ABSTRACT In 2014, as part of their centenary celebrations, the Australian Red Cross initiated a project in which it transferred archives to various national, state and territory institutions across Australia including the University of Melbourne Archives and the State Library of New South Wales. The transfer of this voluminous (but not complete) collection built on earlier transfers of archives to the State Library of South Australia and the Australian War Memorial. This paper charts the origins of the plan to donate the records to public repositories. It interrogates the societal provenance of those collections, recognising that the pluralising of records is an historical process, in which the agency of archivists, historians and administrators must be understood. An investigation of Red Cross records in Australia exposes that process in its contingency, inertia and, ultimately, enthusiasm. The paper also reveals the challenges faced by voluntary organisations in preserving their records, and how historians and archivists both can benefit from assisting such organisations. Finally, this paper argues that the ‘Gift to the Nation’ project, with its national and international significance, reflects a shift in our understanding of the First World War to a transnational paradigm that recognises the important role of voluntary organisations.

中文翻译：

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历史活动家和献给国家的礼物项目：保存澳大利亚红十字会的记录

摘要 2014 年，作为百年庆典的一部分，澳大利亚红十字会启动了一个项目，将档案转移到澳大利亚的各个国家、州和地区机构，包括墨尔本大学档案馆和新南威尔士州图书馆。这一庞大（但不完整）收藏的转移建立在早期将档案转移到南澳大利亚州立图书馆和澳大利亚战争纪念馆的基础上。本文描绘了将记录捐赠给公共存储库的计划的起源。它询问这些藏品的社会来源，认识到记录的多元化是一个历史过程，必须了解档案工作者、历史学家和管理人员的机构。对澳大利亚红十字会记录的调查揭示了该过程的偶然性、惰性以及最终的热情。该论文还揭示了志愿组织在保存记录方面面临的挑战，以及历史学家和档案工作者如何从协助这些组织中受益。最后，本文认为“献给国家的礼物”项目具有国家和国际意义，反映了我们对第一次世界大战的理解向承认志愿组织重要作用的跨国范式的转变。