Missing Pieces of History, a Jigsaw Puzzle
Kayla Hinkson-Grant discusses hidden histories and context in archival collections
We were very lucky to have Kayla Hinkson-Grant intern for the Connecticut Digital Archive in the summer of 2020. Kayla is a member of the class of 2021 at Mount Holyoke College and a resident of Fairfield, CT. Over the summer Kayla worked on a number of projects focused on collections and object available in the CTDA. As part of her internship, Kayla was interested in the ideas representation and power in digital collections and the field of archives in general.
As a result of her work, she has written a number of posts for CTDA Connect. Below is her third entry, a reflection on hidden and silenced histories and how archivists can bring these stories to light.
History is like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. However, in most archives across the globe, only some of the puzzle pieces have been documented and preserved. These pieces of the puzzle reestablish the state’s image of itself and its priorities. The marginalized communities to which this land belongs, whose backs this country was built on have never been priorities of the state. Therefore, their pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have been scattered and buried if not altogether lost. The most obvious missing and muted history to me is those of Native Americans.
Official state-funded archives and libraries are supposed to document and tell the entire story of their respective regions’ past, but it is nearly impossible to find anything that speaks to the history of pre-colonialism. Native Americans have a complex and vast history of politics, agriculture, religion, and traditions that are absent from our government’s archives. If you’re missing even just 100 pieces you can’t see the whole picture and because it is incomplete. The absence of these narratives is an act of violence that says that they did not have the same value as those that document white history whilst insinuating that those histories never existed. By not having materials documenting the expansive and rich history of the country’s indigenous people the archives actively participate in the ongoing erasure and violence towards Native Americans.
Within my own town of Fairfield when housing disparities are brought up the overwhelming response is that people of color never lived here before. Statements like this ignore the history of redlining and erase the history of people of color who despite systemic pushback lived and owned land in modern white suburbia. This narrative can be found globally in predominantly white areas. It’s like taking a painted canvas and covering it with white paint to draw a new story. By just glancing at the canvas you might not see that there is another layer, but by looking closely and touching it you could feel and see that there is more than what is on the surface.
In the Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA), there is a small collection of 17 letters written by James Marion Sims who is considered the founding father of gynecology. What is often never spoken about are the enslaved black women he experimented on to develop his work. The total number of women experimented on is unknown and only three of their names were recorded, Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy. None of these women gave consent to these experimental surgeries which were performed without anesthesia. Dr. Sims’ actions set a dangerous precedent that assumes that black women do not experience pain in the same way as white women. This lethal misconception is pervasive in the medical field and fostered alarming racial disparities from practitioners in healthcare today. Most notably is the exponentially high black maternal mortality rates and under-prescription of pain medication to black patients. Presently each of his letters is accompanied by transcription with no description. Descriptions would include snippets of hidden history that allow for the broader picture to be seen. Without context, history is incomplete and bound to repeat itself. With context, we can begin to understand the past and learn for the future.
With the reckoning of racism, many archivists have asked themselves what is their part in the systematic structure. A positive role for an archivist today is to seek out the hidden and scattered pieces of the puzzle. This isn’t a call to collect or take away objects from marginalized communities because that would be more of the same, repeating history and harmful. This is an opportunity to work with your already existing collections by creating intentional and detailed descriptions and metadata. Archivists, especially catalogers, have the power to put the missing pieces of the puzzle back together.
Read other articles and reflections by Kayla published on CTDA Connect:
Connecticut Digital Archive Connect is the publication of the Connecticut Digital Archive, a program of the UConn Library. Visit https://ctdigitalarchive.org to learn more.
