In this article, I reflect on my experience managing the development of online archives to argue that the subjectivities of the archives and the sources within them need to be at the forefront of how educators and researchers use archived primary sources. I direct my argument toward a critique of historical thinking approach to using primary sources in the study of the past, and instead emphasize the deconstructive possibilities of creating archives, creating metadata, resisting metadata, and being open to artistic interpretations of sources.