The Importance of Preservation

49 years ago, two football teams faced off in one of the first of many worldwide sporting events that would captivate a nation and transform broadcasting forever. As the NFL's Green Bay Packers, led by Bart Starr, hoisted coach Vince Lombardi above their heads after a rousing win against the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in Super Bowl I, CBS broadcast it all into American homes. However, as the hype for Super Bowl 50 continues to rise, the very first has never been re-broadcast on network television. All that survives in good quality from this day in 1967 are action pictures and off-angle shots made for instant replays. Only one partial recording still exists, though it is missing much of the third quarter, and is absent of any pre-/post-game content or halftime show; CBS doesn't even own this copy, as it was a home record. In the terms of history, Super Bowl I is technically "lost to the ages"; a horrible example of treatment of historically important items.

As a history student, you may not think much of preservation of history. You're just here to learn about history; beyond that, you don't give a rat's ass about where the Magna Carta is or if the Declaration is safe from the hands of Nic Cage. But what is the worth of historical accounts if there isn't any evidence of it in existence? Would you have believed that Abraham Lincoln was shot in a theater if the site was now an apartment complex? Who honors the WWI veterans as their monument is claimed by DC's natural swamp environment? Could we say without a doubt that David Bowie was a great singer if, 100 years from now, his songs were only a memory? The preservation of history-even Super Bowl broadcasts and "Space Oddity"-are the whole reason that history is even here in the first place. Learning the importance of preserving it should be a big part of learning it in the first place. So, here's a few situations in which you can decide if history was preserved.

• It's 1975. You work at the BBC in London. Your supervisor calls and says that due to limited storage, you have to destroy some of the films in the vaults to make space. Among these films are episodes of the TV show Doctor Who and some old silent pictures from the early 20th century. What do you do?

This one should be easy, right? While Doctor Who had only been around for a decade in the 70s, the silent films are a large piece of history that you'd have a hand in destroying. The correct thing to do here is to try and preserve these pieces.

Except, that's not what happened. The BBC and other broadcasting companies did this a lot in their history, oftentimes destroying priceless/final copies of silent movies. The aforementioned Doctor Who is missing well over 100 episodes from the 60s due to this, and this is one of the reasons Super Bowl I is so hard to find. Back then, companies didn't think anything would want to be seen more than once, so nothing was ever saved; it was only with the advent of recording devices that this practice was halted. Had historical significance rather than money saving been brought into account, this wouldn't have happened.

• It's 1982. The movie E.T had come out earlier in the year, and you had loved it. For Christmas, your parents have given you an Atari 2600 video game console and the video game version of the film. However, you discover the game is completely horrible, and contemplate whether you should throw it out. What would you do?

In this situation, it can be hard to see the worthiness of preservation for a video game. Especially one so horrible, that the creators buried hundreds of copies in the California desert. But given the time period, the money used to buy that game would've been a lot for parents to afford; you'd be murdered if you threw it away. Besides, due to the games rarity in 34 years, you could sell it for over $100,000.

• It's 2016. As you scavenge around in your late grandfather's attic, you discover a rusty bayonet. It doesn't look like it's worth a lot, but it has to be really old. What would you do?

I'll leave this one up to interpretation. It's really your own choice when deciding to preserve or get rid of your own history, but who am I to make that choice for you?

Luckily, people are starting to catch on to the preservation ideology. CBS and the NFL sell copies of Super Bowls II-XLIX on DVD/Blu Ray (50 later this year), Doctor Who is now preserved on the Internet, and copies of E.T are even in the Smithsonian Institute. Ironically, social media like Facebook and Twitter are some of the best preservers of history of all time; the Internet is forever, after all. As more and more institutes begin to transfer hundreds of ancient manuscripts to PDF files, it's important to continue preaching this idea of preserving our past. If what's seen is to be believed, then it is the most important part of any history class. The next time you meet a Presidential candidate or see something once in a lifetime, take a few pictures. That's something the whole world can enjoy in the future.

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep