‘Piling up a treasury of knowledge’: Archiving as knowledge production and professional practice in the Stevenson engineering firm

Dishington, Rachel

Abstract

Archives were a significant site of engineering work in the nineteenth century. Through an examination of the case study of the Stevenson family engineering firm, this article argues that engineers consciously and intentionally collected documents to produce credible knowledge and authority and considered archival creation and maintenance an obligation for the emerging engineering profession. By analysing historical geographies of document collection, management and use, this article expands understanding of how, where and by whom engineering knowledge was created, legitimised and deployed to reimagine and remake environments and to create and defend a nascent professional identity. In this way, the article extends understanding of the historical geographies of engineering and of the significance of archives as spaces of scientific and professional worldmaking.

Citation

Dishington, R. (2025). ‘Piling up a treasury of knowledge’: Archiving as knowledge production and professional practice in the Stevenson engineering firm. Journal of Historical Geography, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2025.05.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2025
• Online Publication Date: May 19, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025-05
• Deposit Date: May 29, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 30, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Historical Geography
• Print ISSN: 0305-7488
• Electronic ISSN: 1095-8614
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2025.05.001
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/49558452
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305748825000404?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: ‘Piling up a treasury of knowledge’: Archiving as knowledge production and professional practice in the Stevenson engineering firm; Journal Title: Journal of Historical Geography; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2025.05.001; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.