Session 18. Archiving Peace Work Collections

Abstract

From the Anabaptist traditions of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to other historic peace work, presenters will share the challenges and rewards of managing nonresistance, pacifist, and peace-building archives, and speak about why preserving and voicing the peace perspective is important. Topics to be addressed include curating, interpreting, and teaching about faith-based peace work, both as an archivist previously unfamiliar with such traditions and as one who affiliates with the tradition, but works closely with constituents who have little knowledge of faith-based peace work—and are sometimes skeptical of it. The session will include a discussion of the secondary trauma that may be experienced when working with archival collections that contain peace workers’ troubling accounts of wartime, famine relief, and medical work, and will offer strategies to prevent being overwhelmed.