Keeping the Archives!

What do writers, architects, artist, and ship fitters all have in common? They compose many different forms of work that will eventually become history and important in the future to show the advancement of society. I believe that all artifacts found should be saved so they can be viewed later and will show how things have improved or changed. One example of this is my visit to the Brooklyn Historical Society, a place where many archives are kept safe and viewed by the visitors. In the BHS visitors can go and sit down and view for hours how Brooklyn their home town has drastically changed over the years. On my visit I viewed several images over eighty years old and saw the difference of the buildings, and the waterfront. In the 1900’s there were no highways and New York’s main source for transportation was the waterfront. Another example are drafts of plays, sketches and blueprints. In Kirschenbaum’s reading he stated that we didn’t know what Shakespeare’s true intentions for writing Hamlet or the exact date he started. If we had drafts, sketches, and blueprints that were dated we could know when they began or even if they were undated documents we would still be able to find out what the true intentions for the writing were, of the drawing, or of the outcome of the building. Lastly, in the reading by Borges, “Funes, the Memorious” we a see a man who has a tragic accident that cripples him and then he decides not to take life for granted and cherish every moment. In the process of cherishing the moments he has the ability never to forget them and then recite them later. Although we can not keep Funes safe and alive forever, Borges narrates and shares his experience with this wonderful man. We see how it is possible to never forget which relates to keeping an archive. It is evident that keeping archives are very important because it helps view things later in life, whether it be changes or intentions of what the author meant by creating the documents. Therefore, we should all keep the archives!