Archives Hub feature for December 2024

This year marks 180 years since the founding of Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society – recognised as the first successful consumer retail co-operative. Toad Lane in Rochdale (now a museum) opened for business on the evening of 21^st December, 1844. The society’s founding principles became the blueprint for the values and principles that define how the modern co-operative movement operate around the world today.

The Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society

The 1840s were difficult times for working people: unemployment, short-term jobs and wage cuts, paired with increasing food prices led to poverty for many people. Food was often adulterated, for example, chalk was used to dilute flour, and tea was either re-used or contained other leaves.

In August of 1844, a group of 28 Rochdale workers met to form a co-operative society. Several of the Pioneers including Miles and Samuel Ashworth and William Cooper were flannel weavers and the majority came from Chartist or socialist backgrounds. They saw co-operation as the best way forward to give ordinary people control of their own organisation with all members having an equal share in the decision making and receiving a fair share of the profits. They named their co-operative ‘The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers’ (REPS).

Theirs was not the first co-operative but they were the first to come up with a set of principles, to run one successfully for the benefit of the members and to establish a ‘co-op law’ to create solidarity in the movement. The ‘Rochdale Model’ became the foundation for other co-ops and through various mergers they became the Co-op Group, the biggest retail co-op in the UK.

Most people think a co-op is a grocery store, but there are many different types of co-ops working in every sector of the economy as well as providing grassroots solutions in communities. All co-ops are independent although are encouraged to work together as part of the wider movement.

Libraries and education

Education for members was at the heart of the co-operative movement. One of the original principles developed by REPS which remains with us today is that it offers education and training to everyone involved, so they can develop the co-op and promote the benefits of co-operation.

The Pioneers allocated a percentage of the profits towards education and took over the top floor of Toad Lane as a reading room and lecture hall. Most other co-ops had a room or a hall for learning and enjoyment. In 1867 REPS expanded to a Central Premises with dedicated library reading room and lecture theatre for 1500 members; it was just up the road from their first shop at Toad Lane.  

The collections that we have at the Co-operative Heritage Trust cover the enormous history of the co-operative movement and include society business records, correspondence of Robert Owen and George Jacob Holyoake, photographs, advertising and education records, Women’s Guild collections and a large number of periodicals.

Some Examples from The Periodical Collection

The Periodical Collection spans from the early 1800s and continues to be added to today. There are periodicals from various societies, such as ‘The Herald’ from the Manchester and Salford Equitable Society, cultural magazines such as ‘Millgate Monthly’, periodicals for all co-op members, written for shop managers, college students and women’s guilds and we also hold all copies of the Co-op News first printed in 1871. The publications highlight issues and debates that were of import at the time of publication and aid the researcher to see trends and social changes both nationally and internationally. They contain information on the development of co-operative ideas within the labour movement.

Early Journals

The Archive holds a number of periodicals from the early-nineteenth century which demonstrate early ideas about co-operation and social reform. These include The Brighton Co-operator, which was edited by Dr William King, an early advocate of co-operation, as well as The Crisis, which was produced by Robert Owen. The collection also holds copies of The Reasoner, in which George Jacob Holyoake was involved.

We also have copies of a short lived publication called ‘The Rachde Kronikul un Workin Mon’s Lantrun’ (The Rochdale Chronicle and Working Man’s Lantern) 1852 -1853. This was a short-lived publication from 1852-1853 produced by the Rochdale Co-operative Society and written in Rochdale dialect. This short-lived publication was produced to support independent journalism and raise the profile of co-operative and socialist content for working class communities.

It was available in the library of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society, but accessible as intended to be read aloud at a time the movement were promoting equality of education for the masses. Other examples of dialect writing, such as Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s work, can be found in copies of Wheatsheaf and the Co-op News.

CWS Annuals                                       

The CWS Annuals, published from the 1880s to 1960, gave information on the work of the Co-operative Wholesale Society and the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society. They contain trade figures and statistics as well as information on various factories and reports on the work of co-operative trade internationally. These Annuals are useful for research into trade figures, production and statistics of the CWS and SCWS and the early volumes include line drawings of the factories and other premises. They also included essays on trade and society outside the co-operative movement, by some of the foremost thinkers of the day.      

The Producer

The Producer, which ran from 1916-1966, was a magazine for employees of co-operative societies. Its focus was on co-operative trade and products, with news from co-operative societies in the UK as well as internationally. There was also news on employees as well as features on window dressing and product display. The Producer is useful for news stories of co-operative societies, including productive co-operatives, as well as the international co-operative movement, and overseas trade. It also has articles on prominent individuals within the movement.

Millgate Monthly

First published in 1905, the Millgate Monthly, sub-titled ‘A Magazine of Progress, was a cultural magazine containing articles written by co-operators on social issues, as well as articles on horticulture, short stories, poetry and reviews. It changed its name to simply The Millgate in 1928 and ceased publication in 1953.

Women’s Outlook

This is one of our most frequently requested records as it is a useful social and political history record of the modern period. It was the magazine of the Co-operative Women’s Guild and ran from 1919-1967. It focused on issues that were relevant to women such as gaining the vote, employment and maternity, highlighted the lives of women involved in political struggle alongside knitting patterns, short stories, household hints and recipes. Its editors included Mary Stott in the 1930s ‘40s and ‘50s, who went on to edit the women’s pages in the Guardian. It was international in its perspective and there were regular features on women and events across the globe.

Wheatsheaf

Published between 1896 and 1964, The Wheatsheaf was a monthly publication for members of co-operative societies and given away in stores. It was published by the Co-operative Wholesale Society and had a central section that was national, while the outside pages were published for individual consumer co-operatives and contained local news.

It contained short stories, household hints and reports of events within the co-operative movement. There were also pages specifically aimed at women and children. As mentioned previously, Ethel (Carnie) Holdsworth, a working class writer who had much of her work published in the journal.

In 1946, it was relaunched as The Co-operative Home Magazine, becoming just Home Magazine in January 1959. This was a monthly publication for members of co-operative societies. 

Ourselves

This was a journal for CWS employees featuring staff news various sport and social groups for staff and updates on stores developments. Staff wellbeing and sense of community can be seen in the pages of this periodical and is a great recorder of the culture of workers at the time.

Co-op News

The Co-op News is now a monthly print and online news magazine and website about co-operatives around the world. First published in 1871 as The Co-operative News, it is the world’s oldest co-operative newspaper. It was published weekly when it began and was a means for co-operators to promote to the world their new ideas of cooperation.

The Co-operative Newspaper Society (later Co-operative Press) was formed in 1870 and registered as a co- operative, and the first national newspaper of the co-operative movement, called the Co-operative News and published weekly from September 1871 as “A Record of Industrial, Political, Humanitarian, and Educational Progress”.

The paper differed from other papers in that there were no adverts on the front page, a sign of a more radical publication. The earliest papers covered local news from societies, national news, international news and campaigns and propaganda, later having a Women’s Corner, a men’s corner, poetry and stories and letters to the editor. It later became more political with the formation of the Co-op Party and the allegiance to the Labour Party. 

The newspaper was available in stores, by subscriptions and in many of the libraries that the societies had for the education of their members. The newspaper is still published monthly as an online and print paper today and is one of our most used resources in the reading room.

Details of all our periodicals can be found on Archives Hub.

Jane Donaldson, Archivist
The National Co-operative Archive, Manchester
Co-operative Heritage Trust

Related

Descriptions of other collections held by National Co-operative Archive can be found on Archives Hub here: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/locations/c0e3eaca-cba5-3c18-8d3d-3fde15994bf8

All images copyright Co-operative Heritage Trust. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

Archives Hub feature for November 2024

Visitors to University of Surrey Archives and Special Collections are sometimes surprised to discover that we hold much by the way of a historic institutional archive: surely as one of the new universities of the post-war era, built on a greenfield site in the Surrey Hills, our records can only go back so far? Yet although the University was established in 1966, its history dates back over half a century earlier, when it existed as the Battersea Polytechnic – and we are immensely fortunate to hold a rich and varied archive collection from this predecessor era.

The history of the Polytechnic dates to the late-nineteenth century. Founded in 1891 as the Battersea Polytechnic Institute, it was originally a very different sort of institution from a modern university. Trades-focused evening classes predominated the teaching offering, with few students studying for degree-level qualifications. There were even secondary schools run out of the Polytechnic during the daytime!

Over the course of the early twentieth century however, the proportion of students undertaking advanced study for University of London degrees steadily grew, and the Polytechnic gained a reputation for expertise on scientific and technical subjects. In 1956, the Polytechnic was recognised as a College of Advanced Technology, and it was renamed Battersea College of Technology the following year. The College continued to go from strength to strength, and following the 1963 Robbins Report – which called for the expansion of higher education in the United Kingdom – it was recommended that Battersea should become a new University in its own right.

Our Battersea Collections

The Battersea Polytechnic Archive comprises original records and papers spanning the entire length of the institutions’ history. Key series within the archive include: formal records of the governing body; regular publications such as the Calendars (Prospectuses) and the Annual Reports of the Principal; records of Battersea Students’ Union, which offer a fantastic insight into student life at the Polytechnic; records relating to the foundation of the University of Surrey and the move to Guildford; and an extensive collection of photographs showcasing the history of the Polytechnic, its staff and students.

In addition to the institutional archive, we also hold the Remembering Battersea Oral History Collection. This fantastic resource arose out of a project run by the University of Surrey between 2014 and 2016 with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with the aim of recording and preserving the experiences of the last generations of Battersea students and staff from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Comprising over 70 interviews, the collection provides wonderful insights into life at Battersea: from experiences of living in student digs to recollections of anarchic RAG Week activities, including the infamous Head of the Lake contest on Battersea Park Boating Lake.

Exploring the Polytechnic Archive

Our collections on Battersea Polytechnic are a great resource for studying the University’s past – but they also have a far greater research potential. The archive can be used for studying the history of education: for instance, publication series such as the Calendars provide a detailed overview of how academic disciplines and methods of study evolved over the early twentieth century.

Likewise, the Polytechnic’s records have much to offer for researchers looking at histories of youth and student culture: the meeting minutes and publications of the Students’ Union provide a fascinating insight into student perspectives and attitudes from different eras. Our oral history interviews also offer first-hand accounts of students’ experiences during the rapid social change of the post-war era: the recordings provide detailed accounts of students’ working and social lives, and how their experiences were shaped by attitudes towards gender and class.

The Battersea Polytechnic Archive is also surprisingly international in character: the sets of student registration cards from the middle of the century reveal a student population drawn from around the world. Reports of international events in the student magazines Polygon and Bat-Chat likewise suggest a student body proud of its international ties.

Of particular note are the records of the Polish University College. Established in the 1940s by the Polish Government in Exile, the Polish University College was an important base for many Polish academics and scientists opposed to the Soviet-backed post-war Polish government. The College was absorbed into Battersea Polytechnic in the early 1950s, and some of the records of this unique institution survive within the archive.  

Discovering Battersea Stories

Working on the Polytechnic Archive, one is always struck by an awareness of all the individual stories of past students and staff contained within. We’ve worked with the University’s alumni team to support outreach events for Battersea graduates and their families, using our collections to help people reconnect with their memories of their student days. The archive is also a great resource for family history research, and we’re always happy to assist with genealogical enquiries.

Perhaps nowhere is this sense of an archive of individual stories more striking than in the Polytechnic’s records from the First World War. Large numbers of Battersea students served in the conflict, and the pages of Battersea Polytechnic Magazine are filled with glimpses into their experiences: reports of action and bravery; letters sent back from those on the front (stripped of any information that might inadvertently help the enemy); and, sadly, lists of those who died in the fighting. These accounts provide a solemn but important record of the sacrifices made by the students of the Polytechnic, and we have used these stories from the archive to support the University’s Remembrance activities.

The University of Surrey is proud of its roots in Battersea, and in the Archives & Special Collections team we’re always on the look-out for ways to make our Battersea collections more accessible. Work is currently underway to improve access to the Battersea Polytechnic Archive, including making previously uncatalogued items available to the public for the first time. We also regularly take in donations of keepsakes and memorabilia from former students and their families, so that these incredibly important personal stories of Battersea are preserved for future generations.

Simon Mackley
Archivist
University of Surrey Archives & Special Collections

Related

Descriptions of other archives held by University of Surrey Archives and Special Collections can be found on Archives Hub here: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/locations/5c9a11a1-d2e4-33c6-9161-1238e0ee2635

All images copyright University of Surrey. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

Archives Hub feature for October 2024

The Society of Antiquaries of London was founded in 1707 and received its Royal charter in 1751. It is a Learned Society, with the stated aim of “the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of antiquities and history in this and other countries”.

Originally a peripatetic organisation (which is just a fancy way of saying we held show-and-tell sessions in various taverns around central London), it moved into Somerset House in 1780. The advantage of fixed premises was the ability to begin collecting a large range of printed books and historical objects as well as manuscripts, thus forming the beginning of the Society’s collections.

150 years ago, in 1874, the Society moved to its current premises in Burlington House on Piccadilly, where we are yet again running out of shelf space as the archive and manuscripts collections have steadily grown. They comprise the organisational records of the Society, medieval manuscripts (including beautiful Books of Hours and not one but three copies of Magna Carta) and personal, usually academic research, collections of Fellows and associated historians. In addition the Archivist is responsible for the collections of photographs, early 20^th-century glass slides and two of the largest collections in the country of heraldic bookplates and brass rubbings.

‘Miscellaneous’ is a word that archivists really don’t like to use, but this collection does feature a large number of small fonds which have a specific focus on a person or a niche interest.

A prime example of the latter is the collection of Norman Ticehurst (1873-1969) on swan marks – specific shapes incised into the beaks of mute swans to identify by whom they were owned. This was practiced from the 15th to the 19th century, accompanied by the creation of official rolls that documented the marks and their legal ownership.

Ticehurst meticulously catalogued over 60 of these rolls in collections around the country, with beautifully drawn sketches of the swans’ beaks. In addition to his notes and catalogues he also donated three original swan rolls to the Society, thus suddenly making us the custodians of a subject we knew very little about! We were very lucky to have the expertise and generosity of a current Fellow of the Society who helped us to catalogue the collection in detail, bringing acquisition and research of archival material almost to a full circle.

Ticehurst was a surgeon in his day job and spent his spare time on his interests in ornithology and history. In contrast, Octavius Morgan (1803-1888), four times Vice-President of the Society, came from a privileged family and inherited a small fortune, allowing him to pursue his antiquarian studies alongside being a Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire.

As well as specific notebook on his interests in local studies such as monuments in Abergavenny church and multiple volumes of historical notes on Monmouthshire, the Octavius Morgan collection includes a volume describing “two tours in Great Britain made by Charles Octavius Morgan with members of his family”. We were even more excited to discover that he actually made these tours while a rather grumpy teenager – 16 and 17 respectively.

In 2022 we received funding from the University of Oxford for a recent PhD to intern with the Society and work on the Morgan travel journals. In addition to digitising and transcribing them, he created a map of the Morgan family’s routes through Northern England and North Wales, which can be accessed here. The relevant entries are transcribed at every stopping point, so you can share in his delights at the “most beautiful” road to Brecon and suffer in “a very bad inn” in Llandovery. The digital copy of the journal is available on the Society’s own catalogue.

There is not enough space to do justice to every unexpected find in the collections, but whether you’re interested in Pre-Norman crosses in Staffordshire, glass quarrel panes, megalithic monuments, medieval tiles, the history of horses, holy wells, armorial book stamps, military architecture in Malta or ancient bridges you may find that at some point a Fellow of the Society shared your passion!

Kat Petersen
Archivist
Society of Antiquaries of London

Related

Descriptions of other collections held by the Society of Antiquaries of London can be found on Archives Hub here.

Images copyright Society of Antiquaries of London. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

The English Opera Group collection forms part of the Britten Pears Arts Archive which documents the lives and work of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, as well as their wider collaborative relationships through the papers of singers, librettists, producers, designers and other creatives with whom they worked. Of all the collections in our archive perhaps this one illustrates the workings of these creative partnerships most effectively. Opera is a collaborative art form – a union of several different arts. It requires the talents and inspiration of people from music, literature, drama, painting, and stage and costume design, as well as the skills of electricians, carpenters, costume makers and administrators. The archive of the English Opera Group documents the process of creating an opera from planning to performance as well as the people involved from the Board of Directors to the singers on stage.

The English Opera Group was founded in 1947 by Britten, librettist and producer Eric Crozier, and artist and designer John Piper. These three creatives regretted that England had never had a tradition of native opera but depended instead on a repertory of foreign works. Their aim therefore was to encourage British composers to write for the operatic stage and poets and playwrights to write libretti – and so build a repertory of English opera.

They considered the best way to achieve this was to focus on the creation of chamber operas requiring small numbers of singers and players. These chamber operas would be suitable for simpler staging, for performance in either large or small theatres or halls and be easier to take on tour. They would therefore require less financial commitment and could be presented by companies who lacked the resources needed to present the large-scale grand operas of the traditional repertory.

Britten, Crozier and Piper produced their first chamber opera in 1946 – Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia written for 8 singers and an orchestra of 12. The success of this experiment encouraged them to continue their work by establishing a group of singers under their artistic direction. The new opera company was launched with the creation of Britten’s second chamber opera Albert Herring in 1947.

Despite working with the reduced forces of a chamber opera, financial assistance from the Arts Council did not cover the Group’s costs and so the English Opera Group Association was founded a year later in 1948 to provide support as well as a link between performers and audience. The Association raised funds through subscriptions, concerts and events, including Opera Balls with the attendees dressing up as operatic characters. The Association’s first president J.B. Priestley was sympathetic to the Group’s aims and methods believing that small-scale chamber operas suited the ‘British character and genius’.

The English Opera Group continued to create first productions of new chamber operas by Britten – with first performances taking place at the annual June Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts. In 1951 the Group set about its aim of encouraging further British composers and writers to write for the operatic stage with its first commission – The Sleeping Children with music by Brian Easdale and libretto by Tyrone Guthrie. Over the next 23 years the Group commissioned and produced ten further operas for chamber forces with music by British composers, including operas by Lennox Berkeley, Malcolm Williamson, William Walton and Harrison Birtwistle.

In 1964 the Group gave the first performance of Britten’s Curlew River – his first parable for church performance – a new experiment in composition and production and based on the Japanese Nō drama Sumidagawa. The Group toured widely throughout the UK and abroad, performing in the USSR in 1964, and at Expo 67 in Montreal. In 1975 the Group was expanded and reformed as the English Music Theatre Company, the change of name reflecting a broadening of repertory to include, as well as operas, operettas and musicals. The company produced its last opera and ceased to operate in 1980 due to financial difficulties.

The archive of the English Opera Group, later the English Music Theatre Company, is extensive, providing information on the operas produced and people involved throughout its history. There are papers relating to policy and planning, organisation, publicity and finances; files concerning artists and personnel, performances and tours. The creative process is recorded in production scores with rehearsal markings, technical and wardrobe files, set designs and production photographs. We have recorded oral history interviews with former members to provide further insights into the Group’s story. This collection has recently been catalogued and is now available for research.

Judith Ratcliffe
Archivist, Britten Pears Arts
The Red House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
www.brittenpearsarts.org

Related

Previous Archives Hub feature on Britten Pears Arts Archive collections

The Imogen Holst archive: papers of a passionate and open-minded woman musician

Images copyright Britten Pears Arts Archive and the Estate of J.B. Priestley. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

Archives Hub feature for August 2024

As many a TV presenter, veterinarian or teacher will tell you, working with children or animals is never without some form of event. Inspired by both the ideas of working animals and how children are influenced by literature and media, this trip into Archives Hub will focus on both!

Animals have been bred for specific jobs for hundreds of years, from Border Collie sheepdogs in rural areas to German Shepherd police dogs in cities.

Police dogs specifically have their own entry in the Hub, in the Records of the Association of Chief Police Officers: Minutes of the Police Dog Sub-Committee and Police Dogs Working Group. This file is part of a wider Police Dog Sub-Committee in the Hull University Archives, Hull History Centre: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb50-udpo/udpo/2/5/14

Sticking with more domestic animals, dogs are not the only species with jobs. Horses have had many occupations, from colliery horses, horse drawn transport and working at mills:

• The National Coal Board photographic collection contains photographic material on a variety of physical media, including prints, glass plate negatives, plastic negatives, photograph albums, lantern slides and transparencies. The material depicts collieries and other scenes, including working colliery horses, from across the south Wales coalfield: [Bath Coal Company], horse-drawn coal delivery wagon. This photographic collection is part of the National Coal Board records held at Glamorgan Archives: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb214-dncb
• The Explore York Archives hold details of tramway proposals in York and photostats of Tramway Order Acts from the late 19^th Century – all under horsepower: Horse Trams – Transport papers. These documents make up the wider Transport papers collection in the Hugh Murray archive:  http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb192-hmu

The Mills Archive contains a series of digital photographs (with higher resolution versions available on request), including those of horses working on a pump engine!: Yorkshire mills, north Wales quarries, horse mills . This folder is included in the Roy Gregory Collection: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb3132-royg

And we simply can’t ignore the presence of circus or fairground animals within the archives, with The National Fairground Archive containing descriptions of working animals in circus grounds, or featuring in their posters: NFA Poster collection.

Also, another repository features photographs of elephants being trained alongside horses for the circus in the early 20^th Century – a particular highlight!: Training by Kindness. These photographs are part of the Roslin Slide collection, held by the Edinburgh University Library Special Collections: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb237-coll-1434

When there are thoughts of circuses, there are often thoughts of children in the audience. And it is media influences on children documented in the archives that we shall move onto next. There are two specific areas Archives Hub covers particularly well: television broadcasting and literature.

The BBC Written Archives Centre has a great selection of papers relating to different children’s programming spanning decades, with it being clear where there are often animals, there will be some form of them featuring in a broadcast for children. As will be of no surprise, there are a great number of files surrounding Blue Peter!

• Children’s Programmes  – These papers relate to the creation, production and broadcast of children’s television programmes of various types and genres, including talks programmes, documentaries, outside broadcasts, series and serials, puppet shows, stories, plays, cartoons, child participation and magazine programmes. This makes up the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) collection of the BBC Written Archives Centre: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb898-bbc

Likewise, two of our Hub contributors include dedicated children’s literary archives. The first of these is the aptly named Children’s Literature Collection, held by the University of Roehampton Archives and Special Collections. This collection comprises of published books and resources relating to children’s literature. Including 40 children’s literature journals, reference works such as “Children’s Literature Review”, biography and autobiography of children’s authors and illustrators. Also, children’s books of historical interest and significance, mainly from the 19th and early-20th Centuries are present alongside adaptations of children’s books into film, TV and audio: Children’s Literature Collection.

The second is the Seven Stories Archive, containing works from over 250 authors and illustrators, with over 36,000 texts present: Seven Stories Archive.

• Some highlights include the Phillip Pullman collection and the Judith Kerr collection – so you can simultaneously research the magical Oxford of His Dark Materials and the misadventures of Mog the Forgetful Cat!

Results relating to children’s media is not limited to specialised archives, with much available to those looking at one specific work – for example The Wind in the Willows, which has been adapted to multiple genres and is found in the following very different archives:

•  The V&A Theatre and Performance Collections contains the following script for the adaptation to stage by Alan Bennet from the early 1990s: Script for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. This script is part of the larger The Derek Smee Collection: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb71-thm/451
• The University of Salford Archives & Special Collections contains the Roy Newsome Brass Band Archive, with a 1985 score for a suite by Mervyn Burtch:  Wind in the Willows – Modern Repertoire Scores. This score is one of many papers that make up the Roy Newsome Brass Band Archive: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb427-rna

Needless to say, working with children or animals is well documented in the archives – though they may not offer much advice on avoiding mishaps!

Previous features on similar topics

• Fish are jumpin’ in the Archives
• William Speirs Bruce Archive in the National Museums Scotland Library
• Comic strips and seaside holidays: unexpected stories from the Save the Children Archive
• The Basque child refugee archive
• Papers of the Association of Chief Police Officers – the National Reporting Centre
• Birth of a Broadcasting Institution: British Broadcasting Company Papers and Reith Diaries at the BBC Written Archives Centre

Archives Hub feature for February 2024

About Us

Established on the official granting of a Royal Charter in 1969, The Open University turns 55 this year and remains a world leader in distance learning – it is the largest university in the UK by student number. The Open University Archive is housed within the Betty Boothroyd Library on the main university campus at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, and operates to serve staff, students and external researchers alike.

The collections of The Open University Archive largely delineate into three categories:

• Teaching Materials. Due to its distance learning remit, unlike many other academic institutions The Open University is in the rare position of being able to retain copies of all the teaching material offered to students since the first courses were launched in 1971. This includes: physical module books and units; the original Home Experiment Kits which were issued through the post along with the teaching material; historic audio-visual content originally broadcast on the BBC and other platforms; and most recently the teaching websites on which content is now accessed by students.

• Historical Open University Material. This category covers a wide variety of content – some of it concerned with the governance of the university such as committee papers, and other collections more relevant as social history like the regular newspapers produced for both staff and students. We also retain university serials – both for internal and external publication – a vast photographic archive, and a complete set of OU prospectuses. Outputs from many of the research groups which have been based in the university’s faculties are also retained in our Academic Archive.

• Special Collections. These are collections which have come to us via donation and are usually either focused around unique projects, or are the papers of significant Open University figures. We worked with former OU Chancellor Baroness Betty Boothroyd to accession a collection of her papers, largely covering her time as Speaker of the House of Commons. We also have the papers of Lord Perry of Walton (Walter Perry), the university’s first Vice-Chancellor, and Baroness Lee of Asheridge (Jennie Lee), who as Minister for the Arts was instrumental in the formation of The Open University.

The Open University Digital Archive

The Open University Digital Archive was launched in 2015 in order to make audio-visual and other historic material available (where possible due to copyright and intellectual property restrictions). It contains a growing number of OU television and radio programmes, along with images, texts and graduation ceremonies. Where the content cannot be – or has not yet been – made available, there is usually a metadata entry at least in order to aid researchers, who may be able to arrange to come in to the Archive and view them in person.

There are currently around 1,500 audio or video files publicly-accessible on the Digital Archive, including some of the very earliest Open University TV broadcasts, and around 800 images.

The Digital Archive can also act as a ‘shop window’ for Open University projects, events and people from the past 55 years, and contains both short ‘Featured items’ and longer ‘Exhibitions’ which tell specific stories about the university and related partners using video and audio clips from elsewhere in the collections. For instance, one popular exhibition covers the full life of Jennie Lee – before, during and after her involvement with the OU.

A reasonably recent addition to the Digital Archive is the Sampson Low Collection (selected content is also collected in an exhibition). This collection features over 200 digitised letters from two volumes of letters written to – and kept by – the Victorian bookseller Sampson Low (1797-1886). It includes letters by clients and friends, amongst them Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale and the Duke of Wellington. Our Digital Archive Developer has created an application which allows readers to view the original digitised letter alongside a text transcript of the content.

Day-To-Day

There is not really any ‘standard’ working day in The Open University Archive. Incoming queries can take us in any direction and it is difficult to predict what researchers are going to ask for permission to see. We do have a dedicated Research Room which allows any in-person researchers to spread the materials out, or refer to content on any number of legacy formats or devices. In most weeks the Archive team has at least one pre-arranged researcher appointment in the calendar, and it can often be several.

Although the variety of requests is wide, the Jennie Lee papers are one of our more frequently-requested collections, and we field a regular amount of Open University alumni asking for information about the content of modules they may have studied in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

We are a small but busy Archive – when we’re not fielding enquiries or helping researchers, we are usually to be found digitising material or cataloguing new collections.

Matthew Taylor
Digital Archivist
The Open University

Related

The Jennie Lee Collection, 1906-1995

The Walter Perry Collection, 1926-2003

Descriptions of other archives held by The Open University can be found on Archives Hub here: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/GB-2315

All images copyright The Open University. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.