Reminiscing About Research Trips: the Rockefeller Archive Centre
Ben Offiler, Senior Lecturer in History, is our current Course Leader. His research focuses on the history of American philanthropy, development discourse, and US-Iranian relations during the Cold War. Here he writes about doing archive research and what this means to him.
One of the things that many people have missed over the past year due to the global pandemic, is the freedom to travel beyond their own “local area” – however that is supposed to be defined. And if it is true that since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic most people in Britain would, given the opportunity and resources, like to take a trip farther from home than the local supermarket, then it is also true for most historians.
In many ways, it is a perk of the job that academics have the chance to visit interesting and exciting places all in the name of their research. I am convinced that there would be a burgeoning field of Hawaiian Studies in the UK, if only the flights were cheaper.
When I began my postgraduate studies at the University of Nottingham, I chose to specialise in US foreign relations during the Cold War because I found the subject fascinating – US power and influence is one of the defining features of the post-WWII international landscape. It was a happy coincidence that doing so would give me the opportunity to visit different cities and states in the US, from my first research trip to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas to the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, a stone’s throw from the historic capital, Washington DC.
Most recently, my research has shifted slightly away from analysing the foreign policies and decision-making processes of American presidents and their administrations, to a focus on the role that philanthropic and charitable organisations play in shaping US relations with the wider world. Specifically, I am researching the programmes that one philanthropic NGO, the Near East Foundation, established in Iran shortly after the Second World War at the behest of the government in Tehran. These efforts included agricultural reform experiments, education and training for rural girls, and disease-control programmes.
The Near East Foundation’s involvement in Iran (from 1943 to 1979) coincided with a turbulent period in official US-Iranian relations, as successive American governments came to support the authoritarian Pahlavi regime, headed by the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. By examining the Near East Foundation and moving beyond a traditional focus on governments and state actors, I am hoping to further our understanding of the complex, dynamic and evolving relationship between the United States and Iran during the twentieth-century.
The NEF’s extensive archives – beginning from its inception as Near East Relief in 1915 in response to the Armenian Genocide and containing a huge variety of letters, telegrams, memoranda, reports, films and more – are housed at the Rockefeller Archive Centre in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Yes, that Sleepy Hollow.
I have been fortunate to be able to visit the RAC three times now, which has allowed me to dive deep into the period of its involvement in Iran. While I have literally thousands of digital photographs of archival material carefully stored on my computer (and backed up elsewhere), there is something exciting and invigorating about doing research in an actual archive.
Rockefeller Archive Centre, front of building https://rockarch.org/assets/img/hero_image.jpg
And the Rockefeller Archive Centre is a wonderful place to embed yourself in history, not least due to the outstanding and informed archivists that are always on hand to provide expert advice. Over lunch, the visiting researchers often get together to discuss their projects, share ideas and celebrate their successes.
As historians everywhere anticipate the easing of travel restrictions, I for one can’t wait to return to the archives.
