This article focuses on an auto‑ethnographic reflection of a particular archival collection held by the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, titled Records of Kevin Devlin and the Communist Area Analysis Department on Non‑Ruling Communist Parties. This collection was produced during the Cold War by the Radio Free Europe Research Unit. While the vast collection of RFE Research Units focuses on the countries from the socialist bloc, this collection mapped thoroughly from 1960 until 1990 the various Communist Parties from all over the globe. At the same time, the producer, Kevin Devlin is a mysterious author with limited information about his person. By using the concept of trace and archival authorship, my study aims to understand the context of the collection’s creation by focusing on the role of the archivist and the complexity of the archival workflow. This study belongs to a larger project in which I aim to
understand the notion of archival authorship by using the case study of the Kevin Devlin collection.