More questions than answers: Interrogating restricted access in the archives

This study is a reflective piece that grew out of the Archival Kismet Conference in April of 2021. What happens when you find your "archival kismet"-the document that is essential to your research-and it is restricted? In conjunction with archival silences, how do these restrictions affect our ability to understand the past? I begin with these questions and use two case studies to challenge and complicate the practice of restricted access in archives. Using a dialogic approach, I provide a set of questions and considerations groups can use to begin to probe materials with archival restrictions. I urge a reflective and collaborative approach between archivists, public historians, and community to re-evaluate the practice of archival restrictions.