A Whiff of History

     Every time I get a whiff of cigarette smoke, I think of my grandparents and florida. Whenever I smell baby powder, I remember falling asleep in my mum's bed and the smell of her navy blue starred pajamas. Whenever I smell oranges, I think of how my brother and I had stuck our straws into oranges calling it orange juice. I smell certain scents, and instantly a vivid memory comes to me. Undeniably, there is a link between smell and memory. At least once in everyone's life, they smell a certain scent and almost instantaneously are reminded of an old memory. Smell can remind of places, people, even feelings, but from a historical perspective, is one sense that is seldom used to study the past. Smell is a part of our daily life. That is why it is important to use smell when studying history so that we may have a better grasp on the way that scents influenced and were a part of regular life in that time period. "But despite its primacy in our lives, our sense of smell is often overlooked when we record our history...our knowledge of the past is almost completely deodorized." It's ignorant to ignore the part smell has played in the lives of others in the past. Although smell helps us to understand the smells and experiences of the past, the smell will mean something different to us today than it did to the time period it originated from. "Smell means something far different to us than it did to the people at the time, yet we still recognize its value." Smell is an important sense that enriches our experience of the past. We study and preserve documents and artifacts, why not smells? "What we smell in our cities, homes, and natural spaces is just as much a part of our lives as what we see, hear, and touch."
     I chose Courtney Humphrie's article "A whiff of history" because she recognizes the important links between smell, memory, and the past. Humphrie relies heavily on logos. It;s not a personal article, it's very straightforward, but does provoke some thought on what smells in YOUR life can be traced back to certain memories and feelings.

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