Why archivists need to keep Kleenex handy

“People cry more than you would think in the archives. Emotions can run very high when an individual is confronting information that impacts their lives.

“Once a colleague of Dr. King, well into his 80s, burst into tears
looking at essays he’d written that were with Dr. King when he died. Recently, a
high school junior cried over the hand-written manuscript of ‘The Color Purple.’
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“Archives are about humanity as much as scholarship.”
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— Courtney Chartier, head of Research Services for the Manuscript,