Features

Chronological list

2024

2023

  • Perseverance and Progress: The Women’s Aid Federation of England Archive: The Women’s Aid Federation of England Archive is housed in the University of Leeds Special Collections. This incredibly significant collection documents the charity’s approaches to tackling domestic abuse from its radical beginnings in the 1970s right through to modern day.
  • Come Fly With Me: The Archives of Sir Freddie Laker: Sir Freddie Laker recognised the inaccessibility of air travel for the general public and identified a gap in the market dominated by British Airways and Pan Am. He subsequently founded Laker Airways and its multiple subsidiaries, which allowed tens of thousands of people to fly transatlantic for the very first time.
  • Vergangenheitsbewältigung and the case of Emmrich Menzer: The Senior Archivist at The Wiener Holocaust Library, writes about how the very recent discovery of a letter, via a description on Archives Hub, has immersed the family of the author in an intense period of soul-searching.
  • Healthy Minds and Active Bodies: cataloguing the YMCA and YHA Archives: In 2020 the Cadbury Research Library was successful in their application for funding from the Wellcome Trust to catalogue the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and Youth Hostel Association (YHA) archive collections. After two years they are delighted to announce the completion of the project and the launch of the collections' online catalogues during June.
  • Seven years of achievement from Archives of IT: Archives of IT (AIT) began when entrepreneur Roger Graham saw the need to interview the founding generation of the IT Industry and save their stories for the future. Up to this point, heritage work was happening to save the history of computers, hardware and games but little was being done to preserve the social and oral history of the people behind the technology.
  • The Christian Brethren Archive: The Christian Brethren Archive (CBA) at The University of Manchester spans over 250 years. The CBA is a world-class collection relating to the Brethren Movement and to congregations which have their roots in the Brethren tradition.
  • The Wellington Archive: forty years on: In 1983 the government allocated the papers of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, the long serving politician and the premier soldier of his generation, to the University of Southampton under national heritage legislation. This brought to Southampton the University’s first major manuscript collection, leading to the creation of an Archives Department.
  • Stand and Stare: The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail Archive at the University of Gloucestershire: University of Gloucestershire’s Special Collections and Archives has an emphasis on local connections, with holdings on Gloucestershire poets, writers and artists. One such example is the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail Archive.
  • Surveyors through the ages: a glimpse into the Lloyds Register archive: An inventory of the Lloyds Register archive holdings has highlighted the individual experiences of some of the surveyors working for LR over a period of nearly 200 years in the form of surveyor letter books, notebooks, and journals.

2022

2021

2020

2019

  • The Dorset House Archive: Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy, the first School of Occupational Therapy in the UK, opened on New Year’s Day 1930, but the inspiration for the School can be traced back to a festive morning in a hospital ward.
  • The Archive of Paul Oppé: A Pioneer in the Field of Art History: The Paul Oppé Archive is the most significant acquisition in the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art’s history andhas been identified as having both national importance and pre-eminence in its field.
  • Pioneering women’s education at Bedford College: 170 years ago Bedford College was opened in central London, becoming the first higher education college for women of its kind in the country. It was the brainchild of Elizabeth Jesser Reid, who said it had been her dream since childhood to found a college for women.
  • 100 years at Highfield: stories from Southampton’s University Archives and Special Collections: The first developments at University College, Southampton's Highfield Campus were completed in 1914. When the College moved to Highfield in 1919, many of the buildings retained traces of their service as a War Hospital, such as the inscription ‘dysentery’ on the door of the staff refectory.
  • Unlocking the Asylum: Cataloguing the North Wales Hospital Archive: The North Wales Hospital was originally known as the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, it opened in October 1848 in response to the growing concern of the treatment of the mentally ill in North Wales.
  • Pilgrimage and Patronage: The Medieval Collections of Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library: During July Canterbury hosts the annual Medieval Pageant and Family Trail, commemorating the pilgrimage of King Henry II (r. 1154–1189) to the city in 1174. To mark the occasion, Canterbury Cathedral Archives highlight the medieval records relating to the Canterbury Cathedral Priory and the city held in their collections today.
  • The Archives of the Trevelyans of Wallington: Newcastle University Special Collections hold the archive of Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan. A socialist MP, anti-war campaigner and member of the first two Labour cabinets, he donated the family estate of Wallington to the National Trust. A new digital catalogue also sheds light on his wife, Mary Katharine Trevelyan, their children, staff and extended families.
  • Carter Vincent archives and the Kneeshaw family papers: The Carter Vincent Archives held at Bangor University Archives and Special Collections span over 350 years. Archivist Lynette Hunter highlights a recent discovery: a letter and patent specification in a bundle of papers relating to the Kneeshaws, a prominent family in North Wales and a significant client of Carter Vincent.
  • Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Archives: celebrating 75 years of female members: In the 19th century, there was huge prejudice against women as doctors and many were unable to study medicine in the UK. World War I gave women the opportunity to progress in medicine but after the end of the war, they were banned from studying medicine again until the 1930s.
  • The Devonshire Family Collections at Chatsworth: The Devonshire Collection Archives held at Chatsworth span over 450 years. They document the lives, careers and estate management of the Cavendish family – one of the most important aristocratic families in English history - including the papers of Bess of Hardwick, the 8th Duke/Marquess of Hartington and Duchess Georgiana.
  • “Gather them in” – the musical treasures of W.T. Freemantle: A new exhibition at the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery at the University of Leeds explores the story of a forgotten Yorkshireman, the Sheffield-based organist, antiquarian and collector William Thomas Freemantle (1849-1931). Investigations have revealed a tenacious collector who would “endure martyrdom in Siberia” to acquire unique treasures for his library.
  • For those in peril on the sea – Seamen’s Missions archives at Hull History Centre: Over the past year, staff and volunteers at Hull University Archives have been working on the collections of two maritime charitable organisations: The Anglican-run Missions to Seamen; and the Catholic-run Apostleship of the Sea.

2018

  • The Frederick Lanchester archive at Coventry University: The work of car manufacturer, engineer, scientist and inventor Frederick Lanchester (1868-1946) is being celebrated by the Lanchester Interactive Archive project at Coventry University. He was one of the UK’s leading automobile engineers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and creator in 1895 of the first all-British four-wheel petrol driven motor car.
  • The Imogen Holst archive: papers of a passionate and open-minded woman musician: Imogen Holst (1907-1984) was the daughter of composer Gustav Holst, best-known for The Planets. Holst, herself a composer, is perhaps best-known today as Benjamin Britten’s musical assistant, but she also had an exceptional, wide-ranging but lesser known career as, amongst other things, educator, conductor and music traveller.
  • The Calvin Wells Palaeopathology Archive: Calvin Wells (1908-1978) was a pioneer in the study of disease in archaeological skeletal remains, otherwise known as palaeopathology. A qualified medical doctor who spoke several languages Wells’ publications continue to be cited by researchers and academics working across a range of disciplines, including bioarchaeology, anthropology and the history of medicine.
  • Uncovering censorship in the V and A Theatre and Performance Archives: The V&A Theatre and Performance Department display titled 'Censored! Stage, Screen, Society at 50' commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Theatres Act, which abolished state censorship of the British stage. As well as tracing the broader 300-year history of stage censorship, the display also looks at the censorship of music, film and print in the UK.
  • Quaker Bankers and their Archives at Barclays Group: Barclays Group Archives has just posted a collection-level description for the records of Jonathan Backhouse & Co. of Darlington, one of the three principal partnerships that combined in 1896 to form the modern Barclays, which by the mid-20th century became the largest domestic clearing bank in Britain.
  • Silt, sluices and smelt fishing – The Eau Brink Cut and the Bedford Level Corporation Archive: Cambridgeshire Archives is privileged to hold the records of the Bedford Level Corporation. This significant archive, which includes records of Commissions of Sewers dating as far back as 1362, documents, arguably, the greatest land reclamation seen in the country’s history; the drainage of the Fens. 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the commencement of work on one of the more controversial and problematic drainage projects undertaken; the Eau Brink Cut.
  • The Wallace Collection Archives: material on our founder Sir Richard Wallace: The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays works of art and arms and armour collected by the first four marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the presumed son of the 4th Marquess. 2018 is a special year for the museum as it marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wallace.
  • Cathlin du Sautoy and Hermione Blackwood: personal papers at the Royal College of Nursing Archives: Cathlin du Sautoy was deeply involved with nursing during and after the First World War, organising Red Cross units in the UK and in France. In France she met Lady Hermione Blackwood. They would become lifelong companions, settling in Hampstead with their two adopted French children after the war.
  • Personal diaries in the archive of The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre: Lieutenant Richard Greville Thonger was one of the first group of Salvationists to arrive in Switzerland in 1882 and his diary records the opposition faced by The Salvation Army, including his own imprisonment.
  • The Legacy of Ahmed Archive and the Courage and Inspiration of his Mother: In 1986 Ahmed Iqbal Ullah was murdered by a fellow pupil in the grounds of his high school in Manchester. Very quickly, Ahmed the boy disappeared behind the story of his tragic death. The story of his family and of his mother’s bravery and fortitude similarly became obscured.
  • Heavenly Harmony: Music in the Collections of Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library: To mark the commencement of the Organ Project, funded through the Canterbury Cathedral Trust, here is an enticing overture of musical collections held by Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library.
  • The 50th anniversary of the publication of A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines: The novel A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes) by Barry Hines, Yorkshire-born author and screenwriter, was first published in 1968. Sheffield University Library hold the Hines papers.

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

  • Viceroys & Chief Secretaries - the Bodleian Library highlights a group of collections relating to the British government of Ireland
  • Questionnaire - we invited visitors to complete our prize draw questionnaire.
  • The Big Draw - highlighting descriptions with artistic content, as part of "The Big Draw", October 16th - 23rd, 2002.
  • Dirty Linen - domestic science and women's education; the exhibition at the Women's Library ran from 26th September to the 21st December 2002.
  • A Cabinet of Curiosities - some of our more curious collections
  • Collections relating to Sport; the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony was July 25th 2002
  • Science Year; Science Year ran from September 2001 to August 2002
  • Museums and Galleries Month
  • Scottish Brewing Archive, celebrating its 20th anniversary
  • World Book Day; Unesco's World Book Day is on March 14th
  • Collections relating to the scientist Solly Zuckerman (1904-1993)
  • Collections relating to Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796); Burn's Night is January 25th

2001

  • Christmas selection
  • Collections relating to novelist and poet D H Lawrence (1885-1930); exhibition at the University of Nottingham's new D H Lawrence Pavilion
  • Black History Month
  • Papers of Manchester-born, Oscar-winning actor Robert Donat (1905-1958); exhibition at the John Rylands University Library of Manchester
image of penguinEmperor penguin with the steam yacht Discovery. British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904.
Image copyright Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge