The establishment of the University College of the West Indies, the introduction of a course in West Indian history, and the First Caribbean Archives Conference, which Jamaica hosted in 1965, generated closer attention to archival development in the region. This dissertation examines the events that encouraged the professionalizing of archival practice in the region and explores how these groundbreaking events promoted continued development of participants' archival institutions. This dissertation argues that while officials in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago worked to develop their own archival institutions and to strengthen activities in the field, they were instrumental to the development of archival practice among other English-speaking nations. Although, Guyana was a participant in and beneficiary of these early attempts at archival development in the English-speaking Caribbean, a lack of resources now precludes the National Archives of Guyana (NAG) from influencing state institutions in the conduct of their official recordkeeping and preservation responsibilities. Close investigation has determined that inadequacies in recordkeeping, preservation, and storage of records in public institutions in Guyana and the failure to locate important institutional documents imperil the upholding of acceptable standards of accountability. Hence, the benefits of archival development are no longer evident in the condition of Guyana's archival and recordkeeping practices.