"You're history! You're in the archives!" I think the fashion for that dismissive slur has faded. I have an image of Michael Keaton shouting it at someone, but I can't remember the movie.) But what happens when a whole archives is history?
The United Church of Canada maintains an archives on the grounds of Victoria College at the University of Toronto. It's a handsome, wellrun place, useful to many researchers even with interests that run far from the United Church (me, for instance). But an archives is costly. The Church wants to close it, or at least to move it to somewhere where storage becomes cheap (and usage becomes rare, presumably).
Craig Heron, the unusually activist president of the Canadian Historical Association, is helping organizing a protest and inquiry at the United Church archives Tuesday, November 13, at noon. I'm going to be speaking. Info at www.savethearchives.ca
