The Manuscript as Question: Teaching Primary Sources in the Archives—The China Missions Project

Abstract

The collaborative effort between two Special Collections librarians and a history professor at DePaul University led to a quarter-long undergraduate project in the archives using China Missions Correspondence. In a reversal of traditional methods that assumes archival use to answer a question, this project looks at the document as the source of the questions. A qualitative analysis of student responses from these class sessions between 2002 and 2008 reveals the impact that direct experience has on primary source education and how outreach and user instruction in the archives can transform research, education, and the place of special collections within the institution. As a case study, this paper examines planning, administration, identification, instruction, and assessment of the project from the librarians' perspective.rchival collections provide tangible links to elements of history and society. These collections are unique clusters of letters, diaries, photos, memos, pamphlets, and many other documents that offer first-hand accounts of persons, groups, places, and/or events. Whether it is a word that is blacked out by a censor, a flourished cursive hand, doodles in the margins, or type that bears the soft purplish halos of an early mimeographed copy, the mere physicality of these documents exudes clues about the writer, the receiver, and the time period or the context. To interact with archival sources is an intimate experience; a sensation not captured through well-intentioned excerpts transcribed in textbooks. These materials in their original form have been long prized by history professors and archivists as the ultimate primary source due to their enormous potential for teaching students how to evaluate and interpret evidence.