The discussion we had around the Harding Affair Letters was something I continued reflecting on after class. I still don\u2019t feel like I have a good answer, but this case study was thought provoking. I went home and told my wife the story to see what someone that isn\u2019t in the history or archival field would think about the situation. The conversation shifted pretty quickly to destruction of objects and properties and not about the case study, so I didn\u2019t get an answer on her full thoughts on the Harding Affair Letters.
The stance I had was that Ken Duckett did something incredible by preserving these letters, and there was a real danger of these being destroyed. Perhaps it\u2019s simply just optics, but I feel like he went about it the wrong way when he originally obtained the letters from the lawyer. Especially because he had to hide it and prevent Russel from accesing them. I wonder how long he would hide the letters before he allowed for researchers like Russel to use them if they went unnoticed and that the law suite didn\u2019t arise. My thought was that he could have waited to obtain the letters from the lawyer until he finished the negotiations with the Harding Memorial Association for more records on Harding. I\u2019ve been thinking about that, and I can see issues with that as well. If he didn\u2019t take the letters as soon as he can the lawyer perhaps would have done something else with them, like give them to the Harding Memorial Trust, or they may have been destroyed. The main hold up I was having was how Ken obtained the letters, and hid it because he knew him having it would be a problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end I do have to commend his commitment and willingness to put himself in the line to preserve something that could have easily ended up in a trash bin or a fire place if he didn\u2019t get involved. I really don\u2019t have the right answer to this situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The discussion we had around the Harding Affair Letters was something I continued reflecting on after class. I still don\u2019t feel like I have a good answer, but this case study was thought provoking. I went home and told my wife the story to see what someone that isn\u2019t in the history or archival field … <\/p>\n