The blog for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
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
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 Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist, with thanks to Major Graeme Green of the York Army Museum for his invaluable help and advice. In 1860 Major Alexander Elliot exhibited a new painting in London. Entitled ‘The Charge of the Heavy Brigade, Balaklava, Ukraine’, it commemorated a remarkable but often overlooked action of the Crimean … Continue reading ‘Scarlett’s Three Hundred’: The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava
Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist In April 2015 we launched Project Genesis, an ambitious two year project to create the Institute’s first online catalogue using AtoM, or Access to Memory, a web-based, open-source application for archival description and access. One year on, we are proud to announce that the Borthwick Catalogue (or Borthcat … Continue reading Introducing the Borthwick Online Catalogue
‘We had a boy of 17 with us in the holidays, one of the dearest people I’ve ever known. He was asked to write the enclosed for someone in Canada, & did it in the hope that it might help people to understand that the persecution is not made up of isolated pogroms, but of … Continue reading Holocaust Memorial Day
Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist In 1975 a portion of the archive of the Christian Faith Society (CFS) was transferred to the Borthwick Institute from Lambeth Palace. The transferred records concerned the manor of Brafferton in Yorkshire, which had been purchased in 1694 as a landed endowment by the trustees of what would … Continue reading Brafferton Manor and the Indian School at the College of William and Mary, Virginia
Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist. In March 1915 an application was made for two little girls to be admitted to St Stephen’s Orphanage in York. Contrary to its name, those admitted to St Stephen’s were not necessarily orphans in the accepted sense of the word, the rules of admission required only that girls … Continue reading A Tale of Two Sisters
Written by Gary Brannan and Sally-Anne Shearn Sunday 13th September saw the presentation of the British Comedy Society’s Living Legends of Comedy Award to the writing partnership Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. Often thought of solely as comedy writers, the Marks and Gran Archive held at the Borthwick illustrates their wider work in the development … Continue reading Living Legends: the Marks and Gran Archive at the Borthwick
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 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