The value of primary source research

Archival collections document and show us a filmmaker, an author, or a creator making and remaking, practicing their craft. Archival collections value practice— drafts, outtakes, correspondence, and ephemera that might have been made for a passing purpose, such as advertising a movie.

Unpublished manuscripts demonstrate vision and commitment, the fortitude to sit at the typewriter and create page after page one letter at a time. Many of these materials show their age in rusted staples and yellowing paper—stewarded with the mark of faith that one day they might be important.