From the moment I learned to read, books became my constant companion; comforting, reliable, and, above all, beautiful. So, when I discovered archives, it was no surprise that I fell in love without hesitation. It made perfect sense: if books are the sourdough loaf, archives are the starter. A good starter creates exceptional bread, and that foundation makes all the difference.
The beauty of archives and the profession is one that a mere blog cannot adequately capture, or words eloquently convey but I will try my best this time – I will not throw away my shot!
To call something beautiful there are three essential criteria that it should have, they are not the unit of measurement as the concept of beauty itself can be argued as relative. But for something to be deemed beautiful it must have harmony and proportion (beauty is often associated with balance, symmetry, and pleasing proportions), have emotional/psychological impact (something beautiful typically evokes positive emotions such as awe, joy, or serenity) and finally aesthetic experience (beauty usually involves sensory appeal—visual, auditory, or even tactile). I can go on, and on and make all this sound complex but if there is anything that sums up beauty; it should be its simplicity to effortlessly harmonize our emotion and in turn shaping our experiences. Archives have been that to me – constantly reminding me of magnitude of human thinking and the possibilities in possibilities.
So let me share what a random Monday turned out to be – like most humans I got out of bed and made it to work and in the course of my day -whilst doing some research I stumbled on an entry in the catalogue – I make a request – then a collections and behold ! the item before me out-did its description . I would really like to tell you what I found but this time; permit me to bask in this beauty and hopefully I will be writing on what I found in blogs to come. However, what I found was nothing short of exciting – I am still in awe, and you my reader would have to be patient with me.
I have said a lot, but I want you to take with you the knowledge that archives will always out beat conceived exception and if you are like me, they do have me looking forward to tomorrow and what it has in store, and I guess that is what actually matters.
Stay tuned, I’ll share the story of what I found soon and until then, why not explore archives?
Category: Article