Siliguri -- Salesian College Autonomous hosted a compelling lecture titled Exploring the Past: Learning History through Museums and Primary Sources, delivered by Dr. Aniket Tathagata Chettry, Head of the Department of History, Siliguri College. Attended by students and faculty of the History Department, the session offered a vivid exploration of how archives and museums shape historical understanding.
Dr. Chettry emphasized that primary sources—letters, diaries, official documents, and artifacts—form the bedrock of historical research, offering scholars authentic windows into lived experience. He underscored the museum’s role as a dynamic space where history is not only preserved but made tangible and empathetic. Drawing on examples such as the Flamenco Museum in Seville and the Partition Museum in Amritsar, he illustrated how cultural memory is curated and conveyed across generations.
The lecture concluded with a call to engage history not as distant record but as living connection—an invitation to see archives and museums as portals to continuity, identity, and shared human experience.