04 August 2009

A Thought on Archival Collections

I recently sent off an electronic resources piece to Mike Bechthold at Canadian Military History for the next issue on the archival catalogue for the Canadian War Museum archives. In the course of researching the piece I noticed a finding aid for their General Currie papers, and in it was the mention of two Currie items re the 38th Battalion, CEF. Now, I've been researching the history of the 38th for a long time now, and am well into writing the battalion's history, but here were two items I hadn't seen yet, even though I've been to the CWM archives a few times now. Makes me wonder what else I've missed. Even more problematic, it makes me wonder what else is out there that is relevant that I don't even know about. At the same time, if such concerns gain the upper hand, then an historian would never finish a project.

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