The great war, archives, and modern memory

Archivaria

Volumn 46, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 1-31

  McIntosh, Robert ^a  

^a Strategic Planning and Policy Coordination Division of the National Archives of Canada   (Canada)

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EID: 42649094943     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (177)

1. Louis Perigaud, La Guerre des boutons (Paris, 1995), p. 236.
2. Luciana Duranti, "The Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory, " American Archivist 57 (Spring 1994), p. 343.
3. Hilary Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration: Including the Problems of War Archives and Archive Making (Oxford, 1922), pp. 12-15, also defines "naturalness" and "interrelationship" as basic qualities of archival records. "Neo-Jenkinsonian" views have been expounded recently in Duranti, "Concept of Appraisal".
4. Hilary Jenkinson, "The English Archivist: A New Profession, " in Roger H. Ellis and Peter Walne, eds., Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson (Gloucester, 1980), p. 258.
5. This school of thought has been developed in Brien Brothman, "Orders of Value: Probing the Theoretical Terms of Archival Practice, " Archivaria 32 (Summer 1991), pp. 78-100.
6. Cook, "What is Past is Prologue, " p. 19.
7. Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Sorrow: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge, 1995).
8. Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History (New York, 1994), p. 541.
9. Norman Hillmer and J.L. Granatstein, Empire to Umpire: Canada and the World to the 1990s (Toronto, 1994), pp. 62-63.
10. G.W.L. Nicholson, The Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 (Ottawa, 1964), p. 535.
11. Gilbert, First World War, p. 541.
12. The postmodern impulse, preoccupied by the manner in which "histories" are constructed, is threatening to collapse the traditional scholarly division of labour between the "retrospective" disciplines, history, and archival science. For examples, see Gerald Sider and Gavin Smith, eds., Between History and 'Histories': The Making of Silences and Commemorations (Toronto, 1997).
13. Terry Eastwood, "Towards a Social Theory of Appraisal, " in Barbara L. Craig, ed., The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottawa, 1992), p. 80. For an elaboration of four categories of record, see Luciana Duranti, "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science (Part II), " Archivaria 29 (Winter 1989-90), pp. 4-17, esp. p. 9.
14. The "record" is defined in Section 2 of the National Archives of Canada Act (1987) as "any correspondence, memorandum, book, plan, map, drawing, diagram, pictorial or graphic work, photograph, film, microform, sound recording, videotape, machine readable record, and any other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, and any copy thereof. "
15. Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 (Stanford, 1976), p. 130, called the memories of old people "the archives of the poor. " The lifespan of such archives, unfortunately, is limited.
16. I leave aside here a consideration of the role of the artifact in sustaining memory.
17. Quoted in M.T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066-1307 (Cambridge, 1979), p. 117.
18. Fierce debates have focused, for instance, on the causes of the War, the quality of British generalship, and the consequences of the Versailles peace settlement.
19. The greatest weakness of the historical profession, Hans Booms observed, has been that "historians have never considered it significant that, besides the workings of chance, the ways in which archivists design, mould, and shape the documentary record might also have an effect on the 'historical picture.'" See Booms' article, "Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage: Issues in the Appraisal of Archival Sources, " Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987), p. 81.
20. National Archives of Canada (hereafter NA), Privy Council Records, RG 2, vol. 1154, PC 2651, 28 October 1916. The standard history of the Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada is Desmond Morton's, A Peculiar Kind of Politics: Canada's Overseas Ministry in the First World War (Toronto, 1982).
21. Its principal role was to ensure units remained at War Establishment. It also collected, registered and dispatched war diaries to England, as well as other records created by units and formations of the Canadian Corps. NA, National Archives of Canada Records, RG 37, vol. 358, Canadian War Archives Survey, XII: Units in France, "Canadian Section, GHQ, 3rd Echelon. "
22. Canadian Expeditionary Force Units: Instructions Governing Organization and Administration (Ottawa, 1916). The King's Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Militia, 1910 (Ottawa, 1910), paragraphs 1452-1521 provided detailed instructions on records-keeping, including the format of correspondence, regular reporting requirements, and the completion of forms. In Belgium and France, the British Field Service Regulations were used by Canadian units. For record-keeping, Chapter XV, "Orders, Instructions and Reports in the Field, " and Chapter XVII, "Office Work in the Field, " were most pertinent. Although as little recordkeeping as possible was to be conducted in the field, and as few records as possible were to be retained with the unit (they were to be sent back to DAG, 3rd Echelon), units were expected to maintain a register (AF2040) of outgoing and incoming correspondence.
23. The personnel file was crammed with documents on enlistment, movement, medical and dental reports, pay, honours and awards, discipline, and discharge. The requirements that next of kin be notified in the event of casualty and, in the case of death, given the location of the grave, meant that next of kin's addresses were necessarily kept on file and up-to-date.
24. The need to document personnel carefully arose in the early modern military in order to record length of service and pay owing so as to prevent embezzlement by officers and men. Geoffrey Parker, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659: The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries' Wars (Cambridge, 1972), pp. 192-93. At a later date, the actual personnel file emerged, marking "the entry of the individual into the field of knowledge" through the exercise of a new kind of discipline over individuals. The file was used to track down deserters, avoid repeat enrolments, and document individuals' value. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York, 1977), pp. 191, 189.
25. NA, RG 37, vol. 358, Canadian War Records Survey, XIII, Auxiliary Services, "Canadian Record Office".
26. NA, RG 37, vol. 195, Doughty to Hughes, 16 February 1916.
27. See Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896-1921, A Nation Transformed (Toronto, 1974), chapters 11 and 12.
28. NA, RG 37, vol. 352, "Memorandum to Sir George Foster, Acting Prime Minister, Ottawa, from Arthur Doughty, " 22 March 1917.
29. NA, RG 37, vol. 352, "Private Memoir on the Canadian War Archives Survey, Colonel Wood, 1. January 1918, " pp. 2A, 16.
30. Ian E. Wilson, "'A Noble Dream': The Origins of the Public Archives of Canada, " Archivaria 15 (Winter 1982-83), pp. 16-35.
31. A.J.P. Taylor, Beaverbrook (Harmondsworth, 1972).
32. Taylor, Beaverbrook, pp. 125-42.
33. NA, RG 2, vol. 1106, PC 3117, 6 January 1915.
34. Aitken's dispatches remained subject to British censorship, much to his frequent outrage. Jeffrey A. Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship During Canada's Great War (Edmonton, 1996), pp. 28-34.
35. NA, Records of the Department of Militia and Defence, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 177, file 6, "Secret Reports and Reports of Minor Offensive Operations. "
36. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 1, "Canadian War Records Office. Report Submitted by Officer in Charge, " 11 January 1917.
37. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 4.
38. Aitken appears to have instigated the dispatch of a letter from George Perley, Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, to Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden, seeking his support to broach with Imperial authorities the claim that "Canada should have custody of the records of our Divisions and Army Corps. " See NA, MG 26 H, R.L. Borden papers, vol. 64, item 32442, Perley to Borden, 23 December 1915.
39. NA, MG 26, H, vol. 64, item 32444, Aitken to Borden, 1 January 1916, and item 32470, Aitken to Borden, 14 February 1916.
40. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 5.
41. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 1, "Canadian War Records Office. Report Submitted by Officer in Charge, " 11 January 1917, p. 2.
42. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], pp. 1, 1a.
43. The requirement for units to maintain war diaries was based on the British Field Service Regulations. See NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 2, "Reports, Historical Section, C.W.R.O., General, " Holt-White to Beaverbrook, "Re: War Diaries, " 13 February 1917. Diaries were to be maintained until units were disbanded in Canada. See NA, Department of National Defence Records, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 6-13, "District and CEF Unit Diaries".
44. NA, RG 9, III D 1, folder 175, file 1, "Canadian War Records Office. Report Submitted by Officer in Charge, " 11 January 1917, p. 4.
45. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 2, HS 40-1-2, "Reports C.W.R.O. For Lt.-Col. Doughty, 22-8-17, " p. 8.
46. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], pp. 9-10.
47. General Routine Orders, Routine Order 1510, dated 30 March 1917.
48. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915-1918, " [c. 1918], pp. 10-11. Considerable attention was devoted to establishing a file classification system, where the primary indicated the arm of service, the secondary a subdivision of the arm, and the tertiary the specific unit. At that point unit files were further subdivided into five parts: Historical Records, Badges and Colours, Honours and Awards, Orders, and Photographs. See NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 5, "Report on the progress of the work of the Historical Section since 1st July, 1917, " pp. 4-6.
49. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 2, HS 40-1-2, "Reports C.W.R.O. For Lt.-Col. Doughty, 22-8-17, " p. 2. One such appeal read, "The War Records Office cannot fulfil its destiny without the full and generous co-operation of every unit in the field, no matter how small that unit, be it only a wiring party or an A.P.M. or a postman. Whatever your command, you must help. " NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "The Canadian War Records Office-15 Tudor Street. "
50. Routine Orders, Routine Order 788, 13 March 1917, 1015, 31 March 1917, 2984 and 2985, 26 November 1917, "Disposal of Documents".
51. NA, RG 37, vol. 358, Canadian War Records Survey, XIII, Auxiliary Services, "Canadian Record Office, " pp. 193-94, 206.
52. Peter Robertson, "Canadian Photojournalism and the First World War, " History of Photography 2, no. 1 (January 1978), pp. 37-52.
53. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], pp. 12-13.
54. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32587, Canadian War Records Office. Report submitted by the Officer in Charge to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, 30 March 1918, p. 10.
55. According to Doughty, "It is only by the exercise of the greatest energy that an intelligent diary of the doings of each unit can be obtained. The men at the front have their work cut out to save their lives." NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, items 32523 and 32524, Doughty to Borden, 11 August 1916.
56. This work fell to H.P. Biggar of the Dominion Archives staff in London. See NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 2, HS 40-1-2, "Reports C.W.R.O. For Lt.-Col. Doughty, 22-8-17, " p. 10. Technical defects included illegible writing, poor carbon copies, a failure to indicate the specific location of the unit (rather than "in the field, " "in the trenches"), a failure to indicate the strength of the unit or its commanding officer, a failure on the part of the responsible officer to sign the war diary. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 5, "Report on the progress of the work of the Historical Section since 1st July, 1917. "
57. In a rare glowing review, the diary for the 12th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, for September 1916 was described as "probably the most instructive and certainly one of the most interesting diaries written by any unit in the Canadian Corps. All information and every phase of operations is given in detail, almost hourly. This unit has also included in Appendices all Operation Orders and messages, several of them written in the field.
58. Affirming that battalion diaries in particular "leave much to be desired, " and announcing that he was sending examples of "bad" diary entries, Beaverbrook argued that "there are some Battalions which have actually lost their place in history through carelessness in keeping their records. " He requested that Byng place an "insertion in Orders" and provided an example text. He also asked for permission to correspond with unit commanders directly. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 2, "Reports, Historical Section, C.W.R.O., General, " Beaverbrook to Lt. General Sir Julian Byng, 13 February 1917.
59. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 6, "Report on the Public Record Office Section of the Canadian War Records, From January 1st to June 30th 1918, " p. 3.
60. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 4, "Memorandum on the Supply of Records and Narratives on Recent Fighting. "
61. Records officers required, in addition to official accreditation, adequate transportation (a horse or car as necessary) and a stenographer to take down interviews in shorthand and to type them later. An enlisted man who could double as a stenographer was also seen as a desirable choice for interviewing private soldiers, notoriously reticent when interviewed by an officer. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 4, "Memorandum on the Supply of Records and Narratives on Recent Fighting. "
62. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 7-1, "Canadian War Records Office, London, " Beaverbrook to Perley, 23 July 1917.
63. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 11.
64. NA, RG 37, vol. 362, file "Miscellaneous Reports, 1918-1925. "
65. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 6.
66. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32587, "Canadian War Records Office. Report submitted by the Officer in Charge to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, " 30 March 1918, p. 5.
67. Report of the Ministry, Overseas Military Forces of Canada, 1918 (London, c. 1919), "War Record Office, " p. 457.
68. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, items 32518-19, Aitken to Borden, 7 July 1916.
69. Robertson, "Canadian Photojournalism and the First World War, " p. 40. The CWRO also took large photos of entire units at war's end. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 7-1, "Canadian War Records Office, London, " "Report submitted by Lord Beaverbrook to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, K.C.M.G., M.P., Minister, Overseas Military Forces of Canada, " p. 3.
70. Captain E.H. Knoebel was the first official photographer, a post he relinquished in August 1916 owing to ill-health. Captain Ivor Castle, Knoebel's successor, was appointed that month. In June 1918 Lieutenant W.R. Rider was appointed to assist Castle. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], pp. 19-20.
71. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32606, Report on the Joint Establishment of the Canadian Representative at the Front and Canadian War Records submitted by Sir Max Aitken to the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Borden, G.C.M.G., p. 13.
72. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 1, "Canadian War Records Office. Report Submitted by Officer in Charge, " 11 January 1917, p. 7.
73. Report of the Ministry, Overseas Military Forces of Canada, 1918 (London, c. 1919), "War Record Office, " p. 456. Plans to photograph all members of the CEF were dropped. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 5, "Report on the progress of the work of the Historical Section since 1st July, 1917, " p. 3.
74. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 21.
75. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32587, Canadian War Records Office. Report submitted by the Officer in Charge to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, 30 March 1918, p. 9.
76. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 2, HS 40-1-2, "Reports, C.W.R.O. For Lt.-Col. Doughty, 22-8-17, " p. 7.
77. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 7-1, "Canadian War Records Office, London, " "Report submitted by Lord Beaverbrook to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, K.C.M.G., M.P., Minister, Overseas Military Forces of Canada, " p. 4.
78. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 7-1, "Canadian War Records Office, London, " "Canadian War Memorials, Report of Executive Committee, " 31 August 1919.
79. Maria Tippett, Art at the Service of War: Canada, Art, and the Great War (Toronto, 1984), p. 23. Beaverbrook emphasized that film was "eminently perishable and will not outlast five years if nothing is done to prolong their life. " NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 7-1, "Canadian War Records Office, London, " "Report submitted by Lord Beaverbrook to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, K.C.M.G., M.P., Minister, Overseas Military Forces of Canada, " p. 4.
80. The CWMF was created separate from the CWRO to avoid the bureaucratic constraints facing the CWRO and Aitken after the establishment of the Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada in October 1916. English press magnate Lord Rothermere was CWMF Chairman, and Beaverbrook a member of the Executive Committee. See Tippet, Art at the Service of War, pp. 24-26.
81. Artists included Britons Richard Jack, Christopher Nevinson, and Augustus John.
82. On First World War censorship, see Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship.
83. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32587, Canadian War Records Office. Report submitted by the Officer in Charge to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, 30 March 1918, p. 10.
84. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 4.
85. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 1, "Canadian War Records Office. Report Submitted by Officer in Charge, " 11 January 1917, p. 5.
86. Aitken wrote the first two volumes, and T.G. Roberts the third. The second volume, published in the spring of 1917, dealt with the formation of the 2nd and 3rd Divisions and the battles of St. Eloi (April 1916) and Sanctuary Wood (June 1916). NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], pp. 6-9.
87. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], pp. 17-19. See also NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 7, "Reports-Canadian Daily Record".
88. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 4.
89. By the end of 1917 French armies had mutinied and Russia had been forced out of the war by popular pressure. The introduction of Conscription in Canada led to riots in the Province of Quebec. On propaganda in the United Kingdom and the United States, see Peter Buitenhuis, The Great War of Words: Literature as Propaganda 1914-18 and After (London, 1989).
90. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 15.
91. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 1, "Canadian War Records Office. Report Submitted by Officer in Charge, " 11 January 1917, Appendix D.
92. Tippett, Art at the Service of War, p. 27. See also NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 2, HS 40-1-2, "Reports, C.W.R.O. For Lt.-Col. Doughty, 22-8-17, " p. 8. A third exhibition, less well attended, opened in 1919. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 7-1, "Canadian War Records Office, London, " "Report submitted by Lord Beaverbrook to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, K.C.M.G., M.P., Minister, Overseas Military Forces of Canada, " pp. 1-2.
93. Tippett, Art at the Service of War, pp. 76-96.
94. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 5, "Canadian War Records, 1915 to 1918, " [c. 1918], p. 21.
95. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32587, Canadian War Records Office. Report submitted by the Officer in Charge to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, 30 March 1918, p. 9.
96. As cited in Tippett, Art at the Service of War, p. 21.
97. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, items 32431-4, Arthur Doughty to P.E. Blondin, Secretary of State, 14. December 1915.
98. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32437, Doughty to Blondin, 22 January 1916. NA, RG 2, vol. 1136, PC 589a, 10 March 1916. Doughty was perhaps more concerned, when he made that initial trip, to renew the Public Archives of Canada copying program in French colonial records than to secure relevant wartime records. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, items 32461-3, Doughty to Blondin, 4 February 1916. His honorary rank followed a request from Doughty to Minister of Militia Sam Hughes for the necessary credentials. NA, RG 37, vol. 195, Doughty to Hughes, 16 February 1916.
99. As cited in Tippett, Art at the Service of War, p. 17.
100. Beckles Willson, From Quebec to Picadilly and Other Places: Some Anglo-Canadian Memories (London, 1929), p. 210.
101. NA, Doughty Papers, MG 30, D 26, vol. 8, diary entry for 3 May 1916.
102. NA, Doughty Papers, MG 30, D 26, vol. 8, diary entries for 6, 8, 11, 28 May 1916.
103. NA, RG 24, vol. 1894, file 118, "Extracts from Canadian War Archives Survey, vol. 1, Militia Department and Commissioners, Canadian Special Mission, " Max Aitken to Secretary, War Office, London, 19 July 1916.
104. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 175, file 2, HS 40-1-2, "Reports C.W.R.O. For Lt.-Col. Doughty, 22-8-17, " p. 9. See also NA, RG 2, vol. 1151, PC 2105, 20 September 1916, authorizing the transfer of Public Archives staff to the CWRO "to be used temporarily for the purposes of the historical section of the Canadian War Records. "
105. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, item 32538, Doughty to Borden, 25 August 1916. "I was quite pleased with [the] method he has adopted, which will greatly facilitate the work of the historians of the future. " NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, items 32496-97, Doughty to Borden, 11 May 1916.
106. Doughty continued to applaud Beaverbrook publicly, observing in 1918 that "if there is one thing in connection with the war which has been well done it is the work carried out under the direction and largely at the expense of Lord Beaverbrook. " NA, RG 37, vol. 366, file 1, "Copies of Memoranda by the Dominion Archivist, 1916-1922, " "A War Memorial, " p. 27.
107. NA, RG 37, vol. 352, "Memorandum to Sir George Foster, Acting Prime Minister, Ottawa, from Arthur Doughty, " 22 March 1917.
108. NA, RG 37, vol. 366, file 1, "Copies of Memoranda by the Dominion Archivist, 1916-1922, " "Memorandum made at the Request of the Honourable the Secretary of State in con nection with Colonel Wood's notes on the War Archives Survey, " Arthur Doughty, 6 June 1918, p. 13.
109. NA, RG 37, vol. 352, "Memorandum to Sir George Foster, Acting Prime Minister, Ottawa, from Arthur Doughty, " 22 March 1917, pp. 4-5.
110. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, Folder 175, file 6, "The Canadian Record and the Commemoration of the War, " p. 4.
111. NA, RG 2, vol. 1165, PC 980, 10 April 1917.
112. NA, RG 37, vol. 195, Doughty to Wood, 20 February 1917.
113. NA, RG 37, vol. 195, Doughty to Borden, 2 February 1917.
114. NA, RG 37, vol. 352, "War Records Survey, 1917-18, " file 7. In early 1917 the Historical Section had been created at the Department of Militia and Defence to write an official history of Canada's war efforts, with a focus on activity in Canada (NA, RG 2, vol.1159, PC 19, 17 January 1917). The Historical Section was merged in 1921 with the War Narrative Section of the CWRO, which had been responsible for historical work within the Overseas Ministry (NA, RG 2, vol. 1276, PC 1652, 27 May 1921).
115. The other members were Lt.-Colonel William Wood, an active military historian from Quebec City, and Gustave Lanctôt, on staff at the Public Archives of Canada until his enlistment in the CEF two years earlier. Wood had written Prime Minister Borden the previous year calling for a complete survey of records of war activity and offering himself for the position of "War Historian of Canada. " At the time, Borden had forwarded his request to Aitken, who turned Wood down. See NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, items 32482-5, Wood to Borden, 30 March, 16. April 1916.
116. Non-Canadian records bearing on the service of Canadian units with Imperial forces, like the Forestry Corps.
117. NA, RG 37, vol. 366, file 1, "Copies of Memoranda by the Dominion Archivist, 1916-1922, " "Memorandum made at the Request of the Honourable the Secretary of State in connection with Colonel Wood's notes on the War Archives Survey, " Arthur Doughty, 6 June 1918, pp. 10-14.
118. NA, RG 37, vol. 352, "Private Memoir on the Canadian War Archives Survey, Colonel Wood, 1 January 1918, " pp. 2B, 18, 33-36.
119. NA, RG 37, vol. 366, file 1, "Copies of Memoranda by the Dominion Archivist, 1916-1922, " "Memorandum made at the Request of the Honourable the Secretary of State in connection with Colonel Wood's notes on the War Archives Survey, " Arthur Doughty, 6 June 1918, pp. 10-14. On Doughty's work on the collection, exhibition, and distribution of war trophies, see NA, RG 37, vol. 196, Doughty to Borden, 10 April, 8 May and 20 September 1918. See also Jonathan Vance, "Tangible Demonstrations of a Great Victory: War Trophies in Canada, " Material History Review/Revue d'histoire de la culture matérielle 42 (Fall 1995/automne 1995), pp. 47-56.
120. NA, RG 37, vol. 196, Doughty to Wood, 14 and 19 June 1918.
121. NA, RG 37, vol. 196, Doughty to Burrell, 26 June 1918.
122. The survey of Canadian domestic war activity is found in NA, RG 37, vols. 361-62.
123. Even after expansion in 1926, an offer to the Public Archives of Canada in 1929 from the Department of National Defence to transfer to its custody over one million First World War files had to be declined. Public Archives of Canada, Annual Report, 1929, p. 5.
124. Doughty noted at the same time that "our present building is so congested that we cannot take in any more papers. " RG 37, vol. 366, file 1, "Copies of Memoranda by the Dominion Archivist, 1916-1922, " letter from Arthur Doughty to E.L. Patenaude, Secretary of State, 26 April 1917, pp. 53-55.
125. NA, RG 37, vol. 352, file 10, "Friday 15th June 1917 Visit of the Canadian Special Mission. "
126. NA, RG 9, III D 1, vol. 4746, folder 176, file 2, "Reports, Historical Section, C.W.R.O., General, " "Memo to Lord Beaverbrook from Lt. Charles Hastings, " July 11th, 1917.
127. NA, RG 2, vol. 1213, PC 3043, 11 December 1918.
128. NA, RG 37, vol. 366, file la, "Copies of Memoranda by the Dominion Archivist, 1916-1922, " "Report of a Special Committee Appointed to Consider the Policy to be Adopted Relative to the Disposition of War Trophies and Objects of Interest Captured by the Canadian Forces in the European War, " 6 November 1918, pp. 3-4.
129. Tippett, Art at the Service of War, pp. 98-101.
130. See Laura Brandon, "The Canadian War Memorial That Never Was, " Canadian Military History 7, no. 4 (Autumn 1998), pp. 45-54. The United Kingdom, in contrast, created the Imperial War Museum, and Australia, the Australian War Memorial, to house documents and artifacts of the First World War. See Gaynor Kavanagh, "Museum as Memorial: the Origins of the Imperial War Museum, " Journal of Contemporary History 23, no. 1 (January 1988), pp. 77-97.
131. In 1934 there was still a "considerable quantity of correspondence files and other documents, also records of overseas units which have not yet been opened, examined, sorted and properly filed. " NA, RG 24, vol. 57, HQ650-53-3, "Re-Organization of Record Office. "
132. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, file 6-14, "Authority for Disposal of Correspondence, Files, and Documents, C.E.F., " "Memo in Connection with the Return to Militia Headquarters, Ottawa, of All Overseas Files. "
133. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, file 6-14, "Authority for Disposal of Correspondence, Files, and Documents, C.E.F., " "Circular Letter No. 546, " 14 September 1920.
134. In both instances, a Board of Officers convened to review material and approve destruction. NA, RG 24, vol. 58, file 650-55-9, "Destruction of Books, Documents, Papers, etc. of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada and C.E.F. "
135. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, file 6-14, "Authority for Disposal of Correspondence, Files, and Documents, C.E.F., " "Memo in Connection with the Return to Militia Headquarters, Ottawa, of All Overseas Files. "
136. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, file 6-14, "Authority for Disposal of Correspondence, Files, and Documents, C.E.F., " "Transfer of Departments, Records Office, O.M.F.C. to Records Office, M.H.Q., Ottawa, " 30 August 1919.
137. NA, RG 24, vol. 57, HQ650-53-3, "Re-Organization of Record Office".
138. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, file 6-14, "Authority for Disposal of Correspondence, Files, and Documents, C.E.F., " "Adjutant-General, Letter No. 1, " 5 January 1925.
139. NA, RG 24, C-5077, HQC 5384, "Transfer of CEF Records to the Department of Pensions and National Health".
140. Department of Veterans Affairs, Annual Report, 1970-71, pp. 37-38.
141. NA, RG 24, vol. 1749, DHS 7-1, "Canadian War Records Office, London, " "Report submitted by Lord Beaverbrook to the Honourable Sir Edward Kemp, K.C.M.G., M.P., Minister, Overseas Military Forces of Canada. "
142. It is evident that the Historical Section anticipated holding on to the records indefinitely for reference, and for the writing of the official history and specialized historical monographs. NA, RG 24, vol. 1732, file DHS 1-4-3, "Notes and Recommendations Regarding the Permanency of the Historical Section, General Staff. "
143. Public Archives of Canada, Annual Report, 1969, p. 1.
144. Robertson, "Canadian Photojournalism and the First World War, " pp. 50-51.
145. Tippett, Art at the Service of War, pp. 93-96.
146. Laura Brandon, "A Unique and Important Asset? The Transfer of the War Art Collections from the National Gallery of Canada to the Canadian War Museum, " Material History Review/Revue d'histoire de la culture matérielle 42 (Fall 1995/Automne 1995), pp. 67-74.
147. I am grateful to Greg Eamon of the National Archives of Canada for passing on to me his views on Canadian film-making during the First World War.
148. I am grateful to Tom Nesmith for these observations.
149. Terry Cook, "Mind over Matter: Towards a New Theory of Archival Appraisal, " in Barbara L. Craig, ed., The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottawa, 1992), pp. 38-70.
150. Tom Nesmith, "Seeing with Archives: The Changing Intellectual Place of Archives, " paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Association of Canadian Archivists, June 1997, Ottawa, p. 8.
151. In 1914 (NA, RG 2, vol. 1088, PC 1163, 4 May 1914) the Government of Canada partially implemented the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the State of the Records of the Public Departments, by an Order which required the preservation of public records unless their destruction was authorized by the Treasury Board, and authorized both the screening of records and the transfer of those of historical value to the (then) Public Archives of Canada. See Lewis H. Thomas, "Archival Legislation in Canada, " Canadian Historical Association Report, 1962, pp. 101-115.
152. NA, RG 2, vol. 1912, PC 6175, 20 September 1945 established the Public Records Committee, chaired by the Secretary of State, with the Dominion Archivist as Vice-Chairman, two representatives from the Canadian Historical Association, and W.E.D. Halliday of the Privy Council Office as secretary. RG 37, vol. 9, "Report of the Advisory Committee on Public Records, " 16 July 1945.
153. Department of Veterans Affairs, Annual Report, 1949, pp. 61-62.
154. NA, RG 35, series 7, vol. 9, file "Public Records Committee Minutes, pt. 2, " 23/3/48, pp. 2-4. With tremendous constraints on archival space, voluminous series of case files were necessarily declared non-archival.
155. Department of Veterans Affairs, Annual Report, 1956, p. 43. Over 600,000 personnel records which had been placed in the custody of the Public Archives of Canada in 1947, and placed in temporary storage at Victoria Island and at the Experimental Farm, were "transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs for screening along the same lines. " Related policy files, administrative files dealing with casualties, and training and hospital books were retained. NA, RG 35, series 7, vol. 9, file "Public Records Committee Minutes, pt. 2, " 23/3/48, pp. 2-4.
156. NA, RG 2, vol. 2357, PC 1749, 9 September 1966.
157. Tom Nesmith has pointed out that archivists' role in determining "what counts as meaningful context, or what contextual information counts as meaningful to an understanding of the evidence. is a considerable power, and one which clearly can influence readings by others at the archives. " Nesmith, "What is a Postmodern Archivist?" p. 9.
158. F. Gerald Ham, "Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of Abundance, " American Archivist 47, no. 1 (Winter 1984), p. 16.
159. Nesmith, "Seeing with Archives, " p. 8.
160. In providing reference, we also highlight documents: there are those to which we readily steer researchers, and those to which we fail to direct them. There are records we undertake to declassify beforehand, and those which the researcher must request to be declassified-and be prepared to wait for. Both of these activities are relatively difficult to document.
161. In its first year of operation, November 1996 to October 1997, the National Archives website's nominal database of CEF enlistments received nearly a half million visits.
162. To mount documents on a website is also to accept a considerably greater reference load for them. Since the CEF nominal database was mounted, reference enquires on these personnel files have increased threefold.
163. In November 1998 the National Archives opened an exhibition entitled "NO MAN'S LAND: The Battlefield Paintings of Mary Riter Hamilton, 1919-1922, " to mark the eightieth anniversary of the Armistice ending the First World War.
164. M.T. Clanchy has discussed the role of the first monastic archives in the thirteenth century both in maintaining records, and, as necessary, forging them. See Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, pp. 128-29.
165. NA, MG 26 H, vol. 64, items 32518-9, Aitken to Borden, 7 July 1916.
166. Robertson, "Canadian Photojournalism and the First World War, " p. 41.
167. Luciana Duranti, "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science. (Part IV), " Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990). p. 14.
168. Tippett, Art at the Service of War, pp. 81-87, 111.
169. Jenkinson took as the archivist's credo "the sanctity of evidence. " See Sir Hilary Jenkinson, "British Archives and the War, " in Roger H. Ellis and Peter Walne, eds., Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson (Gloucester, 1980), p. 230.
170. "A document which may be said to belong to the class of Archives is one which was drawn up in the course of an administrative or executive transaction (whether public or private) of which itself formed a part.
171. Duranti, "Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory, " pp. 334-35.
172. Luciana Duranti, "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science. (Part IV), " Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990). p. 14.
173. Paul Marsden, "When is the Future? Comparative Notes on the Electronic Record-Keeping Projects at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of British Columbia, " Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997), pp. 158-73.
174. See, for instance, Duranti, "Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory. " See also Terry Eastwood, "What is Archival Theory and Why is it Important?, " Archivaria 37 (Spring 1994), pp. 122-30.
175. I paraphrase Joan Schwartz's description of the photograph from "'We make our tools and our tools make us': Lessons from Photographs for the Practice, Politics and Poetics of Diplomatics, " Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995), p. 55.
176. See Hugh Taylor, "Transformation in the Archives: Technological Adjustment or Paradigm Shift, " Archivaria 25 (Winter 1987-88), pp. 12-28.
177. Archivists conduct a novel kind of record-making when they construct archival datasets from large, inter-linked relational databases. I wish to thank Don Macleod for this observation.