Archives are spaces of gaps and silences. Sometimes this is due to historical and internalized racism, classism, sexism, and ignorance of marginalized genders and sexualities. This enters both into what you find in a collection--archival silence--and what you read in the description, or archival neutrality. Archives have never been neutral.
Sometimes, what you discover, or don't discover, in archives has less to do with digitization or description, and more to do with historical and internalized racism, classism, sexism, and ignorance of marginalized genders and sexualities. This enters both into what you find in a collection--archival silence--and what you read in the description, or archival neutrality.
Archival silences are the voices missing from the collections. These gaps in the historical record preserved by archives are real, and are not accidental. Archivists have made decisions over time about who and what is deemed important enough to be preserved, and these decisions have influenced the historical record.
Archival neutrality is the tone in archival description that erases or avoids inequity. For a long time many archivists believed we were just including facts, and avoided language that made us feel like we were interpreting, or editorializing. Be cautious of possible description this way in finding aids and online archives.
Adapted from the work of Dorothy Berry.