Some archives are housed in major historical events, some in photographs and some others in art. But when historical events, photographs and art are housed in archives, then they are a treasure trove. Aside all the collections of different genres, Jafet Library’s Archive preserves a unique gem: Culture.
The very first footsteps set in the archives promise a rich journey into the past. The boxes contain not only facts and dates, yet also stories. These stories align with AUB’s mission, especially when it comes down to diversity. The content is relevant to all topics and discusses historical periods from different perceptions.
However, visiting the archives wasn’t one of our random quest.
It all started when Alberto, Jafet’s librarian, visited us during our ENGL 256D class. Alberto’s presentation enriched our section with digital tools and ways to find correct and reliable sources. As for us, it augmented our perspective. The knowledge we gained from Alberto had an impact on our topic. When you surf through databases with a goal in mind, you are able to see the big picture. However, our goal before the visit wasn’t clear. We aimed to research about a confusing topic targeting too many aspects of Orientalism all at once. After the discussion we had with Alberto, followed by our discussion with our professor, we narrowed down our topic to Fantasy.
But this was not it, many of the documents we found were not digitized; the only information we had access to was abstract of boxes. And that’s when our journey into the past in Jafet’s archives started.
The underground of Jafet’s Library lays one special collection: The Archives. Since most AUB students don’t know about this place, it feels special visiting it.
University Archivist and Head
As soon as we entered Jafet’s archives, Samar Mikati-Kaissi, university head archivist, introduced us to the division of the archive: there is seven sections, each beholding several collections and each collection’s content is organized into boxes.
The main topics of the sections are generalities, unions, related bodies and Arab scholar works. As for the composition of the staff body, around ten workers work in the archives section; they are responsible of digitalizing, dividing them according to their topics, and cleaning them in order to preserve them. As for Samar’s aspiration of the future of the archives, she has one dream: being able to document thoughts and collect additional valuable material.
During her presentation, Samar insisted on drawing ties between the archives and the stories they tell about AUB.
For instance, one of the anecdote she narrated revealed that prior to 1920, AUB was named SPC. Another one of her stories disclosed an incident with two professors: Blurin Lewis and Van Dyke. The incident contrasted between the student’s freedom of speech back then and now. In fact, at that time, students could not share neither their opinions nor their thoughts, and the sanction of sharing them would be an expulsion.
Furthermore, the Archives possess a wide and rare collections documenting the history of AUB’s founders. For instance, AUB archives its’ founders’ mails, reports and students’ petitions. AUB also collects documents related to different genres: the archives include more than 1400 manuscripts, several hundreds of rare books, letters, 8500 volumes of theses, art posters, postcards, maps, photographs and scenes from Lebanese political events and parties. The documents date from different periods, but most of them have been collected in the early 20th century.
On a more recent note, the librarians are working on digitizing some collections and cover the student led activities and actions. To make sure no document is lost, the collections are organized in boxes, sorted by serial number and preserved in a safe room. The room is notably described as safe since no visit is allowed without assistance and surveillance.
Likewise, the librarians came up with a standardized procedure to ensure that the collections remain in good quality. In order to read an article or access a collection, a visitor should first wash his hands, avoid wearing nail polish, wear gloves and take notes by only using a pencil.
Additionally, when acquired, most of the collections are dusty and illegible. To improve the papers’ quality, the librarians wash them with distilled water and get rid of moldy folders.To arrange the documents, the papers are assembled using stainless steel clips. Samar carefully mentioned that the only collection to be acquired in perfect conditions was Constatine’s.
Archives don’t keep things secret but for sure keep them safe.
In fact, during a visit by a Sheikh, Issa Makhlouf was presenting some of his work. The “clumsy” Sheikh spilled his coffee on the papers. This tragic and unforgettable instance in Makhlouf’s life was followed by a revengeful intuition; he immediately slapped the Sheikh back. Subsequently he decided to preserve his collection in Jafet Library.
When Samar was pointing out the little details that play a major role in preserving archives, one document especially stood out: Hitti’s folder. By the end of the session, my team and I were drawn to discover the content of Box 3 File 1.
The first article, Al Hawarinah wara’ albahar (the dialogue abroad), was written by Hitti at Princeton University. Even though Hitti wrote the article during his stay in the States, he adopted arabic to express his thoughts. This reflects a further deep intention of his: he aimed to depict the West’s perception of Orient travelers. As the author goes on in describing the students’ perception, we notice that it is deeply an Orientalist perception. Based on the writing, Westerners supposed the journey from the Middle East to the States as mystical in a fiction way and only those with extreme courage could survive it.
This document drove our topic to a new direction. Fantasy could be expressed through novels, movies, commercials and even through attitudes. The attitude described in this article highlights one major trait of Orientalism: the eastern culture is described as extremely exotic to an extent that it’s portrayed as delusional and fantastic
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