Archives as an Amusement Park

by Louise Sanches Barbosa ’27

Visiting the Special Collections of Princeton University Library has been one of my favorite moments in many classes. Going around a room, seeing a bunch of seemingly old random things, and trying to figure out their meanings and who produced them is my definition of an amusement park. That was why I was excited to start working as a student archivist at Mudd Library this year. Every week, I would assign dates and categories to the materials of Alfolso Ortiz, an Indigenous anthropologist who taught at Princeton University from 1967 to 1974. The reprocessing project had the purpose of improving discoverability for and access to his papers. After being interviewed in July, there I was, in the beginning of the fall semester, staring at the first set of many boxes that held his papers. My initial instructions seemed simple: open the box, take out a folder, assign a category to the folder, establish a date range, and add it to the spreadsheet. Relatively straightforward, but fun.

Looking back at the year I spent at Mudd, I realize I was wrong — not about the enjoyable part. After all, archives are my version of Disneyland. My task, however, was not as direct as I had initially thought. Box after box, the work acquired new levels of complexity. Since many materials were not already in folders, they needed to be arranged into smaller groups that followed a similar pattern. After that, I needed to provide them with a title that summarized their content. That requires attention and careful consideration, given how a collective arrangement decision and an external description might inform the meanings the materials acquire, beyond their intrinsic content. The writing of a colleague of Ortiz for the Handbook of North American Indians, for instance, might not seem that relevant by itself. However, that work gains new levels of significance when we put it in conjunction with other articles written for the volume. I hope the decisions made on how to organize the collection make the research process smoother for academics interested in exploring his life.

As my time at Mudd approached an end, I decided to re-watch The Watermelon Woman. I first saw the movie when I started working at the library. Due to its influence on my views regarding archival practices, I thought revisiting it would be a nice way to wrap up my work in the collection. The movie tells the story of a woman who goes on an adventure to investigate the life of a black actress. During her pursuit, she visits a queer archive that could easily haunt the dreams of any person who is minimally organized — the materials were all stacked into boxes without any sense of order. Unfortunately, that is not an exaggerated cinematographic depiction. In fact, that has been the treatment the documents that belonged to many marginalized people have received. Those who were not ignored and/or poorly treated were often exoticized. That is why having collections such as Ortiz’s gaining a greater level of attention is so important.

I hope Mudd, Princeton as a whole, and other institutions continue the trend of directing more efforts and resources into collecting archives belonging to a range of individuals. Ortiz’s papers are powerful. They tell us about the life of an anthropologist who was an engaged activist and a kind friend. I am sure, however, that there are many other collections as powerful as his that are currently not receiving the resources they deserve. A broader vision of collecting practices could only contribute to having stronger archives and, therefore, a more diverse range of artistic and academic productions. As I see it, places like Princeton University Library, in their own ways, are the contemporary version of the Library of Alexandria. We need to make sure that important but overlooked collections don’t burn right in front of our eyes.

Editor’s note: Although Louise worked on the Alfonso Ortiz Papers (WC126) while they were temporarily held at Mudd Library for reprocessing, researchers interested in using the collection will access the materials in Firestone Library.

Louise Sanches Barbosa is a member of the Class of 2027 and worked as a student archivist at Special Collections Mudd in the 2024-2025 academic year. She is currently pursuing an A.B. in Comparative Literature, with minors in Theater and History.