I would like to introduce a new viewpoint to this discussion. It has to do with historical research and the need to preserve the past.
I'm a historian (an anthropologist actually) and the research I am doing right now is on the history of lace making in Canada. Much of my research is going to be based on written sources as most (if not all) of the commercial lace makers (yes, they existed in the french language convents up until Vatican II, ie late 1960's) are now dead. I am told there are a few octogenarians left, but so far they are rumoured to exist... I've no names or contacts of living nuns who used to make lace for sale. I do have access to 'necrologies' (biographies written after death of a nun's carreer and held in the convent's archives). I have catalogues put out by religious supply houses, photos from parish archives, and the beginnings of a catalogue of museum artifacts (lace, equipment, patterns, etc) that are just now showing up as convents close and people die. These things I have access to. All I need is the courage and time to find them and study them. I have another invaluable source of information: guild histories and newsletters. In here, I include the various local farmer's wives associations (cercles de fermieres) and parish workshops (ouvroirs and 'oeuvre du Tabernacle') newsletters. Some of these show up in local parish archives or provincial archives. Unfortunately, the guild newletters for the most part were never sent to the National Archives of Canada (which would have gladly accepted them as Canadian publication ephemera). This means that at best, I find mention of a newsletter, or one example, or a few years in a local guild library ... if I'm VERY lucky. And yet, they are a gold mine of historical information (guild existence, number of members, kinds of lace made, suppliers available, bibliography of older books, local news, exhibits , etc.). Patterns are rarely what I'm after, though they too are an invaluable source of information. When I asked my local guild (Ottawa) why it had no Canadian Lacemakers Gazette for years when the Gazette was published outside of Ottawa, I was told that having a guild subscription would hinder the magazine's finances. When I suggested that the guild subscribe but put the issues in the library once a year (ie always VERY late) as a way of completing the collection and providing a valuabe resource on Canadian lacemaking history to the guild members... my comments were not taken seriously. Yet, how would I have started my research if I had not read the six years of magazines that are in the library (and which I purchased for myself when the editorial board moved to British Columbia). That's how I found out about the other Canadian guilds, about lace making in Port Royal, about the Ursuline Nuns in Quebec City, about Andree-Anne de Seve and her books on lacemaking printed in Quebed in the 1970-80's. This led to my becoming a member of the Montreal Guild so that I could actually meet some of the women I had been reading about and so I could access their archives and old newsletters. When I was near Philadelphia last summer, Elisabeth MacDonald welcomed me into her home and gave me free access to her lace library. In it were local and international newsletters and magazines going back nearly 20 years. What a wealth of information! And some of it directly relating to my research interests on Canadian lace! But where else but at her home and through her generosity would I ever have learned about these magazines or access the information in them? I so hope and wish that a kind of repository (and the professor's site IS the most logical place) will come to exist for this information. This is what gets lost. This is what, when it disappears, makes us invisible to outselves and to others, and which makes any kind of historical reconstruction so very, very difficult if not impossible. Europe lost so much of its history through war. Is North America going to lose it through economic concerns and copyright restrictions? Why not err on the side of preservation and dissemination? Why not, if you are a guild, gather up what history you can on yourself, including your past newsletters, gifting the professor with this information for the use and benefit of all. If you are a publisher or writer, and your book (however published) is now out of print and not likely to be republished, why not send a copy to the professor? Maybe with a provision that it not be scanned before another 3-5 years? At least then, a copy would exist for future sharing. Maybe if you have written an article or given a conference or put together an exhibit catalogue, you could do the same, with again a time lag if you find it appropriate ... The Springett sale that occurred this December had a catalogue. That too needs to be archived. Maybe not immediately, but certainly. Its a major historical document and CANNOT be lost to posterity. This is not an argument for running rough shod over writers' and publishers' rights. This is an argument for instituting a corporate memory and a sustanable legacy. We do want lacemaking to survive and trive, do we not? Lucie DuFresne, PhD Religious Studies University of Ottawa, Canada Ottawa Guild of Lacemakers - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
