Tag: features

The Archives and their uses at Bethlem Museum of the Mind

/ Jane Ronson / Leave a comment

Archives Hub feature for January 2025

Bethlem Museum of the Mind is dedicated to using the historic collections of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to display and discuss issues in mental health, and to celebrate the achievements of people dealing with severe mental health issues.

Two statues of reclining men, one cahined at the wrists. The statues flank a staircase in the centre of an atrium.
Raving and Melancholy (by Gaius Cibber, c.1676) in the atrium of the Museum.

The Museum is based in the former administration building of Bethlem Royal Hospital, today located in a 200 acre site in Beckenham, south London. Since 1948 the Hospital has been a specialist NHS psychiatric hospital, and today supplies 400 beds to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, which provides modern psychiatric care to those in need in the London Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon, as well as certain national services.

However, the Hospital has a past that stretches back over 750 years as Europe’s oldest specialist psychiatric hospital, across four different sites in London. Although there are many phases in Bethlem’s history, it’s early reputation for cruel treatment saw it christened ‘Bedlam’ by the Londoners living around it, and the entwining histories of the real place and the imagined place of chaos and confusion is something the Museum tries to unpick.

Drawing in black ink on white paper of hospital site and surrounding countryside.
Drawing in black ink on white paper of hospital site and surrounding countryside.

The Museum of the Mind’s archive collections consist of the historic records of Bethlem Royal Hospital; The Maudsley Hospital, a specialist acute psychiatric hospital in south London which dates from 1923; and Warlingham Park Hospital, the Borough Asylum for Croydon, founded in 1903 and closed in 1999. These have been managed by a specialist archivist since the 1960s, and coexist in the Museum collections together with a collection of over 1000 artworks by patients, (viewable here), and more than 800 objects that reflect the history of the Trust.

The records for Bethlem date back to its incorporation as a civic charity in 1557 under the watchful eye of the Board of Governors of Bridewell and Bethlem Hospitals, a set of grandees drawn from the ranks of the City of London Corporation. The oldest set of records are the minutes of the Board of Governors, held under our reference BCB, and our oldest record of any patients of Bethlem is a rather unassuming list from 1598.

List of names in a written in an elaborate style on the page of a book.
BCB-04, the first patient list from 4 December 1598.

As record keeping practices developed, one can see the emergence of something like a modern psychiatric hospital at Bethlem – admission records are created from the 1680s, and casebooks arrive in 1815. However all these records are in some ways problematic, as they express the patient experience through the lens of the Hospital, very often using out of date terminology and a contemporary attitude that seems woefully short of best practice today.

The Museum has therefore made the choice to try and address these shortcomings. One of the sections in the permanent displays looks at the limitations of language and medical jargon, especially around diagnosis. When the archives are used in the displays it is not done uncritically, but with an acknowledgement of the shortcomings of them as sources. Where we can, we have extracted the patient voice from smaller items in the casebooks, like letters and photographs, where a different, more personal, story can be found. The Museum also utilises the artwork it has collected to display, and celebrate, the voices of people with lived experience. Sometimes this voice directly clashes with the professional tone of the organisational record, but we believe that it is important to recognise a multiplicity of experience in this area. It’s also important to recognise that elements like ‘restraint’ (another section in the Museum) have both a past and a present in mental health treatment, and to speak of these issues as if they have vanished would be to hide a more complicated, if troubling, truth.

Museum display featuring a wooden desk and white display boards with black and orange text and framed images.
The ‘Labelling and Diagnosis’ section of the Museum.

The records in the archive cover 450 years of mental health treatment, and take up some 250 metres of shelving for plans, images, patient and staff records, as well as the committee records of the groups that administrated the hospitals. The records are catalogued to the Australian Series System, which is a little different to standard UK cataloguing practices, so what is on Archives Hub is really an indicator of what we hold rather than a comprehensive list – see the catalogue here.

In providing safe and professional storage and access the archivist fulfils the public records function for the NHS Trust, but also supports the displays of the Museum, the learning and outreach programme which spoke to over 3,000 students in 2023, and bespoke history projects like Change Minds, which worked with people with lived experience to investigate the lives of people who were treated in the Victorian Bethlem. We feel this work, in re-examining and investigating the lives of people who were in the hospital outside of the context of their mental health issues, to be amongst the most important things we do. You can see some of our blogs on this project here.

Museum display boards showing enlarged extracts from handwritten letters.
Letters taken from the casebook displayed in the Museum’s ‘Recovery’ section.

The Museum has put a wealth of historical resources online. The patient and staff records up to 1918 have been digitised and indexed on Find My Past and British Online Archives, allowing remote access to thousands of genealogists and academic researchers. The Museum has digitised some of its archives itself, most notably the Board of Governors Minute Books up to the 1800s, and the collection of Lantern slides of the Edward O’Donoghue, the Chaplain and first historian of the Hospital, which can be viewed via the catalogue under the series references BCB and LSC. There are also digital resources linked to the main website of the Museum, particularly in the ‘learning’ section, which deal with different times and hospitals: https://museumofthemind.org.uk/learning .

Exterior of a large brick two storey building featuring a clocktower, with stone steps leading up to the entrance.
The Museum building onsite at Bethlem Royal Hospital.

The Museum is open Wednesday to Saturday 9.30am to 5.00pm without appointment and free to all visitors (last admission at 4.30pm).  The archives are available by appointment with the archivist, potentially Monday to Friday 10am to 4.30pm. Our website covers all of this at https://museumofthemind.org.uk/ , and you can reach the archivist at https://museumofthemind.org.uk/contact (select ‘archives’ from the drop down menu).

David Luck, Archivist
Bethlem Museum of the Mind
Bethlem Royal Hospital

Related

Bethlem Royal Hospital (1553-2018)

Maudsley Hospital (1868-2018)

Warlingham Park Hospital (1897-1995)

Bridewell and Bethlem Hospitals (1559-1952)

Descriptions of other collections held by Bethlem Museum of the Mind can be found on Archives Hub here: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/locations/46a09886-cc03-3ae3-8e40-dfa9977f163a

All images copyright Bethlem Museum of the Mind. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

Season’s greetings!

/ Jane Ronson / Leave a comment
Colour close-up photograph of a clear glass ball, with ice patterns, resting on heavily frosted ground, illuminated by sunlight.
Photo credit: Clear glass sphere at Pexels

Wishing you a Happy Christmas everyone from the Archives Hub team! The team will be taking a break from 23 December, back on 2 January 2025.

In the meantime, let’s take the opportunity to revisit some of our more ‘Christmassy’ features:

Black and white head and shoulders photograph of young woman in profile.
Elizabeth Casson, aged 21. Copyright: Oxford Brookes University Special Collections and Archives

The Dorset House Archive by Oxford Brookes University Special Collections & Archives.

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. Dr Elizabeth Casson (1881-1954), the School’s founder, was working in a psychiatric hospital when she realised the therapeutic benefits enjoyed by patients who were presented with tasks and activities rather than mere convalescence.

Find out how Christmas decoration making inspired the first School of Occupational Therapy in the UK!

Theatre poster for the pantomime Cinderella.
Cinderella 1931. Copyright: University of Kent Special Collections and Archives

Pantomime: performance, interpretation and the importance of the popular at Special Collections and Archives, University of Kent.

As winter rolls in and Christmas looms around the corner, it’s fascinating to reflect on how nostalgia shapes this most memorable of seasons. When it comes to British festive traditions, one stands out more than most: pantomime.

Pantomime is a uniquely British institution – it’s always fun trying to explain it to international friends! The University of Kent, celebrated the arrival of one of the largest collections of historic pantomime material in the UK: their David Drummond Pantomime Collection.

And not forgetting the 12 days of Christmas – Archives Style! (2016 remix), featuring collections from among others:

Colour illustration containing twelve small squares, each representing one of the twelve days of Christmas.
The Twelve Days of Christmas song poster by Xavier Romero-Frias (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0).

Periodicals Collections at the Co-op Archive

/ Jane Ronson / Leave a comment

Archives Hub feature for December 2024

Black and white photograph of a man holding a newspaper, surrounded by three men also looking at the newspaper.
A group of men reading an issue of the Co-op News c1940 from the Co-operative Press photograph Collection.

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 21st 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.

Colour photograph of a three storey red brick building, with a 'Store' sign above the door. A modern building is attached, with curved glass and metal exterior. The foreground shows a cobbled street, red pillar box, metal railings and brick wall.
The exterior today of Rochdale Pioneers Museum on Toad Lane.

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.

Front page of a newspaper, The Rochdale Chronicle and Working Man’s Lantern, dated November 1852.
First edition of ‘The Rachde Kronikul un Workin Mon’s Lantrun’ (The Rochdale Chronicle and Working Man’s Lantern), November 1852.

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.      

Black and white illustration of a large brick factory with four smoking chimneys.
An illustration of the Crumpsall biscuit factory from the CWS Annual, 1903.

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.

Colour illustrated advertisement showing four women, two seated and two standing, wearing pink corsets.
An advert from the 1930s in the ‘Producer’ for Desbeau Corsetry, 1930.

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.

Colour photograph of burgundy front cover of a journal, with gold coloured lettering.
The front cover of the Millage Monthly, 1914-1915 published in the Millgate area of Manchester by Co-op Press.

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.

Photograph of the front of a journal. The paper is yellowing, with brown and deep yellow text. It features an illustration, in brown, of a woman shielding her eyes and looking out over a mill town.
The cover of the first Woman’s Outlook, November 1919.

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. 

Colour illustration of a man wearing overalls and smoking a pipe. He is standing beneath a cluster of dark green leaves and red apples. The title of the journal, and text on each apple, is dark green.
The cover of Wheatsheaf magazine, September 1943.

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.

Front page of a journal, featuring a black and white photograph of a man seated with a tuba and wiping his brow with a handkerchief. The top of the document features the title and other text in bright green text on a white background.
Front cover of Ourselves, Aug 1960.

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.

Photograph of top of Co-operative News, paper is yellowing.
Front page of the Co-op News from September 2nd, 1871.

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.

Exploring the Battersea Polytechnic Archive

/ Jane Ronson / Leave a comment

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.

A display of archive documents, photographs and artefacts.
A display of items from the Battersea Polytechnic Archive.

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.

black-and-white photographs of students working in a library.
Students at work in the Edwin Tate Library at Battersea Polytechnic, 1920s (Ref No: BA/PH/2/7/2).

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.

black-and-white photograph of students on open-top buses.
‘The first Poly Rag, 1919’ – this photograph of students on open-top buses is one of the earliest surviving references to Rag Week we hold in the archive. (Ref No: BA/PH/8/1).

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.

Three archive documents. The rules and the dinner menu bear the crest of the Polytechnic. The handbook features a photograph of a student with suitcases on the front cover.
Three items from the records of the Battersea Students’ Union: the Union Handbook for new students, 1960/61 (Ref No: BA/G/3/1/4); the Rules of the Students’ Union, [1949], (Ref No: BA/G/1/1/2); and the menu card for a dinner in honour of the Students’ Representative Council, 1952 (BA/G/4/1/1).

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.

a published letter from a student serving as an officer in the First World War. Locations and other details have been redacted.
Letter from Battersea student Thomas W. Lonsdale to the Principal of the Polytechnic, Dr Rawson, as published in the Battersea Polytechnic Magazine, vol. 7, no. 37, Nov 1914 (Ref No: BA/G/3/2/2/7).

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.

Archive and manuscript collections of the Society of Antiquaries of London

/ Jane Ronson

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.

Close up of illuminated text, featuring a coloured square image of man with a long grey beard
Unfinished illumination in ‘The Preface of Snorri Sturluson’ and ‘The Story of the Ynglings’ by William Morris, MOR/01/02

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 20th-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.

Swan roll in bound book form, opened to show simple black markings on a white page.
Page from the Westmorland Swan Roll, TIC/15

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.

Detailed sketches of eight different swan marks, black and deep orange on white paper.
Sketches by Ticehurst of different swan marks, TIC/07

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.

Pencil sketches and text relating to church monuments
Sketches of monuments in Abergavenny Church by Octavius Morgan, MOA/01

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.

Book open to show journal entry entitled North Wales, black ink on white paper.
First page of Octavius Morgan’s journal of his travels in North Wales, MOA/04

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.

Elaborate illumination, mainly in blue, gold and red, showing series of interconnected round and oval images
Illuminated B from ‘Beatus vir’ in the Lindsey Psalter, MSS/0059

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 archive – ‘We believe the time has come when England can create its own operas’

/ Jane Ronson

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.

First page of the document setting out the aims of the English Opera Group, black and red ink on white paper.
The aims of the Group published in 1947.

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.

Black and white photograph showing a group of six people in an ice cream parlour, eating ice cream.
Britten and Pears with members of the cast of The Rape of Lucretia during the Group’s tour to the Netherlands and Switzerland in 1947 (photographer unidentified).

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.

Front side of a flyer advertising the 1951 Opera Ball, mainly black text on discoloured white paper.
Flyer advertising the 1951 Opera Ball held in aid of the Group.

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’.

Close up photograph of a typewritten letter, to a Miss Wood from J. B. Priestley, dated 10th February 1949.
Letter from J.B. Priestley accepting the position of President of the EOG Association. Reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of J.B. Priestley.

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.

Colour photograph showing a scene from a 1968 production of The Burning Fiery Furnace, with a group characters on a small circular stage.
Production of Britten’s second parable for church performance The Burning Fiery Furnace 1968 (photographer: John Richardson).

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.

Colour photograph of the pages of an open score book, showing a production score music on the left-hand page and notes and diagrams on the right-hand page.
Production score with stage management’s copious notes and diagrams.

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

English Opera Group / English Music Theatre Company archive
Correspondence of Benjamin Britten
Correspondence of Peter Pears

Nancy Evans and Eric Crozier papers

Descriptions of other collections held by Britten Pears Arts Archive can be found on Archives Hub here:
https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/locations/db6ce751-8321-3ca4-9e5b-79f76ef04ac0

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.

An Archives Hub Dive: Never Work with Children or Animals!

/ Jane Ronson

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

Colour photograph showing German Shepherd puppies with Police helmets.
‘Day 352 – West Midlands Police – Puppies’ by West Midlands Police, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.

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 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

Colour drawing of a brown horse, with brown background.
McCance, William, ‘Animal drawing – standing horse with collar 1911-1912.’ Art, Design and Architecture collection. Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections. GB 1694 NMC/1771.

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 20th 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

Black and white logo for the BBC Written Archives.
BBC Written Archives Centre logo.

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.

Insect Circus colour poster, advertising performances at Hoxton Hall, London, during December 2005.
Insect Circus poster 2005, copyright © 2024 Insect Circus Society.

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!
Black and white photograph of a group of children playing with wooden pins in the road. With cottages in the background.
“Wallops – nine pins” by Werner Kissling. From the Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture (LAVC) at the University of Leeds LAVC/PHO/P1748.

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:

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

The Archive of Barbara Mildred Jones (1912-1978): artist, designer, author and curator

/ Jane Ronson

Archives Hub feature for July 2024

Born in Croydon, Barbara Mildred Jones was a painter, author, collector and curator. Jones’ father was a saddler and proprietor of a leather goods and trunk shop, and it was here that Jones first encountered traditional handicrafts, a subject she would remain passionate about throughout her life and career.

After receiving a scholarship to Croydon Art School which she attended from 1931-33, Jones studied at the Royal College of Art (RCA), first in the Department of Engraving before transferring to the Department of Mural Decoration, graduating in 1937 following in the footsteps of John Piper, Eric Ravilious, and Edward Bawden. Jones shared their concern with British landscape and architecture, which she documented as objects and artefacts representative of English everyday life. 

Black and white photograph of Barbara Jones. She is shown seated, holding a sketchpad and looking straight into the camera. Dated 1951.
Portrait of Barbara Jones, BJO/5/9. © John Vickers, 1951.

Jones first gained recognition for her murals with commissions as early as 1937 in private homes and London restaurants. She produced murals for the Council of Industrial Design’s (CoID) Britain Can Make It exhibition (1946), Things for Children section, Design Fair (1948), for which she painted a 3-panelled piece titled Animal, Vegetable, Mineral that hinted at the distinctive ways Jones organised objects, and was heavily involved in the Festival of Britain (1951), designing the Coastline of Britain, Seaside section, and the Outside Broadcasting mural for the Television Pavilion, as well as working on the Lion and Unicorn Pavilion and the Battersea Funfair. She also produced murals for Orient Line ships (1949-1960), continuing to receive mural commissions in both public and private spaces, to a total of 29 in her career.

Jones’ first book, Isle of Wight, a survey of historical and tourist sites, was published in 1950. This was followed by a series of articles written and illustrated for Architectural Review (1944-9) that become her second book Unsophisticated Arts, (1951) which, along with the concurrent Black Eyes & Lemonade exhibition (co-curated with Tom Ingram) at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, introduced Jones’ expertise in what she referred to as popular, or vernacular art to the world. Jones was fascinated with ephemeral and mass-produced objects and spent her career researching, collecting, exhibiting, and writing about items she felt had been overlooked.

For Jones, the objects of the everyday – canal boats and wax figures, food and drink packaging, and the deviant art of tattoos, had just as many important aesthetic qualities and characteristics as rare and precious objets d’art, a classification she was more than happy to subvert. Jones aimed to show we are surrounded by art through her murals, publications and exhibitions, but also through the work she did for educational initiatives including the School Prints series (1945) that brought contemporary art to children, for which she produced the lithograph Fairgrounds, her illustrations for the CoID’s educational booklet This or That (1947), as well as the many teaching positions she held throughout her career.

Illustration of two black eyes (one above the other), with bright yellow background and the text Black Eyes and Lemonade, Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Black Eyes and Lemonade artwork, BJO/1/4.

Not limited to the page or canvas, Jones was a regular guest on the BBC covering topics such as canal boats, taxidermy, the coronation of HRH Queen Elizabeth II and royal memorabilia, another interest of hers. The latter was also the focus of the Royal Occasions exhibition she curated at the Tea Centre, London (1953), contributing memorabilia from her own collection, and designing illustrations for the exhibition guide.

Jones’ third book Follies & Grottoes (1953), is a monumental work injected with Jones’ enthusiasm and wit, exploring two of her passions, travel and craft, and documents the diverse architectural follies erected throughout Victorian Britain, the first survey of its kind. Jones continued to collect new and interesting follies, both in Britain and abroad, and a revised and updated edition was published in 1974.

Cover of the book Follies and Grottoes, showing the illustration of a pink archway, through which a series of three follies and grottoes can be seen, on a slight slant, casting shadows and with blue sky in the background.
Follies & Grottoes, 1953, cover illustration, BJO/2/3/7

Jones’ subsequent books cover other every-day topics such as furniture design or watercolour painting, though Jones explored the most vernacular subject of them all in her book Design for Death (1967). Diverse social and cultural traditions and their manifestation through and with objects are recurring motifs in all of Jones’ work: fairground architecture was as fascinating as coffin design, puppets as noteworthy as ceremonial dress, and she adored fêtes and processions of all kinds. Her love of processions reached its peak in her curation of the Lord Mayor’s Show in 1963.

Jones was a member of many notable design organisations, including the Society of Industrial Arts, the Society of Mural Painters, the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Society of Authors, and the Society of Lithographic Artists, Designers, Engravers and Process Workers.

Page of handwritten draft text, titled Popular art. Blue ink on plain cream paper, with several crossings out.
‘Popular Art’ draft, BJO/3/2/4
Illustration in black ink of the fountain in London's Piccadilly Circus, topped by the statue of Eros (Anteros). The fountain is surrounded by and filled with people, some of whom are waving placards and coloured union flags. The background is of broad horizontal stripes in blue, white and orange.
Simpson (Piccadilly) Ltd brochure cover: BJO/3/5/4

Her expertise in such vanguard subjects and her unique style made her a popular choice for publishers and she contributed chapters and illustrations to many publications throughout her career, many of which are documented in the archive.  

The archive consists mostly of research and reference material, manuscripts and typescript drafts of Jones’ published and unpublished works, as well as correspondence and personal papers that document the diverse professional and personal networks developed throughout her career. The archive was transferred by the estate of Barbara Jones in two stages, first in 2009, followed by a larger deposit in 2015, complimenting other collections in the University of Brighton Design Archives such as the archives of James Gardner and the Design Council, both of whom Jones worked with.

Jen Grasso
Digital Content and Systems Co-ordinator
University of Brighton Design Archives

Related

Barbara Jones Archive

Descriptions of other archives held by University of Brighton Design Archives can be found on Archives Hub here: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/locations/a6626a00-aaa0-30a9-8b3f-5e6309d94163

All images copyright University of Brighton Design Archives. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

Oxford House in Bethnal Green: An Archive of London’s East End

/ Jane Ronson

Archives Hub feature for June 2024

Introduction

Oxford House was founded in 1884 as a ‘settlement house’ for graduates of the University of Oxford volunteering in East London. To celebrate our 140th anniversary, Oxford House has been working for two years on a National Lottery Funded Project to celebrate this anniversary, ‘Through the Lens: Women Pioneers, Youth Social Action and Celebrating Our Somali Community.’ This has involved zine-making with local students, running local photography exhibitions, recording new oral histories with community members who have contributed to the history of the house, and the mammoth task of cataloguing and digitising our archive.

While some of our material is still housed at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives,10,000 pages of archives are now accessible on our new website, available to the wider public for the very first time. This material ranges from our Victorian arrivals book, documenting the movement of students in and out of the building, to 1970s campaign posters created by activist groups who used Oxford House as their base to advocate for change and propose innovative and groundbreaking social schemes. Alongside these are a rich photographic archive which documents the heart of Oxford House throughout its lifetime – its people.

Our Founders

Black and white photograph, dated circa 1890, showing the Founders of Oxford House from Keble College, Oxford. Group of eleven men, forming two rows, with the exterior of Oxford House in the background.
Founders of Oxford House from Keble College, Oxford. Oxford House, c.1890. I/OXF/A/6/2/1 (Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archive)

Though, as ‘settlement’ implies, there was indeed an undeniably strong vein of paternalism to educate the lower classes, the reformist social movement sought to provide practical support to the community of East London, such as legal advice and labour exchanges. Our archive is flush with records that set out the early aims for the house – ‘to provide a centre for religious, social, and educational work among the poor of East London.’ One of the most evocative items from our early collection is our arrivals and departures book. Dated from 1910-1938, this was where many from Oxford and beyond noted their comings and goings. It captures the energy of not only the house but of the interest in the wider settlement movement from both a national and international audience, with entries from visitors hailing from New York, Copenhagen, Zurich, and Port of Spain Trinidad.

Black and white photograph, dated circa 1910, of the register recording the our arrivals and departures at Oxford House. The book is open, showing handwritten entries.
Register of Arrivals and Departures. Oxford House, c.1910s. OH/8/1/1 (Oxford House)

World War Two

Our records from the WWII era are especially poignant. Located in heavily bombed East London, Oxford House acted as a shelter for up to 300 members of the local community at the height of the Blitz. Away from the East End, Oxford House organised the evacuation of local children to free boarding schools in Wales and Herefordshire, where many city-born children visited the countryside for the first time. While there are few photographs from the inside of the house during this period, Annual Reports from our archive capture the spirit of the time. ‘The House and all that for which it stands shall not die, but shall blossom in the future from the new life which has been born in it during this year of suffering,’ wrote Chairman Walter H. Moberly in 1941.

Black and white photograph, dated 1940, showing a crowded air raid shelter during World War Two. Men, women and children are almost all seated, some at tables, holding teacups and making paper chains. In the background are bunk beds and a staircase leading up.
Bomb shelter in Second World War. Oxford House, 1940. OH/9/7/1 (Oxford House)

During this time, Oxford House continued to run clubs and events for members of the community who remained in East London – from sport activities to dance evenings. Significantly, it was during this period that women became an increased presence within the public life of the house. Women have always played a role at Oxford House, yet our early archive often records them only as unnamed domestic servants under ‘housekeeper’ or the like. Molly Clutton-Brock, a campaigner and the wife of the Head of House, Guy Clutton-Brock, took a lead on establishing clubs for women and girls during the war. This was a marked change as Oxford House transitioned post-war from a male-dominated settlement house to a community centre model.

Post-War Social Action

Some of our most dynamic archival records date to the post-war period, when by the 1970s, the East End was buzzing with community spirit and activism. Oxford House was home to many campaigns and social groups, and our archive has a wealth of photographs and posters from this era – as pictured, for example, a health stall hosted in our Cafe where the community could come to receive health advice and information. The Oxford House Social Club and the Oxford House Youth Club were both set up in this era, and our archive once again has a fantastic collection of photographs of activities, events and festivals hosted in and beyond Oxford House.

Black and white photograph, dated circa 1970s, showing two women and one man in conversation. In the background a covered table is visible with the sign stating Health Stall hanging above it.
Health Stall. Oxford House, c.1970s. OH/9/2/9 (Oxford House)
Black and white photograph, dated 1974, showing a poster titled They Shall Not Pass, produced by the Tower Hamlets Movement Against Racism and Fascism. The poster includes a poem and details of a poetry reading event taking place on the 4th November that year. The event is to 'celebrate the East Enders victory over fascism October 1936'.
They Shall Not Pass! The Tower Hamlets Movement Against Racism and Fascism. Oxford House, 1974. OH/8/3/2/1 (Oxford House)

Our archive also holds the records of many social action campaigns from the late 20th century to present – such as the Tower Hamlets International Solidarity campaign (THIS) 1981-1988 collection, the Families Unit 1977-1981 collection, and the Somali Projects 1985-2023 collection. East London’s Somali community has played a long-standing significant role at Oxford House, with the establishment of Somali Week Festival and the Somali Arts Project designed to platform the creativity and culture of refugees and migrants who came to the East End.

Black and white photograph leaflet, dated circa 1990s, titled A Centre for Somalis, and featuring the image of a man and woman, either side of a smiling child.
A Centre for Somalis leaflet. Oxford House, 1990s. OH/5/12/7 (Oxford House)

Our NHLF project and 140th Anniversary celebration is culminating in an exhibition, History House. Items from our archive throughout the decades will be exhibited for the first time to share untold stories of the house and those who have worked here and called it home throughout time. We would love for you to visit.

Emily Hughes
Archivist, Oxford House in Bethnal Green

History House is open 6th June – 20th December 2024, Monday to Friday 10am-5pm, at Oxford House in Bethnal Green, E2 6HG. Our archives are open by appointment, please email OHarchive@oxfordhouse.org.uk.

Related

Oxford House Archive, 1898 to present day

Images copyright Oxford House and Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archive. Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

Refugees in the public eye: World Refugee Year 1959-60 in the Humanitarian Archive

/ Jane Ronson

Archives Hub feature for May 2024

In 2022, the Humanitarian Archive at the University of Manchester Library received one of its first collections. This archive, which was launched in 2021, aims to collect papers relating to humanitarianism, particularly from individuals or small organisations, or which relate to topics, points of view and events which are generally underrepresented in archives.

This collection consists of a small box of ephemera, memorabilia and papers concerning World Refugee Year 1959-1960, donated by Peter Gatrell, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Manchester. This collection, built up by Professor Gatrell over the course of writing his book Free World? The Campaign to Save the World’s Refugees, 1956-1963, gives a fascinating insight into how the general public (particularly in the UK) interacted with this international campaign and the topic of the refugee crisis more broadly.

World Refugee Year was set up as an international response to raise money for and awareness of refugee crises happening around the world. The birth of the idea came from a group of British journalists who had previously reported on this topic: Timothy Raison, a journalist for the Picture Post and the New Scientist, Trevor Philpott, Colin Jones and Christopher Chataway, a journalist and former Olympic athlete and the first winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 1954. The plan gained momentum, sparking interest among representatives of UNHCR, the World Council of Churches and the UK Foreign Office. The resolution to support World Refugee Year was passed by the UN in 1958, with the intent of encouraging financial contributions from ‘Governments, voluntary agencies and the general public’, and ‘to encourage additional opportunities for permanent refugee solutions, through voluntary repatriation, resettlement or integration, on a purely humanitarian basis and in accordance with the freely expressed wishes of the refugees themselves’[1]

At an international level, one of the biggest fundraising campaigns was the production of commemorative stamps across several different countries, as a ‘manifestation of world solidarity’.[2] Those who took part were required to include a World Refugee Year logo somewhere in their design, but aside from that they could interpret the theme how they wanted. Publicity regarding the campaign was broadcast through print and screen media, including planned magazine articles on Yul Brynner’s collection of them (Brynner was an advocate for World Refugee Year who became a special consultant to UNHCR in 1959).[3]

A stamp album and a collection of first day covers in the World Refugee Year collection show how diverse these interpretations were. Some countries chose a simple design, simply foregrounding the logo.

Colour photograph of the interior of a stamp album displaying World Refugee Year Stamps from Afghanistan and Nicaragua. Four stamps framed with text in French and Spanish (dated 1960).
World Refugee Year Stamps from Afghanistan and Nicaragua. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/11, The University of Manchester Library.
Colour photograph of the first day cover for Luxembourg's World Refugee Year stamp, featuring biblical imagery and text in French (dated 1960). World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/6, The University of Manchester Library.
The first day cover for Luxembourg’s World Refugee Year stamp. Two stamps on cream card, with a postal stamp dated 7 April 1960. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/6, The University of Manchester Library.

Others took this further, featuring biblical and Christian imagery, as with Luxembourg’s design.

Colour photograph of the interior of a stamp album displaying the World Refugee Year Stamps from Guatemala and Guinea. Ten stamps. on cream card. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/11, The University of Manchester Library.
World Refugee Year Stamps from Guatemala and Guinea. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/11, The University of Manchester Library.

Others, like Guatemala, took the opportunity to commemorate a contemporary humanitarian organisation, by involving the red cross in their design.

Oxford, London and Cambridge punt race souvenir programme. Black text and illustration on cream paper, showing figures punting as part of the design. Dated 4th and 5th March. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/7, The University of Manchester Library.
Oxford, London and Cambridge punt race souvenir programme. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/7, The University of Manchester Library.

The UK notably, did not submit a design. A letter from Ernest Marples of the UK Post Office to Lady Elliot in the House of Lords states that the occasion does not fit with their usual criteria for issuing stamps, and that ‘we are constantly being bombarded with requests to issue stamps to assist this or that good cause’, and if they agreed to do this it would be impossible to ‘draw the line’.[4]

Despite being an international campaign, World Refugee Year focussed on engaging the general public. Many local and school committees were set up in the UK to run events, and a variety of organisations took the opportunity to get involved. The University of Cambridge held a ‘Fiesta’ day to coincide with an Oxford, Cambridge and London punt race. Other events on this day included plays, music, punt jousting, a tug of war and (quite jarringly considering the light-hearted nature of the other events) a display of ‘Authentic Refugee Huts’ in King’s College, Cambridge.

World Refugee Year aimed to capture the attention and efforts of children in particular. Schools were encouraged to set up committees and run events, and items to buy, and collect were produced, like the stamps, and the badge seen on the right below.

World Refugee Year yellow and black round badge and brass oval lapel pin, displayed on black and white background. Both items feature an outstretched hand. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/5, The University of Manchester Library.
World Refugee Year badge and lapel pin. World Refugee Year Collection, WRY/1/5, The University of Manchester Library.

The World Refugee Year Collection in the Humanitarian Archive does not go into great detail about the planning of the campaign (this information is held by the UN archives in New York), but it does show something more personal. They give a glimpse into how the UK public engaged with the issue, with the events, and publications that were produced to commemorate it.

Flora Chatt
Humanitarian Archivist
University of Manchester Library

Related

To find out more about the Humanitarian Archive at the University of Manchester, please visit our subject page.

Browse all The University of Manchester’s Special Collections descriptions to date on Archives Hub

Previous Archives Hub features on The University of Manchester Library collections

The Christian Brethren Archive

The Editorial Correspondence of C.P. Scott in the Guardian archive

A Spring in Your Step

James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth – pioneering educational reformer

Bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens

Charles Wesley (1707-88)

Robert Donat

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

[1] World Refugee Year | UNHCR

[2] Aide-Memoire, A Special United Nations Stamp Plan, MHCR/126/59, WRY/1/8, World Refugee Year Collection, University of Manchester Library

[3] Joint UNHCR/UNRWA stamp project: Information Services memorandum. WRY/1/8, World Refugee Year Collection, University of Manchester Library

[4] Letter from Ernest Marples to Lady Elliot of Harwood in the House of Lords, 19 March 1959. WRY/1/8.