Does the archives represent Mount Holyoke College as a community?

Melissa Simon

The archives do represent Mount Holyoke as community to a certain extent, as they provide the college with a sense of continuity since they possess information that links the histories of the institution together, which also serves as a means of linking members of the college community together as well. The information contained in the archives glorifies the college as community because it focuses primarily on things that pertain to the college only, so that one that explores the archives achieves a sense of the way in which this institution has evolved over time, as well as the people, locations and events that help to define this institution as a community. The similarities between the information contained in various sources in the archives (ex: if someone were to look up Mountain Day) demonstrates that there are connectivities and bonds that exist within the institution which serve to promote the concept that Mount Holyoke is a community. However, it can be argued that the archives perhaps do not accurately represent Mount Holyoke as community since the collection holds only particular information regarding the college, and thus creates an image of community that is skewed according to what information is actually present in the collection. Therefore, not all aspects of the college community are documented or somehow preserved in the archives. In essence, the archives do represent Mount Holyoke as community as the information in the archives constructs an image of Mount Holyoke community, however, this image may not be entirely accurate.