tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4655032545297970791.post3416158540603743859..comments2023-10-07T08:43:04.748-04:00Comments on Historical Reminiscents.: Can Remembering be Overrated?Krista McCrackenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259602785539292344noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4655032545297970791.post-62431380093571319552008-09-15T08:43:00.001-04:002008-09-15T08:43:00.001-04:00Very valid point. The mundane has long been of in...Very valid point. The mundane has long been of interest to historians, especially those who aim to study history from the bottom up. And in that regards Bell's personal archive is an excellent source for learning about the everyday life of a person in his time period. <BR/><BR/>I suppose its the excessive nature of Bell's personal archives which frightens me. The idea of being able to look at every aspect of someone's life is both neat and overwhelming. I also hope that Bell has established a good indexing method for his archive. Otherwise his archive has the potential to be so massive that searching through it for items of specific interest to individual historians may be impractical.Krista McCrackenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07259602785539292344noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4655032545297970791.post-43146811525646236762008-09-13T23:15:00.000-04:002008-09-13T23:15:00.000-04:00Bell's personal archives is certainly excessive. T...Bell's personal archives is certainly excessive. This is not an activity that I would wish to partake in. However, his record of the mundane, while trivial now, could be quite valuable to historians hundreds of years in the future.<BR/> <BR/>One example that sticks out in my mind is a photo of three family members who are standing in front of a lake. At first it seems only the individuals and perhaps their dress could be of interest. However, if you look at the small sections of background that are visible it is possible to determine that the vegetation growth by the water's edge is not very high. Looking at the same lake shore decades after the photo was taken, you can see how the vegetation has grown up. At the time the photo was taken, no one would have thought of this.David W. Rodgerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07876157470241054630noreply@blogger.com