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Trash or Treasure, How to Decide

© Michael Morrissey

When it comes to history everything is worth remembering and everything is worth saving. Unfortunately our brains are not capable of remembering everything and there isn't enough space in our world to save everything. So we have to make some sort of judgments as to what is worth remembering and saving.

Technology has allowed us to save nearly all things historical when it comes to pictures, words and sounds. Computers can store vast amounts of data while libraries and the internet enable the average citizen to access it. Unfortunately technology has yet to come up with a way to efficiently save and make accessible three dimensional objects. Museums proliferate across the country, but are still woefully inadequate when it comes to storing and displaying everything historical. And so we are faced with the problem of deciding which artifacts to save and which to let pass into oblivion

In general there are three elements worth considering when assessing the historical value of an object. These are; age, quantity and quality.

Age Although it may seem discriminatory, age does play a factor in determining the historic value of something. This is due in large part to the fact that the events and people of our current era may not yet be recognized, or have not yet fully realized their historical importance. An event or thing has to hold up over time, prove, through longevity, that it is significant either on its own or as a catalyst to something else.

Paul Revere's racing through the streets of Boston proclaiming that the British were coming may not have seemed too historically important to people roused out of bed by his cries. But to the people of twentieth century America it was an event of tremendous historical significance. The true significance of the event wasn't clear until many years later.

Age is the easiest and most objective criteria to meet. No one will argue that a 100 year old house is really only 50 years old. The other two criteria, quantity and quality are highly subjective, and so can lead to disputes over the veracity of the data.

Quantity The sheer number of remaining objects plays an important role in determining historical significance and ultimately in determining if the object is worth saving. Old bullets or spent shell casings from the Gulf War would be deemed nearly worthless because there are so many of them, yet a lead shot from the American Revolution would be quite valuable by comparison because, but not limited to the fact, that there are so few of them.

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