Archives

In class this week we learned the difference between archives and collections. Our discussion led to the conclusion that archives are a collection or accumulation of data that is stored in hopes to preserve materials. All archives are collections, but not all collections are archives. A collection is a broad, not subject specific, aggregation of materials.

The Rossetti Archive is one specific archive we viewed in class. It is a collection of data from the life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti was a painter, designer, writer and translator. One cool thing about this archive is that there is a tab that you can choose that will take you to some of his works, including: poems, pictures and manuscripts.

Our tribe came up with the idea to make an archive of the abandoned ski lifts in the United States. We arrived with this idea from having an abandoned ski lift on campus. This archive would include old photographs and pamphlets that are connected with different ski lifts. It could also mention information about them and how they became abandoned.