Harry Hunt Ransom (1908-1976) was born and raised in Galveston and attended and graduated from Sewanee in 1928. He then earned the M.A. and Ph.D. in English at Yale. His career was at UT Austin, where he ultimately became President and Chancellor. His greatest legacy is the Harry Ransom Center (the “HRC”), located on the southwest corner of the Austin campus; it is, simply put, one of the preeminent literary archives and library of special collections in the world.
My wife and I just attended the April 4-6, 2019, symposium at the HRC on the broad topic of “Ethical Challenges in Cultural Stewardship.” Foresightedly, the HRC formulated an agenda for short presentations and panel discussions that illustrate and illuminate the cutting-edge issues that the HRC and all such collections are or should be addressing, such as: where a collection really belongs; ethical issues in the reexamination of existing collections; how should institutions responsibly collect, curate, interpret, and provide access to records of oppression, hate, and violence; the ethics of decision-making about deaccessioning, repatriation, and change in mission; and how institutions should confront and rectify exclusionary practices.
For myself, engaged in archival research for two projects, listening to the presentations of the people identified on the program agenda (https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/flair/schedule/) reminded me to be alert and sensitive to what is often missing in archival documents, the voices of indigenous people, of the victims of hate, violence, oppression, and of those who have been oppressed, excluded, or forgotten.
The HRC deserves congratulations and thanks for sponsoring and hosting this symposium. Happily the proceedings were webcast to an even larger larger audience. I hope the video may be made available over the internet; it deserves to be watched and heard by many more people who care about archives, libraries, and museums
All presenters were of the highest caliber and the resulting conversations were of a very high order. And the choice of keynote speaker was inspired: the popular writer Joyce Maynard (pronounced, I learned, may-nard') whose talk included a frank discussion of the letters from J.D. Salinger that persuaded her, as an 18 year old, to drop out of Yale and to move in with him in New Hampshire for 11-1/2 months, letters she later sold for money she needed, letters a purchaser paid a lot for and then returned to Salinger for what Maynard believes was certain destruction. . . .
My wife and I just attended the April 4-6, 2019, symposium at the HRC on the broad topic of “Ethical Challenges in Cultural Stewardship.” Foresightedly, the HRC formulated an agenda for short presentations and panel discussions that illustrate and illuminate the cutting-edge issues that the HRC and all such collections are or should be addressing, such as: where a collection really belongs; ethical issues in the reexamination of existing collections; how should institutions responsibly collect, curate, interpret, and provide access to records of oppression, hate, and violence; the ethics of decision-making about deaccessioning, repatriation, and change in mission; and how institutions should confront and rectify exclusionary practices.
For myself, engaged in archival research for two projects, listening to the presentations of the people identified on the program agenda (https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/flair/schedule/) reminded me to be alert and sensitive to what is often missing in archival documents, the voices of indigenous people, of the victims of hate, violence, oppression, and of those who have been oppressed, excluded, or forgotten.
The HRC deserves congratulations and thanks for sponsoring and hosting this symposium. Happily the proceedings were webcast to an even larger larger audience. I hope the video may be made available over the internet; it deserves to be watched and heard by many more people who care about archives, libraries, and museums
All presenters were of the highest caliber and the resulting conversations were of a very high order. And the choice of keynote speaker was inspired: the popular writer Joyce Maynard (pronounced, I learned, may-nard') whose talk included a frank discussion of the letters from J.D. Salinger that persuaded her, as an 18 year old, to drop out of Yale and to move in with him in New Hampshire for 11-1/2 months, letters she later sold for money she needed, letters a purchaser paid a lot for and then returned to Salinger for what Maynard believes was certain destruction. . . .
