Historical document
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Historical documents are documents that contain important information about a person, place, or event. Some important and famous American historical documents include, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Articles of Confederation; some famous world historical documents include, The Magna Carta, the 95 Theses of Martin Luther, and the Gutenberg Bible.
Most famous historical documents, consist of laws, accounts of battles (usually given by the victors), and the exploits of the powerful. Though these documents are of historical interest, these documents do not detail the daily lives of ordinary people, or the way society functioned. Anthropologists and Archeologists, generally are more interested in documents that describe the day to day lives of ordinary people, such as what they ate, what they worried about, hopes and/or dreams, and their family interaction. It is this information that allows Anthropologists and Archeologists, to understand and describe the way society was functioning at any particular time in history.
Many documents that are produced today, such as personal letters, pictures, contracts, newspapers, and medical records, would be considered valuable historical documents in the future to Anthropologists and Archeologists. However most of these documents will be lost in the future since they are either printed on ordinary paper which has a limited life span, or on digital formats that will become obsolete in a relatively short time frame.
Some companies and government entities are attempting to increase the number of documents that will survive the passage of time, by taking into account the Preservation Issues, and printing documents in a manner that increases the likelihood of them surviving the passage of time, or placing documents into time capsules or other special storage environments.
[edit] See also
- Family history
- Genealogy
- Labeling family photos
