diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
index 77f53ef..42678ce 100644
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -20,6 +20,6 @@
 * Simple command-line interface for persistent archive manager
 
 
-### 0.1.3 - 2020-09-21
+### 0.1.3 - 2020-10-05
 
 * Add archive manager that maintains descriptors in a relational database (\#8)
diff --git a/histore/archive/manager/base.py b/histore/archive/manager/base.py
index e7b9b87..7247e97 100644
--- a/histore/archive/manager/base.py
+++ b/histore/archive/manager/base.py
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ def create(
         primary_key: Optional[Union[List[str], str]] = None,
         encoder: Optional[str] = None, decoder: Optional[str] = None
     ) -> ArchiveDescriptor:
-        """Create a new archive object.
+        """Create a new archive object. Raises a ValueError if an archive with
+        the given name exists.
 
         Parameters
         ----------
@@ -72,6 +73,10 @@ def create(
         Returns
         -------
         histore.archive.manager.descriptor.ArchiveDescriptor
+
+        Raises
+        ------
+        ValueError
         """
         raise NotImplementedError()
 
diff --git a/histore/archive/manager/db/base.py b/histore/archive/manager/db/base.py
index 885ab31..c393687 100644
--- a/histore/archive/manager/db/base.py
+++ b/histore/archive/manager/db/base.py
@@ -63,9 +63,9 @@ def __init__(
         if create:
             # Create a fresh database instance.
             db.init()
-            # Delete the base directory if it exists.
+            # Clear all files in the base directory if it exists.
             if os.path.isdir(self.basedir):
-                shutil.rmtree(self.basedir)
+                util.cleardir(self.basedir)
         # Create the base directory (if it does not exist).
         util.createdir(basedir)
 
diff --git a/histore/archive/manager/db/model.py b/histore/archive/manager/db/model.py
index 8870348..ea297e8 100644
--- a/histore/archive/manager/db/model.py
+++ b/histore/archive/manager/db/model.py
@@ -23,9 +23,7 @@
 
 
 class Archive(Base):
-    """A workflow group associates a set of users with a workflow template. It
-    allows to define a group-specific set of parameters for the template.
-    """
+    """ORM for maintaining archive descriptors in a relational database."""
     # -- Schema ---------------------------------------------------------------
     __tablename__ = 'archive'
 
diff --git a/histore/archive/manager/descriptor.py b/histore/archive/manager/descriptor.py
index 7ca3794..ddf39fe 100644
--- a/histore/archive/manager/descriptor.py
+++ b/histore/archive/manager/descriptor.py
@@ -9,8 +9,6 @@
 by an archive manager.
 """
 
-from __future__ import annotations
-
 import jsonschema
 
 from datetime import datetime
@@ -71,7 +69,7 @@ def create(
         description: Optional[str] = None,
         primary_key: Optional[Union[List[str], str]] = None,
         encoder: Optional[str] = None, decoder: Optional[str] = None
-    ) -> ArchiveDescriptor:
+    ):
         """Create a new archive descriptor object.
 
         Parameters
diff --git a/histore/archive/manager/fs.py b/histore/archive/manager/fs.py
index 5dfc461..13490b0 100644
--- a/histore/archive/manager/fs.py
+++ b/histore/archive/manager/fs.py
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ def __init__(
         self.basedir = basedir
         # Initialize path to file that maintains archive descriptors.
         if create:
-            # Delete the base directory if it exists.
+            # Clear all files in the base directory if it exists.
             if os.path.isdir(self.basedir):
-                shutil.rmtree(self.basedir)
+                util.cleardir(self.basedir)
         util.createdir(self.basedir)
         # Initialize the internal cache of archive descriptors
         self.descriptorfile = os.path.join(basedir, 'archives.json')
diff --git a/histore/archive/snapshot.py b/histore/archive/snapshot.py
index c4b7d72..424fc20 100644
--- a/histore/archive/snapshot.py
+++ b/histore/archive/snapshot.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 
 """Classes to maintain information about dataset snapshots in an archive."""
 
-from __future__ import annotations
 from datetime import datetime
 from typing import List, Optional
 
@@ -124,7 +123,7 @@ def __len__(self):
     def append(
         self, version: int, valid_time: Optional[datetime] = None,
         description: Optional[str] = None
-    ) -> SnapshotListing:
+    ):
         """Add a new version to the given listing. This will return a modified
         version listing with the new snapshot as the last element.
 
diff --git a/histore/util.py b/histore/util.py
index 357830f..2b11b04 100644
--- a/histore/util.py
+++ b/histore/util.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 import errno
 import gzip
 import os
+import shutil
 import uuid
 
 
@@ -103,6 +104,22 @@ def import_obj(import_path):
 
 # -- I/O ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+def cleardir(directory):
+    """Remove all files in the given directory.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    directory: string
+        Path to directory that is being created.
+    """
+    for filename in os.listdir(directory):
+        file = os.path.join(directory, filename)
+        if os.path.isfile(file) or os.path.islink(file):
+            os.unlink(file)
+        elif os.path.isdir(file):
+            shutil.rmtree(file)
+
+
 def createdir(directory, abs=False):
     """Safely create the given directory path if it does not exist.
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 796b719..6208db6 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-future
 pandas>=1.0.0
 jsonschema>=3.2.0
 python-dateutil
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d6555f8..04fb857 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 
 
 install_requires = [
-    'future',
     'pandas>=1.0.0',
     'jsonschema>=3.2.0',
     'python-dateutil',