A STUDY OF THE THEORY OF APPRAISAL FOR SELECTION By ...

history. Their arguments also reveal that, to them, the process
of identifying value was a self-evident and straightforward
exercise.
In 1937, Hilary Jenkinson responded to the British practice
of the destruction of useless records in the second edition of
his manual. In this work, he raises disturbing questions
regarding the possible consequences of destruction to the
preservation of documents with historical value. He identifies a
theoretical crisis to which he applies his mind. His resulting
theoretical construct has influenced the theory and practice of
archives to this day. Jenkinson argues that the modern explosion
of records has forced the archivist into the untenable position
of "the modern Destroyer."16 If we are not careful, Jenkinson
writes, the indiscriminate destruction of records will destroy
their archival nature.
Jenkinson's argument about appraisal is rigorously developed
from a traditional understanding of the nature of archives. The
theoretical framework he constructs carefully preserves the
probative nature of documentary evidence. In his words,
A document which maybe said to belong to the
class of Archives is one which was drawn up
or used in the course of an administrative or
executive transaction (whether public or
private) of which itself formed a part; and
subsequently preserved in their own custody
for their own information by the person or
persons responsible for that transaction and
16 Hilary Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration, 2nd
ed., (1937; reprint, London: Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd.,
1965), 140.
63