This piece is written by Umrat Khan, a Graduate Student Assistant at NYU Special Collections. She is currently a Master’s Student at NYU’s Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement Program, and is conducting research on Islamic material culture through corporeal, lived and spatial perspectives. She is also a Senior Editor for Social Media at XE’s interdisciplinary journal, Caustic Frolic. 

 

NYU Special Collections makes its archival materials available through digitization requests. This has enabled remote access to our collections by students, scholars, and communities from all across the globe. The creation and provision of digital surrogates have enabled new frontiers for research through the discovery of new and unknown links, entering material through new vantage points, and offering opportunities for variegated modes of analysis, critical and conceptual thinking, and interpretation. 

While remote access has enabled the continued vitality of scholarly production, I am curious about the process of negotiation between scholarly practices and archival materials from the perspective of sensorial engagement. Scholarly practice draws from literature, and archival evidence to make meaningful experiences possible, however, this practice is also dependent on the engagement of the body and the materials. It is a predominant assumption that accessing archives remotely will result in a loss of sensory information. I argue that this is not a binary experience of remote/in-person, loss/gain. Rather, it is a nuanced experience that requires a process of negotiation between these distinctions. 

This negotiation is enabled by the modes of sensory perception; one that is not limited to experiencing archives in-person but also being able to access them digitally. As graduate student assistants at Special Collections, we are trained to scan archives in a manner that attempts to preserve the sensorial qualities of an archive. The process of scanning requires careful positioning of the material on the lanier, ensuring high-quality scans through the use of different equipment, and scanning in originally prescribed formats. By doing this, we hope our patrons are able to excavate information through sensorial perception even in digital formats.

Let’s take the example of the James Lardner Papers ALBA.067. This collection mainly consists of correspondences. James Lardner (1914), initially a reporter for the New York Heral Tribune, became disenchanted with the literary world and instead joined the Abraham Lincoln brigade in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. His correspondences are particularly interesting as he moved from a rich literary milieu, with friends like F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, and Heywood Broun to life in the camp and trenches. A scan of one of Lardner’s letters addressed to his mother on June 12, 1938, can serve as a useful point of entry for my argument.

Lardner, James: Outgoing correspondence, Jun 1938-Jul 1938; Guide to the James Lardner Papers ALBA.067, Box 1; Folder 3; Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

The letter’s brittle quality is evident from the scan. Apart from the time stamp, the sight of browned paper, watermarks, and fading ink add to the sensory experience of this correspondence. Sensory modes of analysis can also be made from the content of the letter. James describes his appearance as a Spanish soldier – bronzed face and hands, short hair, and body weight. By reading the letter, the mind conjures images of what James’s appearance may have been. Additionally, the mention of rain leaves sensations of humidity, and wetness while the mention of the sun brings in heat and dryness.

In this context, sensory modes of analysis, are still possible despite having remote access to archival material. By situating this example in the context of in-person versus remote access to archives, I try to complicate the meaning of what entails a sensory experience. While sensory information is gauged from the sensorium of the body (sight, touch, smell etc.), it is also derived from discursive forces such as content and context. If the fear of losing out on information has kept you from ordering scans from Special Collections, I hope this blog post has got you to think otherwise.