Wednesday 19 March 2014

Giddy moments in the archive!

At the archive office at Corsham Court, we are currently a team of four. Each person brings their own personality to the work, and its fun to see our characteristics on display. Today is a good example....

We have acquired a new set of shelving, which enables us to get a lot of the recently delivered material off the floor and properly arranged. A lot of this is awaiting the cataloguing process, but meanwhile, Hayley in particular wants an orderly arrangement! Nothing makes her happier than a properly arranged, uniform and neat shelf.

Meanwhile, Alice stands by, agreeing wholeheartedly with Hayley, as they jointly line up the handles on all the boxes, and check that all the number labels are aligned.

Lest you believe that we harbour acute OCD sufferers in the archive, remember that we are engaged in archive work, which of course means that this behaviour comes under the heading of 'key skills' and is entirely normal...(we hope!)

Kate and Carol then proceed with the opening the newly delivered trunk - the latest in a series of goodies being sent over by the Newton Park library. Every trunk-full is a surprise, and we've discovered all sorts of things. Today, Kate is rather overwhelmed at the sight of a pile of 100 year old samplers. They were sent from a former Domestic Science student to the College Principal in 1966, and date from her own student days in 1913 - 1916. She writes 'It was fifty years ago this July I sat for my Needlework Diploma, and now, both I and my samplers a Museum Piece!!!'

Samplers - drawn thread work, embroidery and scalloped edging, and an example of boning in a miniature bodice

This former student was sitting her final exam in July 1916 and meanwhile in France, the Battle of the Somme was just beginning. In England, people would have been anxiously reading the casualty lists for news of men at the Front. Just seeing the date evokes all these images...

In the same box, hidden in the folds of tissue paper, we find a bee. Carol particularly enjoys all these little surprises - the random finds and the added puzzles. The bee in the tissue paper; an old pencil in a wartime file; the marginalia and other added information, jotted onto the side of another document. These little things add even more layers to the story of the past; they are tiny pieces of the personal, the accidental and sometimes, the downright odd.
A 1960s bee. How did it get there?

Another trunk arrives from the library next week - I wonder what else we will find?