Inspired by Ashleigh’s presentation, I want to share an excellent article from the archival theory journal Archivaria, “Records of Simple Truth and Precision: Photography, Archives, and the Illusion of Control,” which argues that the advent of the daguerreotype in 1830s France had epistemological parallels in 19th c. French archival theory, which privileged the archival fonds as an objective and organically produced historical artifact.
Here it is: http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12763/13951