Research and reality checks: Change and continuity in NYU's archival management program

American Archivist

Volumn 63, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 271-283

  Wosh, Peter J ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33847325302     PISSN: 03609081     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17723/aarc.63.2.n00l0588g6157373     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (14)

1. Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland, "Archival Research: A 'New' Issue for Graduate Education," published in this issue of the American Archivist.
2. An eloquent argument outlining the continuing relevance of historical training in archival work can be found in F. Gerald Ham, Frank Boles, Gregory S. Hunter, and James M. O'Toole, "Is The Past Still Prologue?: History and Archival Education," American Archivist 56 (Fall 1993): 718-29. Regardless of an archival education program's bureaucratic base, these authors correctly stress the importance of training individuals who "think like archivists.
3. Frank G. Burke, "The Future Course of Archival Theory in the United States," American Archivist 44 (Winter 1981): 45.
4. A good overview of the program's history, crafted by former director Michael Lutzker, is available at:
5. Bayrd Still, "Early Archival Training," Archival Management Program File, New York University Archives. "Proposal for an NEH 'Planning Grant' for an Archives and Historical Editing Training Program," Bayrd Still Papers, Box 15, Folder J-8, New York University Archives. Similar considerations to those described above also prompted NYU to create a parallel "Public History Program" in 1981.
6. See Rachel Bernstein and Paul H. Mattingly, "The Pedagogy of Public History," Journal of American Ethnic History 18 (Fall 1998): 77-92.
7. Thomas Bender, first director of the NYU program, has written extensively on issues concerning public intellectuals, most notably in New York Intellect: A History of Intellectual Life in New York City, 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987).
8. On the importance of the practicum/internship to the overall NYU program, see "Career Training Offered by NYU Archival Management/Historical Editing Program," American Historical Association Newsletter (April 1980): 12-13.
9. F. Gerald Ham, "Evaluation of the New York University Program in Archives, Historical Editing, and Historical Society Training," Bayrd Still Papers, Box 15, File Folder J-18, New York University Archives.
10. Similar evaluations were conducted by Francis Blouin and Linda Edgerly. James M. O'Toole, "The Archival Curriculum: Where Are We Now," Archival Issues 22, no.2 (1997): 106, 110
11. Evelyn Peters, "Measures of Success: Evaluating University of British Columbia's Master of Archival Studies Program," Archivaria 45 (Spring 1998): 88-89. Peters' work confirms my own course evaluations, which consistently rate the practicum/internship component of the course as essential.
12. For the exhibit on student protest in the 1960s see: .
13. Luciana Duranti and Anne Gilliland-Swetland, "Archival Doctoral Education: An Issue and a Challenge for the Archival Profession," Archival Outlook (July/August 1999): 23. Anne Gilliland-Swetland's contribution to this issue reiterates and elaborates on many of these points.
14. Past and present full-time archival educators who have graduated from the NYU program include Gregory S. Hunter, Marilyn H. Pettit, Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, and the author. Some indication of placement can be found on the program web site , but a more comprehensive alumni survey is currently being developed.