Career Files. Archives, Individuals and Institutions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (18th-19th Century)

In line with the “archival turn”, the career files of Foreign Affairs officers in the 18th and 19th centuries are regarded as an object of study. More specifically, I see them as the result of writing and archive practices by the actors, archivists of the ministry and individuals who are the subject of a file. The approach consists in apprehending these files as resources, means of action through writing, within the framework of social relations that constantly build the institution. While career files are a usual source of the reconstitution of careers, this shift to the file themselves allows us to grasp the modalities of the relationship between individual and institution. This implies a close look at the files to understand how they were created and what uses they were subjected to in their time. Therefore, it was not possible to conduct a quantitative study. Based on the study of a handful of files, the analysis draws attention to a danger of naturalization, which consists in considering these files as the place of archiving the careers of civil servants and as a means of rationalizing the administration. Looking back at the time of their constitution, we observe the diversity of their contents and the varied uses made of them by the actors. These files also archive anything other than the officers’ careers.