This month we have our first bi-lingual pages, as look at the founding of a Welsh-speaking settlement in Argentina in the mid-19th century.

Elen Wyn Simpson, Assistant Archivist at Bangor University, has provided an introduction (in both Welsh and English) to the highlighted collections, and four striking photographs of the settlers. There are also links to related websites and some suggested reading.

Above: Building a road to the Andes, near ‘Afon y Mynach‘ in 1888. At the left, in a white coat, stands Llwyd ap Iwan, who was murdered in 1909, some say by Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid. Photo copyright © Bangor University.

For our feature this December, we look at typewriters and their impact on office workers in collections at The Women’s Library and other collections around the UK.

Throughout the 20th century female typists were a key part of office life, resulting in an uneasy relationship between the workforce and the machine.

The Women’s Library have provided an introduction and some suggested reading, and there are links to related websites.

And the subject of a previous feature also gets a mention: Betty Boothroyd, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1992-2000, at one time worked as a secretary.

Illustration: Untitled [typewriter covered with beads], 2003, by Brigitte Williams, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham. Photo courtesy of VADS

This month we celebrate the work of Tom Eckersley (1914-1995), one of the foremost graphic designers of the twentieth century working in Britain.

With an introduction by Karyn Stuckey, Archivist at University of the Arts London, and illustrated with 14 designs and drawings from their Tom Eckersley collection, including poster designs for Guinness, the World Wildlife Fund, and RoSPA.

There are also links to selected websites and a some suggested reading.

Above: Image provided by University of the Arts London with all rights reserved by the owners: the Tom Eckersley Estate and London College of Communication. Image of poster taken by Graham Goldwater. With rights reserved by University of the Arts London, contact: archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk, 02075 149 335.

This October the Archives Hub took part in The Big Draw. Thank you for sending your drawings on the themes of Fairgrounds and Playgrounds or Cycling and Recycling.

Above: Research drawing of ferris wheel for the film Artificial Intelligence: AI, originally developed by Stanley Kubrick and realised by Steven Spielberg after Kubrick’s death in 1999. From the Stanley Kubrick Archive. Image provided by University of the Arts London with rights reserved by the Stanley Kubrick Estate and reproduced with their permission. Submitted by Karyn Stuckey, Archivist.

This October the Archives Hub is taking part in The Big Draw. We want you to make drawings on the themes of Fairgrounds and Playgrounds, or Cycling, or Recycling. Scan or photograph your drawing, and then email the digital version to us. We’ll post your pics here each Friday. And we’ll give an Archives Hub notepad and propelling pencil to everyone who sends us a drawing, and the first name out of the cycle helmet will receive colouring pens, a pencil case and a notepad – all made from recycled car tyres! If you send us your postal address, we won’t use it for anything else.


1. Windmill and bicycle
This is a detail of a calendar for 1950 from the Cyclists’ Touring Club archive. Photograph copyright © CTC, reproduced with kind permission, and courtesy of the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. Submitted by Paddy: "I’ve recycled this from our feature about cycling and some other things."

This October the Archives Hub is taking part in The Big Draw. We want you to make drawings on the themes of Fairgrounds and Playgrounds, or Cycling, or Recycling. Scan or photograph your drawing, and then email the digital version to us. We’ll post your pics here each Friday. And we’ll give an Archives Hub notepad and propelling pencil to everyone who sends us a drawing, and the first name out of the cycle helmet will receive colouring pens, a pencil case and a notepad – all made from recycled car tyres! If you send us your postal address, we won’t use it for anything else.


1. An Oxford bicycle
Here’s a drawing of an Oxford bicycle. Submitted by Elizabeth Martin of Nuffield College Library.

This October the Archives Hub is taking part in The Big Draw. We want you to make drawings on the themes of Fairgrounds and Playgrounds, or Cycling, or Recycling. Scan or photograph your drawing, and then email the digital version to us. We’ll post your pics here each Friday. And we’ll give an Archives Hub notepad and propelling pencil to everyone who sends us a drawing, and the first name out of the cycle helmet will receive colouring pens, a pencil case and a notepad – all made from recycled car tyres! If you send us your postal address, we won’t use it for anything else.


1. Cyclist
This is a detail of a RoSPA leaflet from 1954. Photo courtesy the University of Liverpool Library, and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Copyright © RoSPA. Submitted by Paddy: "I’ve recycled this from the Collections of the Month about cycling."

2. Mr Pickwick
Label for the Pickwick fairground music LP ‘Radcliffe’s Steam Carnival on Tour’. Submitted by Paddy: "I found this in a charity shop years ago. The label includes a drawing of Mr Pickwick, so it still counts!"

This October the Archives Hub is taking part in The Big Draw. We want you to make drawings on the themes of Fairgrounds or Playgrounds, or Cycling or Recycling. Scan or photograph your drawing, and then email the digital version to us. We’ll post your pics here each Friday. And we’ll give an Archives Hub notepad and propelling pencil to everyone who sends us a drawing, and the first name out of the cycle helmet will receive colouring pens, a pencil case and a notepad – all made from recycled car tyres! If you send us your postal address, we won’t use it for anything else.


1. Swing Ride Silhouette
Above: Drawing by Amanda Hill, formerly of the Archives Hub, and now relocated to Canada. This pic links to a larger version. Submitted by Amanda:"Mike says it looks like a pizza, but then he’s a complete philistine."

2. Recycle
Above: Quick drawing by Paddy of the Archives Hub. Submitted by Paddy: "I was going to try the Manchester Wheel but it looks a bit difficult… "

The very first Archives Hub feature, in September 2001, was for the papers of Robert Donat (1905-1958), the film and theatre actor and theatre director. The collections is held at The University of Manchester, The John Rylands University Library. This first feature was originally very minimal – just the collection description – but this feature about Robert Donat now includes an introduction, related collections, links, and suggested reading (with links to bibliographic records on Copac).

Plus the image above showing postcards of Robert Donat, kindly supplied by The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture.