A forthcoming piece in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences will interest AHP readers: “More questions than answers: Interrogating restricted access in the archives,” Kacie Lucchini Butcher. Abstract:

This study is a reflective piece that grew out of the Archival Kismet Conference in April of 2021. What happens when you find your “archival kismet”—the document that is essential to your research—and it is restricted? In conjunction with archival silences, how do these restrictions affect our ability to understand the past? I begin with these questions and use two case studies to challenge and complicate the practice of restricted access in archives. Using a dialogic approach, I provide a set of questions and considerations groups can use to begin to probe materials with archival restrictions. I urge a reflective and collaborative approach between archivists, public historians, and community to re-evaluate the practice of archival restrictions.