Examining historical photographs can open paths to improved understanding of the history of most disciplines, including medicine. Images can be "read" and advantageously integrated with other historical "traces." Documents, including photographs, are "orphaned" when separated from their creators and used out of context. Archivists share with historians the responsibility for considering interpretations of the documentary record. Cultivating subject-specific understanding as well as general historical awareness expands our competency to read photographs and promotes more contextualized and historically grounded uses of information.
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Jeffrey Mifflin (2007) studied this question.