By Jana Brink
Adventure, detective work, thrill and discovery - scene from Indiana Jones or research in the Massachusetts State Archives?
With a passion for archival research, Jenny Hale Pulsipher, an associate professor of history at BYU, taught attendants at Tuesday''s forum that studying history doesn''t have to be boring.
'I consider archival research an adventure - one that has frequently set my pulse racing, not because of the fight or flight reflex, but because of the thrill of discovery,' Pulsipher said.
As Pulsipher has spent much of her time in the Massachusetts State Archives, she has had the opportunity to search through hundreds of documents, including letters, military orders, court depositions, receipts and orders to constables in her attempt to solve historical puzzles.
'In an archive, everything is disconnected,' Pulsipher said. 'You might look in the various indexes at the archive and round up every piece of paper that mentions him or her, put them in chronological order, then slowly work out the pattern of that person''s life, recognizing, of course, that the pile is undoubtedly incomplete.'
On one occasion, Pulsipher was working in the Suffolk Court Files and was becoming frustrated at the 'apparent randomness' of the organization of the documents. She asked the archivist what the organization method of the collection was and learned a 'highly illuminating history lesson' in response.
The story goes as follows:
After Colonial forces defeated British soldiers at Concord''s North Bridge, Colonial forces laid siege to the city that the British occupied. All supplies and reinforcements were cut off from going into the city and the British were forced to make do with what was already there. Straw quickly ran out, and the British began looking for substitute materials. Not thinking that the piles and piles of court papers found at Boston''s state house were of any importance, the British used the documents to stuff their mattresses and stable their horses. After the British abandoned Boston, court officials began the tedious, and still unfinished, process of attempting to return the court papers to order.
'When you work in an archive, you are interacting not only with the documents, but with those who created and organized them - or burned or slept on them - generations in the past,' Pulsipher said.
In addition to the thrill that accompanies piecing together archival puzzles, Pulsipher spoke of the opportunities her work brings her to get to know and learn from individuals of the past.
'Some of these people are reprehensible, some are admirable,' Pulsipher said. 'I find my life enriched by meeting them, particularly in the case of the latter.'
In discovering personal connections, Pulispher reminds listeners that although one may feel that they have much in common with those they are studying, there are many profound differences as well.
'As I gather and seek to connect the pieces of a past life or past event, I need to remind myself not to jump to conclusions,' Pulsipher said. 'Because the next piece I find - in the same archive or a different one - may not fit the story I''ve been piecing together. It''s detective work, and no evidence - however odd - can be ignored.'