10/22/2025
What’s in your personal archive?
As part of our Archives Month event on personal archiving, we asked students two simple questions:
“What would you put in your own archive? What’s one thing that tells your story?”
We wanted to get people thinking about what makes an archive personal—how everyday things, from playlists to photos, become part of our own history.
And the students delivered! This is what some of them had to say:
“Family recipes”
“Pictures from my phone”
“My Dad’s hardhat collection”
“Documents from when I left my country because of the war”
“My journals”
“My art”
“My Apple Music listening history”
“My deleted search history”
“My clothes collection from the early 2000s”
“Tiny notes from old friends”
“My plushies”
“My own comics and family videos” “My favorite YouTube videos”
“Travel souvenirs”
“My typewriter collection”
“Trendy clothes, so future people know what we wore”
“My hobbies (Manhwa) where I get humor”
“My photos”
“My childhood clothes”
“My spotify list from jr. high”
“My lab journal”
“Animation cels”
“My camera roll”
Responses ranged from deeply personal to delightfully unexpected, proof that archives aren’t just about the past. They’re about the things that shape us right now. What stories will they tell in 10, 20,...50 years?
So, what would you put in your personal archive?
