Revaluing Mimeographs as Historical Sources

Abstract

Curators are partners with printing historians, collectors, and conservators, as well as with communities, in selecting, preserving, and interpreting cultural heritage. Uncovering the role of a technology such as mimeography reveals more than a history of a specific machine or technical process. It secures a better understanding about social experience by authenticating accounts about how diverse groups communicated with their own communities and to others. Special collections professionals need to be archaeologists to recover evidence from and to best preserve 20th-century publications. Current tools for studying recent print artifacts are insufficient. Thus, collaborating to generate methods for analysis is an . . .