Tag: features

Features

/ Lisa

German advert© National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield

The Archives Hub has been writing/having collections of the month or features since 2001. In that time we’ve had a large variety of features on everything from ornithology to poetry to the Miners’ Strike and even Rugby League.

Our features highlight what treasures there are to be found in archive collections that are on the Hub. Sometimes the feature can be on a specific topic or theme collecting resources together from different repositories or they can highlight a specific repository.

This year we have changed the format of our features to include print resources from our sister service, Copac and there are now links from the Copac home page to the feature.

All of our web pages include Google analytics and we can see that our features are popular. Our feature pages have been viewed by nearly 9000 people since 1 January 2011 and most viewed  feature this year has been our feature: Scrum, ruck and tackle: the Rugby Football League Archive at the University of Huddersfield. Having your collections featured on the Hub also increases the amount of traffic you’ll get to your descriptions through Google.

Although the Hub team has been known to write a feature or two, we much prefer it if our contributors write the features, after all, they are the experts on their collections. This year has been a bumper year for features, with features from the University of Huddersfield, Imperial War Museum, the Women’s Library and the National Fairground Archive to name but a few. We have features scheduled now for the rest of 2011 and even have a couple of months booked up in 2012.

We like to be as flexible as possible when it comes to our features and offer to help as much or as little as the contributor wants. As a contributor, you can simply write the text of the feature and provide images, or you can suggest related collections, websites and reading lists as well. It’s entirely up to you.

Should you wish to feature on the Archives Hub, please contact archiveshub@mimas.ac.uk. We operate on a first come first served basis, so if you have an event, exhibition or project launch coming up and you would like your feature to coincide with it, let us know as early as possible.

Huddersfield Giants’ Match © Image courtesy of the Rugby Football League and The University of Huddersfield Archive and Special Collections

Liberty, Parity and Justice at the Hull History Centre

/ Jane Stevenson

British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection marchersThis month we are marking our 100th feature by highlighting descriptions for the records of pressure groups held by Hull University Archives at Hull History Centre.

The records of pressure groups and campaigns represent some of the most significant and substantial archives held by Hull University Archives, They number around 40 collections from small, short-lived, groups to major continuing organisations. The most significant and substantial archive is that of Liberty, which recording the continuing development of civil rights in Britain over the past 75 years.

photo: British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection marchers, copyright © Hull History Centre.

Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960: Online extras

/ Jane Stevenson

Mail Coach A.D. 1784

University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections Centre, in collaboration with The British Postal Museum & Archive, presents Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960. The exhibition at the Well Gallery – and online here on the Archives Hub – focuses on a period when the Post Office was at the cutting edge of poster design and mass communication. It explores how the GPO translated, often complex, messages to the public in order to educate them about the services offered, by using text, image, and colour.

The Archives Hub website now has online extras: exclusively online, an additional eight posters representing the range of themes adopted by the General Post Office in their advertising.

Illustration: John Armstrong (1893-1973) ‘Mail Coach A.D. 1784’ (1935) reference The Royal Mail Archive POST 110/3175; copyright © Royal Mail Group Ltd and courtesy of The British Postal Museum & Archive.

Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960

/ Jane Stevenson

NIGHT MAIL

University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections Centre, in collaboration with The British Postal Museum & Archive, presents Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960. The exhibition at the Well Gallery – and online here on the Archives Hub – focuses on a period when the Post Office was at the cutting edge of poster design and mass communication. It explores how the PO translated, often complex, messages to the public in order to educate them about the services offered, by using text, image, and colour.

As part of the exhibition, the Well Gallery will be showing on loop Night Mail (1936) which the British Film Institute calls "one of the most popular and instantly recognised films in British film history … one of the most critically acclaimed films … [of the] documentary film movement".

Illustration: poster designed by Pat Keely (died 1970) for the film Night Mail, reference The Royal Mail Archive POST 109/377; copyright © Royal Mail Group Ltd and courtesy of The British Postal Museum & Archive.

The Spanish Civil War

/ Jane Stevenson

Air raid

In 1936, a military revolt against the Spanish government led to a war involving Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and brought anti-fascist volunteers to Spain from around the world.in defence of democracy.

This month we highlight descriptions for the papers of political campaigners, historians, and International Brigades volunteers, the records of aid organisations, and descriptions for collections of posters, photographs, and interviews with veterans of the Spanish Civil War.

llustration: drawing by Basque refugee children of an air raid; reproduced by permission of People’s History Museum.

Pubs and Inns

/ Jane Stevenson / 1 Comment

'Hub' pub sign
As we start to enjoy the beautiful British summer time, here at the Archives Hub our thoughts often turn to beer and beer gardens. We thought we ought to celebrate this by devoting our August feature to pubs and all things hostelry and alcohol related.

We are highlighting descriptions for the records of breweries, licensed premises, and trade associations, plus the papers of pub users – and temperance campaigners.

Illustration: The Hub (no relation) pub, Brighton. Photo © Simon Carey and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Features: Top 10

/ Jane Stevenson

Woodcraft Folk: trumpet and gongHere are the current ten most popular features:

  1. Dig for Victory! (Nov 04) Archival Awareness with help from the Women’s Land Army
  2. The Great War (Sep 04)
  3. Forensics: a partial print of the history of forensic science (Jun 09)
  4. The Big Draw (Oct 02) all kinds of drawings can be found in archives
  5. Interpreting Shakespeare (Apr 03)
  6. Miners’ Strike 1984-1985 (Mar 04)
  7. Railway history: 200 years of the steam engine (Jun 04)
  8. Fairs and Circus History (Oct 08)
  9. Trees (Dec 03)
  10. Stanley Kubrick (Jul 08)

Illustration: Woodcraft Folk photo copyright © National Co-operative Archive. From Around the Campfire (Aug 07).

Forensics

/ Jane Stevenson

FingerprintThis June’s Collections of the Month examines a partial print of the history of forensic science, shining a light on the descriptions for the papers of physicians, pharmacists, chemists and toxicologists involved in criminal investigations, and records relating to forgery and violent crimes.

Illustration copyright © 2009 The Archives Hub.

Steve Cohen

/ Bethan Ruddock

This month we are highlighting Steve Cohen‘s collection which he deposited at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre in 2001.

Steve Cohen was a lawyer and anti deportation campaigner who dedicated his life to anti-racism and anti-Semitism, particularly the welfare of immigrants and refugees, and those seeking the right to remain in the UK.

There are links to related materials, mainly in the areas of race relations and immigration.

For more information on the Steve Cohen collection, please contact the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre on 0161 275 2920. We’d like to thank Julie Devonald of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, who wrote the text for this month’s description.

Image of a demo rally poster provided by and copyright the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre.