'F' is for Feminist Theory in the Archives

Archival collections are beacons of history that allow for events long passed to be explored in the present and the future. Researchers and historians are able to examine archival collections to discover new information all of the time. But what happens when certain voices are eliminated from the archives altogether? What happens when records are manipulated or destroyed? Should everyone be able to access all historical records if the content is personal or traumatic? This paper looks at five incidents in North Carolina’s history that highlight the use of, or lack of, feminist theory and how this affected the ways in which history is discussed and passed down to future generations.