By Rose Buchanan and Stephanie Luke, Reviews Co-Editors [PDF Full Text]

“Archives are, by their nature, intergenerational voices. They allow our ancestors to speak to us and for us to speak to our descendants. Given this reality, archivists should value the messages that our predecessor comrades bring forward. . . . This series provides archivists with the opportunity to be in community with other archivists both through space and time.”

—Terry Baxter, 77th SAA president

In 2023, the American Archivist Reviews Portal launched a new series, Intergenerational Conversations, which sought to foster ongoing dialogue between new voices in the archives profession and authors whose work shaped the professional literature years ago.[1] In the inaugural year of the series, reviewers provided critical evaluations of the work of archives scholar, practitioner, Society of American Archivists (SAA) Fellow, and former SAA President John Fleckner.[2]

In the second iteration of the series, we will revisit past SAA presidential addresses. Since its establishment in 1936, SAA has had seventy-eight members serve as president of the organization.[3] Delivered each year at SAA’s Annual Meeting and later published in the pages of American Archivist, SAA presidential addresses offer a unique yearly snapshot of key issues and developments in SAA and the archival profession since 1939.[4]

Professional literature is a conversation that interrogates a profession’s past, establishes its ethos in the present, and forecasts aspirations for its future. Reflecting on the issues raised and topics covered in these presidential addresses allows us the chance to trace what has changed and what has remained the same for archivists over the years. As SAA’s 73rd President Tanya Zanish-Belcher remarks, “Ironically, archivists can be limited in seeing our own profession as part of a historical continuum. Trends, even in archives, come and go, and the profession changes according to external societal and cultural factors outside of our control. Focusing on issues across the decades allows us the opportunity to see professional developments in the long-term and how they impact each and every one of us.” SAA’s 75th President Rachel Vagts also notes the value in reexamining these pieces, stating, “While our work does evolve and change, there are also elements of it that remain that same. Many of the challenges faced years ago are the same ones that we struggle with. . . so it can be useful for us to look back to see how others have wrestled with some of the same challenges many of us are dealing with on a daily basis.”

It is particularly worthwhile to revisit SAA presidential addresses because they record a distinct moment, an embodied immediacy, when the president engaged with their audience in defining what it means to be an archivist. As 77th President Terry Baxter notes, “Presidential addresses are purposeful communications from folks with the intention of illuminating ideas, activities, needs, desires, etc., that they feel are important for the archival community to think about. . . . By thinking about how a president came to the place of putting their minds and hearts on full display, we can approach prickly subjects with more grace and love while still evaluating what is useful now and will be useful to future archivists.” The personal nature of the address, and the window it provides into the mind of the president, means that some addresses may resonate differently with us over time. Courtney Chartier, SAA’s 76th president, remarks that returning to these addresses reminds us that “every generation finds the ones before to be useless, or wrong-headed; it takes time and effort to find what is valuable in every generation and accept it. Presidential addresses aren’t research papers. They are personal and flawed because they are written and given by flawed people. What felt critical to me may seem quaint in another four decades, and that is how it should be.”

We hope that you join us as reviewers from diverse backgrounds and professional experiences revisit and reflect upon the enduring meaning and value of select presidential addresses spanning SAA’s eighty-year history.

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[1] “Intergenerational Conversations,” American Archivist Reviews Portal, https://reviews.americanarchivist.org/intergenerational-conversations/.

[2] Rose Buchanan, John Fleckner, Rand Jimerson, and Stephanie Luke, “Intergenerational Conversations: Reflecting on the Work of John Fleckner,” American Archivist Reviews Portal, January 26, 2023, https://reviews.americanarchivist.org/2023/01/26/intergenerational-conversations-reflecting-on-the-work-of-john-fleckner/.

[3] Society of American Archivists, “Presidents,” https://www2.archivists.org/history/leaders/presidents.

[4] Society of American Archivists, “Presidential Addresses,” last modified July 29, 2021, https://www2.archivists.org/history/leaders/presidential-addresses.