NewsletterWorking for Archives

Spring 2019 Series 5, Number 1

2019 ConferenceSuburbia revealed through records

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2019 HARLEY

PRIZE NOWOPEN

Also in this issue:Archives of the Royal Society of ArtsHow well are we at work?Science in Cambridge A visit to Southill ParkA spy at the BRA

BRA members are invited toattend a visit to Southill ParkBedfordshire on Thursday 6June. Southill has been home tothe Whitbread family since 1795and was rebuilt by HenryHolland. The house looks muchas it did when Holland died, withdecoration and furnituredesigned by him still in situ.

Charles Whitbread, thepresent incumbent, and JamesCollett-White, archivist at thehouse, will be giving the party atour of some of the rooms, anditems from the archive will alsobe on display.

The Whitbreads have beenPresidents of the Bedfordshire

Historical Records Society sinceits inception in 1912 andCharles’s great grandfatherworked closely with Dr GeorgeHerber Fowler, Bedfordshire’sfirst county archivist and a keyfigure in the BRA.  

Tickets for the house tour cost£15 for BRA members, £18 fornon-members. For more info visitthe BRA website. Booking will bevia Eventbrite, or email us atinfo@britishrecordsassociation.org.uk. 

PatronThe Marquess ofSalisbury, PC, DL

PresidentMaster of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton

Hon Vice-PresidentLord Mackay ofClashfern

Vice-PresidentsDr David RobinsonDavid Prior

Chair of CouncilJulia Sheppard

Vice-Chair of CouncilPenelope Baker

TreasurerJanet Foster

Editor of ArchivesDr Ruth Paley

Honorary SecretaryVictoria Northwood

MembershipSecretaryElizabeth Stazicker

British RecordsAssociationc/o 70 Cowcross St,London EC1M 6EJ

Tel: 07946 624713

Charity number 227464

NewsletterSpring 2019 Series 5, Number 1

News2019 Annual Conference 3Member News 4Archive news 5Records at Risk 6Archive news 7Events and Grants 8

FeaturesWellbeing at Work 9The Archives of the RSA 10Books 11Helen Berry: fascinated by foundlings 12

Newsletter Editor: Sarah Hart Sub-Editor/Designer: Jeffery PikeConsultant editor: Janet Foster

To contribute to the newsletter please email the editor Sarah Hart:info@britishrecordsassociation.org.uk

BRA Newsletter 3

This year’s Annual Confer -ence of the BRA took placeon 25 April at CowcrossStreet, London and was deemed agreat success by all who attended.

Under the title ‘Living on theEdge: Records of Suburbia’,delegates heard from severalspeakers. Joanna Smith, seniorinvestigator of Historic England,gave an overview of the project onsuburbs initiated by EnglishHeritage in 2012 and now nearingcompletion. Her talk was followedby Sally Bevan of LondonMetropolitan Archives, whodescribed the creation ofHampstead Garden Suburb.

Jim Ranahan of theShakespeare Birthplace Trusttalked about the SuburbanBirmingham Research Project andthe development of civicamenities within suburbandevelopments, while DeborahSugg Ryan, Professor of DesignHistory and Theory at theUniversity of Portsmouth,delivered a talk on the inter-warsuburban semi.

Further presentations weregiven by Sara Kinsey, head ofHistorical Archives at Nation wideBuilding Society; Rachel Freemanfrom the Church of England

Record Centre; JessicaScantlebury from the Universityof Sussex, and Sally Gilbert fromMerchant Taylors’ School.

BRA Chair Julia Shepparddeclared: ‘It was a veryinformative, successful and well-attended day – with excellentillustrated talks on a wide range oftopics and stimulating animateddiscussion in the lunch and coffeebreaks.’

Reflecting on the conference,one delegate tweeted after wards:‘Interesting subject, greatspeakers and debate, and I foundout things that I didn’t knowbefore. Well done to the

organisers!’A full report will appear in the

next Newsletter and some of thepapers will be published in afuture issue of Archives.

2019 conference explores suburbia

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The National Theatre’s recent front-of-houseexhibition celebrated the NT Archive’s 25thanniversary. Theatre-makers, playwrights andresearchers were invited to choose an objectfrom the archive and to respond to it. The poemhere was written by Jesc Bunyard in response tothe prompt script of the first NT production,Hamlet in 1963.

In Praise of the Archive (2018)Picture an archiveConjure up an image in your head and you’ll probably

imagine something dusty and darkWith files and papers stacked on high categorised

into numbered systemsTo those uninitiated it can seem untouchable, another

world, barred off to those not given a special passHowever archives are not places where history is

boxed away never to be seen by a wandering eyeevery again

They are treasure troves waiting to be uncoveredEach search on the database or file is a step into the

unknown

An archive is a place where the jewels of history arekept, not locked away

They contain a thousand voices whispering secrets,ideas, plans and lost loves

Delving through an archive is a romantic endeavourTo use an archive is to engage in an act of seductionAsk the right questions and they will lie before you

and reveal their secretsAn archive is a guardian of history ensuring that each

moment is secure for the next seeker of knowledgeEach visitor carves their story in relation to each piece

they discoverThey make their own mark on the archive by their

interaction with itEach single piece of treasure within an archive

contains a thousand storiesSit within the archive and these pieces will tell their

lives to youHistory will unfold before you, drama will spring to

life and dance across the database.

Poem reproduced with the kind permission of writer and artist Jesc Bunyard

Ode to an archive

A chance to visit Southill Park and its archiveC

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SAVE THE DATEThis year’s AGM and MauriceBond Lecture will take placeon 13 November. The lecture,‘Access to information in turbulent times’, will begiven by Gill Bull, Director ofComplaints and Com p lianceat the Information Commis-sioner's Office.

Deborah Sugg Ryan spoke about the inter-war suburban semi

mailto:info@britishrecordsassociation.org.ukmailto:info@britishrecordsassociation.org.ukmailto:info@britishrecordsassociation.org.uk

In 1962, while at the BritishEmbassy in Moscow, homosexualcivil servant John Vassall wascaught in a honey-trap set by theSoviet Secret Service andblackmailed into passing themsecrets before eventually beingdiscovered, tried and imprisoned.

On 25 April as part of TNA’sCold War Season, contemporaryprincipal records specialist MarkDunton delivered a talk at TNAwhere he examined some of theissues raised by Vassall’ssituation, in particular that ofnational security at a time whenhomosexual relations betweenmen were illegal and the subjectof widespread prejudice.

The story of John Vassall didnot end with his arrest, as theBRA’s current Treasurer JanetFoster recalls: ‘My first job as anarchivist was with the BRA in1974 where I was introduced onmy first day to John Phillipsthe administrator, a verydebonair man wearing a pin-striped suit. We worked in thesame office together and got onvery well.’

On his release from prison in1972, Vassall had changed hisname to Phillips.

Janet says: ‘During early 1975 Ibecame aware, from his phoneconversations, that he was

writing a book, although he gaveno hint of what it might beabout. He took a week’s holidayand during that week his bookVassall: The Autobiography of aSpy was published.

‘The first I knew of it wasseeing his picture on the frontpage of newspaper being readby a fellow commuter! Hereturned to work as if nothinghad happened.’

TNA’s Cold War Season runsuntil 9 November and includes anew exhibition ‘Protect andSurvive: Britain’s Cold WarRevealed’. To learn more, visitwww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/coldwar.

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BRA news

Vassall: a victim of his time?

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Training andworkshops22 May JISC, London.Workshop: Measuring usageand impact with digitalcollections. Tickets £250 + VAT from:www.jisc.ac.uk/training.

6, 10, 11 & 12 June LondonMetropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road,London EC1R 0HB. One-day courses in archivesand records management(Building Blocks of RecordsManagement; Basic ArchiveSkills; Archival Arrangementand Description Explained;Managing Photographs in theArchives) delivered by theArchive-Skills Consultancy Ltd.For more information:www.archive-skills.com/training/index.php.

13 June University of Leeds27 June University ofBirmingham.Come Together: Developingcollaboration betweenarchives services and HigherEducation, aimed atacademics from all disciplines,funded by MALD/TNA/History UK.Admission free; book atwww.eventbrite.co.uk.

11 September, OrdnanceSurvey Head Office,Southampton. AnnualWorkshop of the MapCurators’ Group of the BritishCartographic Society (BSC).Map collection development:dispersal, disposal and digitaltransition. For more information,contact: MCG Convener PaulaWilliams at p.williams@nls.uk.

This year’s Janette Harley Prize isnow open for entries. The prizeof £350, in memory of JanetteHarley (1951–2015), is intendedto generate interest in archivesand raise awareness of researchand achievements in the world ofarchives.

It is awarded for the best/most original piece of workpublished in a monograph,journal or magazine, or otherwisemade publicly available (such as

in a blog) during the last threeyears.

Applications should bereceived no later than 30 June2019 and the winning entry willbe announced following BRA’sAGM and Maurice BondMemorial Lecture on 13November 2019.

For full details and informationon how to enter, visitwww.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/the-janette-harley-prize.

Harley Prize 2019 now open

The BRA is sad to report the death of Alan Kucia.Alan (right) trained on the Liverpool ArchiveCourse, 1983–84, and spent most of his career inthe University archives sector. His first job was atTrinity College, Cambridge where he spent nearlyseven years. He then moved to be senior archivistat his beloved Churchill College, Cambridge untilMay 2000, during which time he oversaw thedeposit of the Thatcher Papers.

His only venture outside Cambridge was justover four years spent at King's College London, asSenior Archives Services Manager. After that heworked at the RAF Duxford Museum Film andVideo Archive. Another four years were spent asSenior Cataloguer for the Tower Project,

Obituary: Alan Kucia (14 June 1958–30 November 2018)

Archive news

Archives and science collideCambridge ScienceFestival, now in its 25thyear, is a major regionalopportunity for all-comersto hear about cutting-edgescience from cutting-edgescientists. But if anyonethought archives an arts-side irrelevance, this year’sprogramme surelyprompted them to thinkagain.

At Churchill College,Madelin Evans broughttogether archivists fromacross the University toshow off and explaincollections from Darwin toSir Fred Hoyle, polarexploration to IVF, coccolithphotographs to therecreation of scientificcorrespondence networksthrough the ambitiousEpsilon project (seewww.epsilon.ac.uk).

At the University Library,Katrina Dean bravelyorganised ‘What to do with my archive?’, howscientists and administrators need to work witharchivists to build for the future. Four speakers

took us from the selectionof ‘stuff’ at the WhippleMuseum through thecontinuing growth of theuniversity archive (www.repository.cam.ac.uk), thepreservation and sharing,digitally, of research andresearch data sets, andguidance on thepreservation of personaldigital archives, includingadvice to use properlymanaged earth-boundhard drives rather than riskcloud storage. The eventwas surely worth repeatingand a model to emulate.

A warning to read theterms and conditions ofcloud storage was vividlyexemplified by a Europe-wide distribution map ofcats, each one capable ofbeing zoomed to full viewwithout their or theirowner’s knowledge. (My cat Tischendorf now

pesters for at least his photographs to be sharedworldwide in this way, convinced as he rightly is ofhis beauty.) Liz Stazicker

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Cambridge Univ -ersity Library.Finally, he was aRecords Managerwith the BritishAntarctic Survey,based inCambridge, from2013 to 2016.

He turned 60last June and waslooking forward toretirement. Sadly,he died in his sleepin November,following a heartattack. He will besadly missed by all who knew him. Our thoughtsare with his wife Suzie, his brother Simon, and allhis family. Nigel Hardman

Vassall/Phillips pictured in 1984

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/coldwarhttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/coldwarhttps://www.jisc.ac.uk/training/making-your-digital-collections-easier-to-discoverhttp://www.archive-skills.com/training/index.phphttp://www.archive-skills.com/training/index.phphttps://www.eventbrite.co.ukmailto:p.williams@nls.ukhttp://www.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/the-janette-harley-prize/http://www.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/the-janette-harley-prize/https://epsilon.ac.ukhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.ukhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk

6 Spring 2019 BRA Newsletter 7

Records at risk Archive news

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Records PreservationDevelopmentsThe Records@Risk Steering Group is now wellestablished with representation from archivesand academic sectors in England and Wales. It is anindependent advisory body, supported by TNA andwill be lobbying for preservation of records at riskand co-ordinating projects to achieve this goal.

We have a definition of records at risk, which is:‘Records at risk regardless of format whose futurepreservation, accessibility and security is uncertain –particularly records held outside a recognisedcollecting archive institution, but not excludingrecords at risk from institutional failure of the recordcreator or the current custodian.’ We have alsomade progress on following objectives:A contingency fund for emergency storage/actionto save records at immediate risk: the BRA isworking with TNA on arrangements for holding thisfund. The steering group will finalise terms ofreference and eligibility as well as raising funds so itcan open for applications and has already beenalerted to several collections which might need help,including records of National Union of Mineworkersin Barnsley and Salter’s Steamers in Oxford.A website page (britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/records-preservation)to advertise the group’sactivities, to allow people to alert us to records atrisk and to provide advice. An event to raise awareness in the researchcommunity of records at risk. This is being arranged

by TNA for the autumn as part of its HigherEducation Archive programme as the ‘final’ event inthe celebration of the Historical ManuscriptsCommission 150th anniversary celebrations.

Helping othersThe BRA is working on a title deeds project with theFamily History Federation and has been approachedfor advice on organising archives of private andcharity organisations. We had a table at the BritishAcademy day in March on Voluntary Organisations,Archives and Records and spoke to several smallcharities concerned about their record-keeping. Weare helping our neighbours in Cowcross Street withtheir records, notably the Public Monuments andSculpture Association, and continue to finalisedeposits of material left over from the RPS.

Alison Cassidy has finished lists of the BRArecords deposited in April 2017 and is working onthe BRA archives previously deposited at LondonMetropolitan Archives, improving descriptions sowe can merge the archive lists and make all ourarchives available for research. There is alreadyacademic interest in our work on salvage duringWorld War II and we have received some requestsabout deposits made as far back as the 1930s,including a new owner of a property wishing toreclaim their deeds, so it is important that we haveour own archives in order!

Penny Baker outlines the progress made by the steering group in the past few months

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Alfred Allnott’s gift to New College of El Greco’s painting of St James

Nine services getscoping grantsNine archive services haverecently each received scopinggrants of up to £3,000 from theArchives Revealed fundingprogramme. The grants fund anexpert assessment that enablesarchive services to gain a betterunderstanding of the needs,content and significance of theircollection and plan for improvedcollections management and the

future development of thearchive.  

The nine services are: theLighthouse Archive, the RoyalSociety of Sculptors, theTavistock Institute of HumanRelations, Wheal Martyn ChinaClay Museum, the British DeafHistory Society, Scottish Opera,Coventry Cathedral, TowerHamlets Local History Libraryand Archives, and the TheatresTrust. Archives Revealed is apartnership programme

between The National Archivesand The Pilgrim Trust, supportedby The Wolfson Foundation.

More archivesaccreditedTNA has awarded accreditedstatus to Rotherham Archivesand Local Studies Service; RoyalCollege of Physicians of LondonArchive; Suffolk Record Office;the Postal Museum: the RoyalMail Archive, and Wirral ArchivesService. The accreditationacknowledges the continuingdevelopment of their servicearound the management, careand access to their collections.

Archive Trust motors to successThe Motorway Archive Trustcollection, held by GlamorganArchives, is this year’s winner ofthe John Armstrong Award forTransport Archives. The award,which is a one-off cataloguinggrant of £4,000 jointly funded bythe Business Archives Counciland the late John Armstrong, willenable the Trust to catalogue itscollection material related to thebuilding of the M4 and A55. 

The records date from 1939 to2010 and include reports, corres pon dence, contracts,photographs and plans. Theproject will be completed byAugust 2019.

Box of delightsDundee Archive’s first donationof 2019 arrived posthumouslyafter a friend of Isabell Phil, whodied in October 2018 aged 98,found a note left by her to‘please offer [this box] to DundeeCity Archives or the Nine Tradesarchivist’. The box containedmany items of historical interestincluding World War IImedallions, a 1953 ration book,letters and old familyphotographs.

New College Library andArchives, Oxford has set up anew online Archives Gallery,featuring some of thefascinating and beautiful itemsin its extensive collection,including some stunningmanuscripts and early printed

and rare books. Some of thecollege’s oldest documentsdate back to the 11th century.

The galleries are available toview on three web pages:new.ox.ac.uk/archives-gallery,new.ox.ac.uk/manuscripts andnew.ox.ac.uk/antiquarian-gallery.

Visual treasures now online

Archives is the peer-reviewedjournal of the British RecordsAssociation, whose aims andobjectives it seeks to promote.

Published twice-yearly byLiverpool University Press, itcontains essays, case studies andreports on all aspects of archives.The next issue will be mailed tomembers in summer. ✦ We welcome submissions andare always keen to receive work

by early-career scholars. ✦ There is no upper limit onlength of submissions, but 8,000words including notes issuggested. ✦ Submissions must be theoriginal work of the author(s) andmust not have been publishedpreviously, or be about to be.

For more information, pleasecontact Dr Ruth Paley: editor@britishrecordsassociation.org.uk.

Archives

https://www.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/records-preservation/https://www.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/records-preservation/https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/archives-galleryhttps://www.new.ox.ac.uk/manuscriptshttps://www.new.ox.ac.uk/antiquarian-gallerymailto:editor@ britishrecordsassociation.org.ukmailto:editor@ britishrecordsassociation.org.uk

13–15 July 2019St Anne’s College, OxfordDame Iris Murdoch (right), bornon 15 July 1919, read Greats atSomerville College, Oxford in1938 before going on to have arenowned career as a fictionwriter and philosopher, whichincluded returning to Oxford asPhilosophy Fellow at St Anne’sin 1948.

The Iris Murdoch ResearchCentre at the University ofChichester will be holding acentenary conference inassociation with St Anne’s,which is providing the mainvenue, and Somerville, which ishosting an exhibition of majoritems connected with Murdoch.

The conference will bepreceded by a public lecture atthe Bodleian Library on 12 Julyby Professor Peter Garrard ofSt George’s Medical School,London. For more informationemail frances.white@chi.ac.uk.

BAC Grants openfor applicationsThe Business Archives Council(BAC) is welcoming applicationsfor the Cataloguing Grant forBusiness Archives and a newgrant for Business Archivesrelated to Sports, which replacesthe previous Arts grant.

The grants are for £4,000 eachand their aim is to fund thecataloguing of a businesscollection in the private or publicsector and to provide financialsupport for institutions orbusinesses that manage businessarchives; reach collections thathave not yet been prioritised buthave potential academic orsocio-historical value; create

opportunities for archivists, para-professionals or volunteers togain experience in listingcollections, and increase accessto business collections.

For more information visitbusinessarchivescouncil.org.uk.Deadlines for applications forthe grants are 25 June and 26July 2019 respectively. Previousapplicants are welcome toreapply but the BAC will notaward a grant to the sameinstitution within three years.

HMC at TNATo commemorate the 150thanniversary of the creation of theHistorical ManuscriptsCommission (HMC) in 1869 byRoyal warrant, a one-dayconference is being held on 12June at TNA with a focus onreflecting on the history andachievements of HMC throughseries of dialogues betweenexternal and TNA speakers.

GSHQ revealed10 July 2019–23 February 2020Science Museum, LondonCoinciding with the 100thanniversary of GCHQ, thisexhibition explores more than a

century’s worth of communic -ations intelligence throughhand-written documents,declassified files and previouslyunseen artefacts from theScience Museum Group'sand GCHQ’s historic collections.Admission free; advancebooking required:www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/top-secret.

Other events20–22 May The CatholicArchives Society Conference,Ushaw College, DurhamTickets: £185 members; £195non-members. More info fromwww.catholicarchivesociety.orgor emailjonathan.bush@durham.ac.uk.

31 May London History Day2019: The Past is Yet to Come,10.30am–4pm at LondonMetropolitan Archives, LondonEC1R 0HB.Admission free: register atwww.eventbrite.co.uk.

5–6 July Annual Conference of the Oral History Society,Singleton Campus, SwanseaUniversity. Tickets: from £70www.ohs.org.uk/conferences/conference-2019/.

8 Spring 2019 BRA Newsletter 9

Events and GrantsIris MurdochCentenaryConference

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How well arewe at work?Janet Foster and Jessamy Harvey report on Archives: Wellbeing Impact Seminar

Representatives of the archivessector – mainly local authorityarchivists, as well as those linked tospecialist repositories including businessand consultants – came together inBirmingham in March to discuss waysto measure wellbeing in relation toarchives, with specific mention ofimpact and the National LotteryHeritage Fund bids (formerly HLF).

The morning presentation was givenby Ingrid Abreu Scherer from WhatWorks Centre for Wellbeing, anindependent centre supported by theEconomic and Social Research Centreand partners to produce evidence ofwellbeing in specific areas, such asculture and communities. The centredefines wellbeing as ‘how we experiencelife’, including quality of life, health andbelonging, and translates publishedresearch into effective interventions. InMarch it published a report on Heritageand Wellbeing based on 3,500 papersand reports, of which 75 were includedalthough none were directly related toarchives. It appears there is a lack ofbody of evidence within the archivessector that can feed into these reports.

A key aspect of wellbeing, asmeasured by the centre, is based on lifesatisfaction – not happiness but abalance between pleasure and purpose.We were introduced to severalframeworks, such as ONS4 andWEMWBS among others, but the

participants generally thought thatthese were not useful to the sector. Anexception was the UCL WellbeingMeasures Umbrella.

After lunch, we worked in groups inresponse to set questions from TNA toprovide data towards designing atoolkit for measuring wellbeing impactof interactions with archives. (Someparticipants had understood that theseminar would be reviewing an existingtoolkit rather than working towardsdeveloping one – no such thing as afree lunch!) The discussion tended tofocus on impact and volunteers, whichexcluded discussion around thewellbeing of archivists, some of whomare working in difficult circumstances,and users.

The examples provided to kick-startdiscussion were not adequate in thecontext of archives, but after somebrainstorming each group deliverednotes about what we understoodwellbeing to be, why we were curiousabout it and whose wellbeing we wereinterested in, with some suggestions asto how this could be measured. Weawait the TNA write-up towards anarchive specific Wellbeing ImpactToolkit. Janet Foster is an archives andrecords management consultant andTreasurer of the British RecordsAssociation. Dr Jessamy Harvey is aresearcher and archives assistant.

Further information and resources✦ UCL Wellbeing Measures Toolkit by Thompson and Chatterjee,www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/sites/culture/files/ucl_museum_wellbeing_measures_toolkit_sept2013.pdf✦ Change Minds, a joint project between Norfolk Record Office, theRestoration Trust and Together for Mental Wellbeing: changeminds.org.uk.✦ https://whatworkswellbeing.org.uk

This is the first in aseries of threearticles focusing onwellbeing. Futurearticles will look atDisplay ScreenEquipmentassessment forarchivists and theAlexander Techniquefor archivists

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mailto:frances.white@chi.ac.ukhttps://www.businessarchivescouncil.org.ukhttps://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/top-secrethttps://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/top-secrethttps://catholicarchivesociety.org/training-events/conference-agm/conference-2019/mailto:jonathan.bush@durham.ac.ukhttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-history-day-2019-tickets-59157277008https://www.ohs.org.uk/conferences/conference-2019/https://www.ohs.org.uk/conferences/conference-2019/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/sites/culture/files/ucl_museum_wellbeing_measures_toolkit_sept2013.pdfhttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/sites/culture/files/ucl_museum_wellbeing_measures_toolkit_sept2013.pdfhttp://changeminds.org.ukhttps://whatworkswellbeing.org

BooksA confused heap of papers

Susan Bennett traces the history of the archives of the Royal Society of Arts

In 1778 a Mr James Dunn wasappointed to assist the Secretarywith the task of indexing thecorrespondence and papers that hadbeen sent into the Society of Arts(founded in 1754 and granted thetitle ‘Royal’ in 1908). He found a‘confused heap of papers’ and,despite his ‘best endeavours andstrictest care’ over a period of 18months, it had proved impossibleto put the papers in strictchronological order.

He came across small bundlesof different dates and yearsmixed in with larger groupings of

corres pondence, drawings and sampleswhich had been submitted for theSociety’s awards. From this heap hefilled 12 folio volumes covering theperiod 1754 to 1766 and produced anindex for these Guard Books.

No further attempts appear to havebeen made to formally catalogue orindex the rest of these loose archivesuntil the RSA, the third oldest nationallearned society, approached itsbicentenary. In the 1950s they appointedhistory graduate David G.C. Allan tocarry out an evaluation of the archive.

The Society took an active interestin agricultural, artistic, economic,educational and scientific progress byawarding monetary and medallicawards. The rise of new and specialisedsocieties together with the restriction onpatented items led to a decline insubmissions by the mid-19th century.Prince Albert’s acceptance of thePresidency saw the Society lay thegroundwork for the Great Exhibition of1851, and it continued to supportnational and international exhibitions.The RSA turned from awarding

premiums to a lecture-based pro -gramme to inform its work as well asestablishing an examinations system.

Allan unearthed correspondence,papers and drawings scattered aroundthe RSA’s headquarters building, whichit had occupied since 1774, includingtea-chests full of letters dating from themid-1800s which had been stored in thecoal cellars. The original organisation ofthe material had been lost. He indexedthe early material in relation to therelevant premium committees butwhereas he had identified the authors ofthese early papers, much of thecorrespondence dating from the 1840sonwards was put into a loose alphabeticalsequence for later cataloguing.

However, in surveying this materialhe came across a letter from Karl Marx,dated 28 May 1869, acceptingmembership of the Society. Culls of thislater material have taken place onseveral occasions but there are stilldiscoveries to be made, such as a letterdated 30 May 1908, on ‘Votes forWomen’ letterhead, in which MrsPankhurst asked her assistant to enquireabout the availability of the RSA’smeeting room for use by the NationalWomen’s Social and Political Union.

As well as correspondence andpapers the archive holds the Society’sMinute Books, committee minutes,including those for the Committee ofCorrespondence and Papers and theCommittee of Miscellaneous Matterswhich, Allan reported, are the mostuseful sources for studying the Society’streatment of its early archives. Thecollection also contains drawings,including a dog drawn by an 11-year-old Edwin Landseer, and trial paintingssubmitted for the Society’s ‘Polite Arts’

10 Spring 2019 BRA Newsletter 11

Karl Marx looks forward to

membership of the Society

Top: trial paintings submitted for the Society’s ‘Polite Arts’

premiums. Above: 18th-centurytextile samples in the Guard Books

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premiums, the remnants of theEarly Library and 19th-centuryexhibition catalogues.

In 1997 the RSA received asubstantial grant from theHeritage Lottery Fund to ensurethe future accessibility of theSociety’s archive. A ProjectArchivist was appointed to overseeover two years the creation ofsecure archival strong rooms andthe establishment of aconservation programme forfragile items, such as the GuardBooks with their samples of dyes,textiles and other items. He alsochose CALM to re-catalogue theearly archive for online searches(calmview2.eu/RSA/CalmViewA).

The current RSA Archivist EveWatson, has initiated a scanningprogramme to provide moreonline accessibility. Email her atevelyn.watson@rsa.org.uk toarrange to see the archives.Susan Bennett is HonorarySecretary of the William ShipleyGroup for RSA History, foundedin 2004 to build on the work ofthe former RSA History StudyGroup set up by Dr Allan.

Sisters of Sinaiby Janet SoskiceVintage Books (2010), £10.99 paperbackIn the second half of the 19thcentury, sisters Agnes Lewis andMargaret Gibson travelledseveral times to the Middle East.Their inherited wealth, passionfor learning and curiosity ledthem to make discoveries ofmajor importance to scholars:they found some of the earliestknown versions of the Gospels.

Their self-ordained researchinvolved learning severallanguages including Arabic,Syriac, Greek and Hebrew;acquiring palaeographic skills;negotiating access to material;purchasing items that had foundtheir way on to the market;translating, deciphering andunderstanding what they hadfound; becoming skilled in takingand developing photographs;

and making sure the documentswere catalogued, preserved andpublicised. Along the way theylearnt to survive arduous, some -times dangerous situations andto ride camels.

Between 1892 and 1906 theymade six visits to St Catherine’smonastery, Mount Sinai, andgained the confidence of theArch bishop and the monks. As a

result they were shown itemsthat the Greek Orthodoxmonastery was normallyreluctant to disclose.

Agnes and Margaret workedunder appalling conditions attimes, and many of themanuscripts were in a terriblecondition too. When they werefilthy and stuck together, thesisters steamed them open usingtheir camp kettle, often findingunderwriting of crucial early texts– palimpsests. To read them theyused a chemical reagentrecommended by the Keeper ofManuscripts at the BritishMuseum, and they were sure totake and process photographs –which became vital evidencewhen some original items weresubsequently misplaced or stolen.

News of their initial discoverywas announced as soon as theyreturned in 1893. Meanwhilerecognition, when it came,included honorary degrees fromuniversities in Germany, Irelandand America – but not fromEngland, which did not awardwomen degrees then. Theirdogged determination andarchival achievements makeSisters of Sinai a fascinating andenjoyable read. Julia Sheppard

Manual for Survivalby Kate BrownAllen Lane, £20 hardbackThe official death toll of the 1986Chernobyl accident is 54 andstories today suggest that natureis thriving there, but historianKate Brown, a professor at theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology, uncovers a moredisturbing story. Based on adecade of archival and on-the-ground research, Manual forSurvival is a gripping account ofthe consequences of nuclearradiation in the wake ofChernobyl and the plot byinternational organisations tocover it up.

http://calmview2.eu/RSA/CalmViewA/mailto:evelyn.watson@rsa.org.uk

12 Spring 2019

Fascinated by foundlings➦

BACK

You’ve written extensively onGeorgian Britain – what’s theattraction for you? So few people learn about theGeorgian period at school, whichis a shame. Many of the themesthat preoccupy our society today– how to live well in an urbanenvironment, how to deal withunprecedented social change andwhat solutions could be found toproblems such as poverty,environmental degradation, theexpansion of global empires andastonishing technologicaladvances – took off in the 18thcentury. It’s endlessly fascinating.What led you to write aboutthe London FoundlingHospital?  For my last book, I’d done someresearch on the composer Handelusing records held in the GeraldCoke Collection at the FoundlingMuseum. Handel was a tremend -ous philanthropist whose workbenefited the Foundling Hospital,and it led me to look at their mainarchives at the London Metropol -itan Archives. They’re fascinating– unique insights into how thepoorest members of Londonsociety lived – and they make forwonderful and terrible reading.

How long did thebook take to write? About five years. What were the mostenjoyable aspects ofwriting it?  Probably the sectionswhich deal with thefirst-hand experiences ofthe children raised atthe Foundling

Hospital. The diary of GeorgeKing, which runs throughout thebook, was pure gold. It’s the onlydetailed diary by a foundling bornin the 18th century, and itincludes his eyewitness accountfrom below decks of the Battle ofTrafalgar.How hard was it to build apicture of the lives of childrenat the Foundling Hospital? Many historians have alreadylooked at what happened to thechildren while they were at theHospital; I was interested in whathappened to them when theywent out into the world. I had tostart with the register ofapprenticeship records and thento try to link the various kinds ofevidence. There were just under6,000 entries on firstapprenticeship.

I had tremendous help fromarchivists, a team of researchers,and colleagues. With researcherhelp, we compiled a database thatenabled me to make nominallinkages with other sources. Thatapproach can be a nightmare ifyou have too many ‘John Smiths’but fortunately the FoundlingHospital Governors were fond ofgiving the children distinctive

names, so that helped a bit.What were the most surprisingdiscoveries you made? The main surprise was that so fewfoundling boys became soldiers orsailors. A huge number in factwent to work in traditional small-scale industries and retailing, or inthe new factory systems oragricultural labour. What’s your next project?I’m exploring two ideas – one onwellbeing and old age, andanother on how we could lookagain at the history ofindustrialisation from theperspective of climate change.These are the big issues of ourtime, and historians must getinvolved with the discussion.

Interview by Sarah Hart

Helen Berry, Professor of British History at Newcastle

University, talks about her latest book Orphans of Empire

Orphans of Empire by HelenBerry is published by OxfordUniversity Press, ISBN9780198758488 (£25 hardback)