Archives, Mismatches, Hacks! Overcoming Archival Boundaries in Transnational Research

Abstract

In this article, I use my experiences in writing about the transnational history of Sesame Street to point toward ways forward for researchers interested in investigating entangled European broadcasting histories. I will point to places where I found European interconnections in journals, committees, and festivals and consider what the availability of these published and unpublished sources has meant for my inquiries. I will also explain how I used a specific content-management software (Tropy) to ‘hack’ and go beyond the national boundaries encoded in the archival collections I used. Finally, I suggest that perhaps it is not audiovisual material broadcasting archives first and foremost need to make available in digital formats if we want to further boundary-crossing television history; instead, I believe that the possibility of sharing self-digitized printed material should be a particular focus in the future.

Keywords

• Sesame Street
• television history
• transnational history
• content management software
• Tropy