistle, Langley Centennial Museum & National Exhibition Centre (retired)

PROPOSAL TYPE

Structured Conversation

Seeking

• Seeking General Feedback and Interest
• Seeking Specific Expertise

RELATED TOPICS

• Memory
• Teaching and Training
• Archives

ABSTRACT

Given that a significant proportion of archival holdings accessioned to date are in cursive handwriting format, has anyone at all begun thinking about, or planning for, the disappearance of the ability of future researchers to read cursive handwriting—to say nothing about new generations of archives staff? Will the value of records in cursive format eventually decline to zero? Continuing to digitise handwritten materials will not help. The proposer argues machine reading is not a likely solution. Elementary school culture change that increasingly is dropping cursive writing from curricula, is liable to severely limit future historians’ and even archival worker access to cursive records. A public history conversation is necessary SOON.

DESCRIPTION

The proposer has addressed his concerns about the above matters to various archival institutions & professional organisations, but has encountered only ‘radio silence’ in response.

He will present a brief outline of the problem based on his article “How Will Archives & History Function Once Reading Cursive Disappears?,” that is aimed at identifying a major issue for the future of custodial institutions & the functioning of the humanities discipline.

The session’s structured conversation will seek information about existing & promote future research as a starting point to address the issues of coping with the looming future impacts of historians & their graduate students who will eventually suffer from cursive reading illiteracy & how custodial institutions plan to prevent archival holdings in cursive writing format from becoming irrelevant. See my full problem statement at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-archives-history-function-once-reading-cursive-paul-c-thistle/.

In this proposal, among my preliminary questions needing work-shopping & additions are:

• Will the value of records in cursive format eventually decline to zero?
• Is this avoidable?
• If so, how?
• Absent access to handwritten records, how can E.H. Carr’s necessary “dialogue with the past” be carried effectively out as history scholars, local, and/or family historians who are currently literate in cursive age out of the business?
• Given that transcription is financially out of the question–despite ‘crowdsourcing’ efforts being proposed–& machine reading currently appears to be an unlikely solution, what other avenues are open to us other than a forceful lobby for elementary schools to retain instruction in cursive writing as a priority?
• Should custodial institutions start engaging with universities to require first & subsequent year history students to learn to read cursive handwriting as well as the methods of historiography?
• Will archives have to teach cursive writing to their future users?
• As we do for the ability to read a second language, should we instead wait to test for the skill of reading cursive during application to pursue a postgraduate degree in history or archival practice?
• What is the way forward to retain the evidentiary value of cursive writing in archival holdings?

Please add to, edit, or subtract from the above as necessary.

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Paul C. Thistle, Langley Centennial Museum & National Exhibition Centre (retired), [email protected]

ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 1, 2021. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion