I just read an essay on the value of historiography that impressed me. Here is one sentence that registered: "“[D]ocuments we read in the archive are almost never written to us as their intended audience”.
Orel Bellinson, If You Want to Learn from History, Look under its Hood, Medium, available at https://medium.com/@orel.beilinson/if-you-want-to-learn-from-history-look-under-its-hood-b83b2b872c7f?sk=0dad45f6e7082d445194cc38cecae4d9 (Mar. 27, 2020).