The blog for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
Written by Neil Adams, Archives Assistant ‘Not a dry eye was to be seen, and the dreadful shrieks and sobs of the bereaved widows and the fatherless, in passing the habitations of the sufferers, were such, as to beggar all description – truly it was the scene of desolation’ (Yorkshire Gazette) Shortly after one in … Continue reading The Stillingfleet Tragedy
Written by Tracy Wilcockson, Conservation Volunteering Co-ordinator As the program of work to clean the Atkinson Brierley Architectural Archive reaches its milestone of 50% completion – that is a staggering 3167 plans cleaned – we thought that it would be worth looking back over the past five years, to consider the significant achievements and beneficial … Continue reading Halfway there… Conservation cleaning of the Atkinson Brierley Archive
Written by David Pilcher, Retreat Digitisation Assistant This is the second in a series of blog posts celebrating the Retreat archive and our digitisation project as it nears completion. The Retreat is one of the most important institutions in the care and treatment of mental health patients. Over the last two and half years, staff … Continue reading Spotlight on the Retreat archive: A splendid time is guaranteed for all!
Written by Jane Rowling, Retreat Digitisation Assistant This is the first in a series of blog posts celebrating the Retreat digitisation project as it nears completion. Over the last two and half years, staff at the Borthwick have been working through the Retreat archive, updating the catalogue, preparing the documents for digitisation, carrying out conservation … Continue reading Spotlight on the Retreat archives: A Window on the 19th Century Pharmacist
Written by Lydia Dean, YWT Project Archivist In my last blog about my project cataloguing the archive of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, I wrote about how I got started with the survey of this archive. In this instalment, I’ll be writing about my experiences in developing a structure for the archive, why it’s important and … Continue reading The Nature of the Job II: Structuring the archive of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist ‘Well I far from home but you are not out of my mind. I hope to be home by Christmas, if not before then.’ These words were written by 18 year old Private Thomas John Morgan to his 7 year old brother Llewellyn in May 1916. Two months … Continue reading Remembering Private Thomas John Morgan
Written by Lydia Dean, Archivist Back in the Spring of this year, we carried out two phases of user testing on our online catalogue, Borthcat. The key results of the first phase of testing are described over on our Digital Archivist, Jen Mitcham’s, blog, as well as some of the actions we were able … Continue reading Testing the online catalogue: results of user testing
In September I was fortunate enough to present a paper on the Borthwick’s new online catalogue at the International Council on Archives Congress 2016. Held every four years, the ICA Congress is a unique opportunity for record keeping professionals from all over the world to meet and share ideas and achievements and discuss the challenges … Continue reading Up and AtoM: The Borthwick Institute Goes To South Korea
Written by Lydia Dean, Archivist Earlier this year we were gifted a very exciting archive – the archive of James Hornby, head gardener at Heslington Hall between 1870 and 1902. This small but fascinating group of records gives us some real insights into the day-to-day role of a Victorian head gardener, and well as a … Continue reading James Hornby: Heslington Hall Horticulturalist
Written by Lydia Dean, YWT Project Archivist So, I’m about halfway through the 12 months of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust archive project – and what a six months it’s been! The time is going quickly; summer was filled with continuing the survey of deposited material, drafting and re-drafting an archival structure and finishing off my … Continue reading The nature of the job: surveying the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust archive