Jun 25, 2026 · 32 min · 12 segments
The ripples of history are around us at all times, whether we notice them or not. In this episode, Professor Judy Stephenson is in conversation with Professor Matthew J. Smith: Professor of History…
Judy StephensonHost
So tell me a little bit about what are the archival sources in the Caribbean and what would you be looking for particularly in them?
Some of that sort of has been a consequence or legacy, if you will, of colonialism.
But even in the national period, it's not as if when colonialism ended, people just didn't invest in the archives.
I think what you had was actually a strengthening of archives and libraries in the Caribbean, the colonial era when we got to the period of independence.
And a lot of that's because people understood that in the archives you could find the details of the story of a nation, the story of a people, the many different ways people have gone through These very difficult histories that we face in the Caribbean from slavery, colonialism, climate change, environmental disaster, regime change, dictatorships, and so on, depending on where you are.
And the archives become this critical place where all of that sort of held and contained.
And it's always been a joy for me from my boyhood, spending time in libraries and just not only discovering things which are always presented and framed and carefully protected as treasures, whether it's a letter, a document, a photograph, to see people in their white lab coats or their white gloves delicately handling things.
Those were my first archival experiences and that gave me a certain esteem for the archive.
But at the same time, you can go in an archive or a library in the Caribbean, I've seen this, whether it's the French-speaking Caribbean, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, the Anglophone Caribbean, and you just see everyday people who come in there to just read the newspaper.
just every day they block out two hours a day to just sit down and read the newspaper, or sometimes they'll come on a Friday with all the stack of the papers for the week.
Soaking up the atmosphere, but also for them, it's an opportunity to connect to the printed word in that space and reflect on it in a way that they don't outside of it.
It's all amazing to me just to see those different cultures and cultural relations with the archives.
So tell me a little bit about what are the archival sources in the Caribbean and what would you be looking for particularly in them?
Some of that sort of has been a consequence or legacy, if you will, of colonialism.
But even in the national period, it's not as if when colonialism ended, people just didn't invest in the archives.
I think what you had was actually a strengthening of archives and libraries in the Caribbean, the colonial era when we got to the period of independence.
And a lot of that's because people understood that in the archives you could find the details of the story of a nation, the story of a people, the many different ways people have gone through These very difficult histories that we face in the Caribbean from slavery, colonialism, climate change, environmental disaster, regime change, dictatorships, and so on, depending on where you are.
And the archives become this critical place where all of that sort of held and contained.
And it's always been a joy for me from my boyhood, spending time in libraries and just not only discovering things which are always presented and framed and carefully protected as treasures, whether it's a letter, a document, a photograph, to see people in their white lab coats or their white gloves delicately handling things.
Those were my first archival experiences and that gave me a certain esteem for the archive.
But at the same time, you can go in an archive or a library in the Caribbean, I've seen this, whether it's the French-speaking Caribbean, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, the Anglophone Caribbean, and you just see everyday people who come in there to just read the newspaper.
just every day they block out two hours a day to just sit down and read the newspaper, or sometimes they'll come on a Friday with all the stack of the papers for the week.
Soaking up the atmosphere, but also for them, it's an opportunity to connect to the printed word in that space and reflect on it in a way that they don't outside of it.
It's all amazing to me just to see those different cultures and cultural relations with the archives.
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