The Fictional World of Archives,
Art Galleries and MuseumsThe Fictional World of Archives,
Art Galleries and MuseumsLast modified November 8, 1999
Revenue raised through the Amazon.com Associates and Chapters.ca Affiliates program helps support the Victoria Telecommunity Network.
Archives, archivists, records managers, secret documents and lost manuscripts have been used as characters, settings and plot devices in many stories, novels, movies and TV shows, as well as jokes and cartoons. Archives, archivists and records are so important to fiction that this Web page was written to document as fully as possible their many representations found in popular culture. Inspiration for this Web page came from a 1995 discussion on the ARCHIVES electronic mailing list about fictional archives. Sources include submissions by archivists and others, as well as Arlene Schmuland's bibliography from her American Archivist article.
Beginning November 7, 1999, this site started tracking fictional representations of art galleries and museums.
This site is under continual development, so bookmark it now and come back often.
NOVELS, STORIES AND
THEIR AUTHORS
FILMS AND TV PROGRAMS
*Originated by Professor Luciana Duranti, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Other Web-based search engines and navigational aids can be found through the Victoria Telecommunity Network (BC, Canada) Internet/WWW Information Services Page.
Visit some real archives through the Repositories of Primary Sources list maintained by Terry Abraham (University of Idaho). Other important site for archivists and researchers are:
Gillis, Peter. "Of Plots, Secrets, Burrowers and Moles: Archives in Espionage Fiction." Archivaria no. 9 (Winter 1979-80): 3-13.
Schmuland, Arlene B. "The Archival Image in Fiction: An Analysis with an Annotated Bibliography." American Archivist 62, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 24-73. An abridged version of her thesis. The titles in her bibliography are listed in NOVELS, STORIES AND THEIR AUTHORS
Schmuland, Arlene B. "The Image of Archives and Archivists: Fictional Perspectives." M.A. Thesis, Western Washington University, August, 1997. See the American Archivist citation above for a condensed version and updated list of fictional works.
Thank you Lee for nearly two years of unflagging support. I couldn't have done it without you! October 5, 1997
Thank you very much Arlene Schmuland for providing me with the American Archivist issue.
Web site hosted by the Victoria Telecommunity Network at http://www.victoria.tc.ca/~mattison/ficarch/index.htm.
Suggestions for The Fictional World of Archives, Art Galleries and Museums may be e-mailed to David Mattison. Mention the Web page "Fictional Archives" in your message.
If you would like to submit a film, TV program, or published fictional representation of an archives or archivist, please follow the format in the Just Cause or The X-Files HTML (source document) files.
Clipart sourced and modified from the IMSI Masterclips and Corel collections.
Compiled by David Mattison; © 1996-1999. Text submissions copyrighted by their respective authors.
This site and its pages may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my consent.