The blog for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist One of the most enjoyable aspects of Project Genesis are the personal stories that emerge from the many and varied archives held here at the Institute. Most recently the addition of the Borthwick’s charity records to the online catalogue revealed the story of Grace Green and, through her, … Continue reading The Sextoness of Goodramgate
Written by Kath Webb. Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington didn’t visit the Retreat! The monarch would never have signed herself “Queen Victoria” in 1856, and the signature of the Iron Duke in 1821 fails to match up with authenticated examples. Mischievous or deluded patients from the democratic Retreat “family” were probably responsible for … Continue reading Who came to see the Retreat? A look through the Retreat Visitors’ Books
Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist. A month into Project Genesis and work has progressed from the horticultural records of James Russell to the Borthwick’s ‘private deposits,’ a group of some fifty archives that range in date from the 11th to the 20th century and in subject from the manors of mediaeval Yorkshire to … Continue reading The School Books of Thomas Skaife
This is one of a series of blog posts published as material from the Retreat archive is digitised and made available online. More information about the Wellcome Library funded project to digitise the Retreat archive can be found on the project pages of our website. Digital surrogates from the Retreat archive project so far are … Continue reading Rehabilitating John Summerland
Written by Jenny Mitcham, Digital Archivist, Borthwick Institute Arranging a tour of the grounds of the Retreat for a morning in January was a bit of a risk. We were truly at the mercy of the elements! We were fortunate however to have picked a day when there was no snow or ice on the … Continue reading Continuity and Change at The Retreat
Written by Sarah Griffin, Rare Books Librarian at the University of York Nowadays many books are produced with a ‘perfect’ binding where the pages are stuck to the spine and invariably split open as soon as any pressure is applied. They are still the common book shape we are all familiar with but they are … Continue reading Judging a Book By Its Cover
Written by Alexandra Medcalf. 1848 did not provide a good or happy Christmas for the Crosby family. On December 21st, the overseers of the poor for the parish of St Mary Castlegate in York applied to the Justices of the Peace for the city of York for the right to remove them. George Crosby was … Continue reading Poor Law Stories: George Crosby’s family and a Christmas Removal
Written by Martha Cattell, student intern. A fellow Intern and I are currently working at the Borthwick Institute for Archives and are putting together an exhibition about the history of Heslington Hall. The building itself has not always been the administrative hub for the university, and it used to be a grand country seat and … Continue reading Heslington Hall – Country Life
We are finishing off the series of Tuke work experience blog posts with an entry from Alex and Martha who looked at some views of York, and the Tuke house. We start with some views of York from Alex One of the most interesting items I have had the opportunity of handling this past week … Continue reading The Tuke Work Experience Project: Views of York
This week we continue our Tuke themed blog posts with a look at some of the poetry found in the collection, written by one of our work experience students, Rebecca. You can catch up by reading Part I here. Studying personal documents from the early nineteenth century, I inevitably found myself looking out for glimpses … Continue reading The Tuke Work Experience Project: Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Bonaparte?