Deidre Simmons places the archives within the historical context of the Company, England, and Canada, as well as British and Canadian archival traditions. Keepers of the Record is abundantly illustrated with archival photographs that evoke the texture and slightly musty smell of soft leather and crisp vellum and the ghostly presence of the people who created the pristine script, writing by candlelight in unheated (or overheated, depending on the season) dwellings in the wilderness of Hudson Bay or in the centre of London.