The talk explores the symbiotic and gendered development of the professions of history writing and archive building in twentieth century Beirut. It recounts the development of the city’s historiographic ecosystem, tracing how men and women moved through the physical space of the archive and the metaphorical space of historiography. In doing so, it begins to chart a history of historiography that goes beyond the study of historians and their oeuvre, encompassing sites such as homes, archivists’ desks and higher education curricula.