Conference paper

Historiography and archival science

Jože Žontar

Abstract

With the widespread recognition of critical historiography in the first half of the 19th century, historiography finally began to show a broader interest in records. The keeping of old archives was taken over by historians, and existing archival institutions began to recruit its personnel from among historians. Historians were those who initiated the establishment of archives. In the second half of the nineteenth century, a growing interest in economic and social history as well as other historical branches began to develop, resulting in the continuous broadening of the contents of the term archival material. The period following the Second World War brought an increased interest in the most recent period and, consequently, for younger material. Rapid social development led which led to the enormous growth of administrative materials and the rapid decrease of their useful life for administrative purposes. Moreover, technical development triggered the production of new types of archival material. From the 19th century onward, the activities of archives were focused primarily on the needs of historians. Alongside auxiliary historical sciences, archival science was seen as a for the description of archives. Immediately before the Second World War, and especially afterwards, archival activities gradually began to free themselves of the company of historical science. Historical science itself slowly moved away from the classical understanding of sources. Archives began to be more intensively used by persons other than historians, and thus were stimulated to show an interest for the needs of other researchers, serve cultural and administrative purposes, including support to office activities. Archives were considered "the memory of mankind", and access to them was declared to be the democratic right of everyone. In recent decades, archival science has experienced intensive development and gained international recognition. Historians are not interested in the very manner of treating archival material. What links archival science to historiography is the very objective of the work of archives. Archival science connects with history more directly through traditional auxiliary historical sciences. For its own needs, archival science supports the development of the history of institutions. I join Elio Lodolini in his belief that history and archival science are two difference sciences, though mutually reliant on one another.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

10591

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/10591

Publication date:

18.2.2000.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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