Archive Fever After Empire: Microfilm, American Archivists, and the Postcolonial Tropics in the Era of Global Decolonization

This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception will begin at 4:30 PM. Please visit here to register.

In establishing their archives after decolonization, postcolonial archivists faced a shortage of extant documents. As they sought to repatriate historical materials from their colonizers, American archivists promoted microfilm copying as a solution, citing the U.S. as the model postcolonial nation who likewise had to copy overseas records. This dissertation chapter explores how U.S.-led archival internationalism—rooted in the American experience of assembling archives for Turnerian frontier history—was thwarted by tropical climates that undermined archival preservation in postcolonial nations. It reveals international, imperial, and environmental dimensions of key American archival innovations, including the MHS’s publication of the Adams Papers.