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MEMBERSHIP COUNTER
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The new style of card being issued to all
members during 2016. Please get in touch if you have not yet received it.
COMING SOON!The new edition of Magna is due out on 5 May. It will be
posted that day, and available online or for
collection from our lounge.
AN UPDATE ON ACTIVITIESTony Wakeford reports on current activities
and developments.
This year looks to be a promising one as we develop a number of different initiatives including engaging with Friends' organisations of County Record Offices and other archives across the country. We are hoping to establish an informal network of like-minded volunteer organisations so that we can share ideas, information and best practice. To that end we have joined the British Association of Friends of Museums (BAfM) – a nationwide umbrella organisation for Friends of museums and institutions of cultural and historic importance.
On 1 March we started Tweeting as another means of contacting our members and potential new members. Social media is not to everyone's liking but it is a useful additional means of communicating. We have attracted 103 followers already and over 500 visits to our profile page. We are following several organisations including The National Archives, the British Museum, and the Imperial War Museum. Tweeting will not replace our current means of reaching the membership; it is an additional facility that we hope will prove effective.
Our visits season has begun with a very interesting and informative talk by Dr Andrea Tanner at Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly on 5 April. The group saw some interesting items, including old brochures sent out to regular customers in the past, and the shopping list for Shackleton's voyage to Antarctica. Our thanks and appreciation to Andrea for hosting us.
Our next visit is to the BT Archives on 25 May. Many of the tours are fully or nearly fully booked, with a waiting list started for some of them. The schedule of visits can be found HERE. A big thank you to Tim Grimes for putting an interesting programme together.
Those of you who regularly visit Kew will be all too aware of the current building work in progress. That has affected our recruiting activities, with the team first being moved to the foot of the stairs and then briefly for a spell in the locker area. We are seeking a more viable temporary location and recruiting has be suspended whilst this is being resolved. However, we have done well with overall recruiting at around 50 new members so far this year.
Plans are under way for members' events: the railway conference in September, and also some talks by authors promoting their books. I hope to have more details available before too long. And finally, our AGM on 14 June at 5pm, at The National Archives. Full details and papers will be circulated with Magna.
FOLLOW US! #FriendsTNA
As part of a programme on the First World War, the Outreach Team at The National Archives designed a new project on the theme of care and comfort that ran from Sept 2015 to March 2016. The care and comfort theme focused on the stories of everyday humanity and friendship people demonstrated while apart from one another as a result of the war. Through writing letters, making cards and sending parcels, the project tried to simulate some of the experiences of people affected by the war. A project such as this was a means of giving people an accessible and engaging entry into commemorating the war.
Update on the Friends' supported Care and Comfort projectIqbal Husain updates us on this recent project, the latest in our collaboration with The National
Archives' Education and Outreach Department.
Of the many millions who served in the First World War, four million were non-European, non-white people. Their story has remained largely untold for too long. Many were illiterate, although with a strong oral tradition and many of the records that may have noted their service either do not exist anymore or are very hard to trace. The project sought to imagine not only how people in the UK stayed in touch with loved ones, but also – just as importantly – how people from around the globe wanted to remember or care for one another.
Working with two groups, one in Southall (Neighbourly Care) and the other in Battersea (Contact Club, part of the Katherine Low Settlement), we designed a series of creative making workshops with the artists Viv Philpot and Dorothy Tucker that allowed participants to reflect on the experiences people at the time of the First World War would have had in sending and receiving letters and gifts. In total we completed 10 two hour workshops with a total of 35 participants. Both groups praised the activity and the outputs and recognised how well it fitted with their roles as organisations providing befriending, counselling and socialisation programmes.
At the heart of the programme of activities was an opportunity for participants to make their own gift boxes inspired by the gift boxes Princess Mary sent to First World War personnel. Participants were able to personalise these to reflect their own cultural backgrounds. Working alongside the poet and writer, Aoife Mannix, they also wrote letters imagining themselves either as service personnel or as members of family and friends. They creatively imagined what they would say or send in such difficult circumstances.
The workshops culminated in a series of sharing events where each group sent the other items that it
believed the other group would like to receive. And this may be captured the extraordinary success of the project; its ability to engage people in activities they found both stimulating and enjoyable. In the absence of large collections of records at The National Archives capturing the everyday experience of service personnel and families, it is our ability to look closely and imaginatively at the official records, to make connections and to make them relevant to a far larger group of people that is key. In so doing, it provides an important insight into the war, a way for people to access the material and through the telling of very human stories a way of bridging gaps between people by highlighting what we share and not what makes us different. We therefore used our records as the spark for our creative activities. The numerous references in the official records to ‘care’ and ‘comfort’ provided inspiration for us and the artists to start devising and then delivering these activities.
The Friends have also been very generous in supporting a reception for both groups at The National Archives. This has allowed participants to visit The National Archives, in many cases for the first time, and also get an opportunity to meet one another. And who knows, this may be the start of a long and exciting relationship for them and their family and friends to the wonderful treasures of The National Archives.
At its heart outreach is about engaging groups, particularly those who may not have visited or know about The National Archives. Through a programme of activities both travelling to individual groups and at The National Archives itself, the project has aimed to develop relationships that are transformative, not only for the participants but for the institution itself.
We have raised over £1633!Please join the 53 members now using easyfundraising to help us raise even more funds. Please visit:
www.easyfundraising.org.uk
With Spring now in the air preparations for the 'Class of 2016' are well under way. Meanwhile, several pairs of Egyptian Geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca) have been popping
into the park from time to time.
THE NEXT EDITORIAL DEADLINESJune edition of Outreach: 5 June
November edition of Magna: 14 September
As the seasons unfold please share your pictures from Pocket Park for publication here or on our website. Please contact: [email protected]
For further details and to book please contact the Braye Beach Hotel on 01481 824300 or: [email protected]
SHAKESPEAREExhibition dates: 3 Feb - 29 May 2016Venue: Inigo Rooms Somerset House East Wing King's College London Strand London WC2R 2LSMembers are entitled to a 20 per cent discount. You can use the promo code TNAFriendW, when booking (use link below) or you can use this link which will automatically apply the 20 per cent discount at the payment page:
MORE INFORMATION AND BOOKING
Links and URLs are only available in the electronic version of this newsletter.
BEHIND THE SCENES TOURSOne of the benefits of your membership is the opportunity to see behind the scenes at Kew with Document Services and Collection Care. The tour on Tuesday 3 May is now fully booked and a waiting list has been started. However, there are still places available for the tour on Thursday 29 September.
Please contact Kelly Kimpton on:[email protected] or 0208 876 3444 ext 2391
The Sea and the Sky: The History of the Royal Mathematical School of Christ's Hospital, by Clifford Jones (published privately at £25 plus £5 postage).
David Walker draws our attention to an interesting recently published book.
For over 200 years from 1677 the Royal Mathematical School lifted 2,000 boys out of poverty to the opportunity, after an apprenticeship at sea, of appointment as masters in the Royal Navy, the East India service or the merchant marine. This well illustrated account, of 350 substantial pages, is therefore a valuable source for maritime history as well as family history. Its strength is its considerable use of the Christ's Hospital archives to describe the influence of notable governors, assessors from the Naval and Military Academies, and Masters of the Royal Mathematical School. Many pupils are mentioned by name, and some of their surviving workbooks, although with more about delinquent pupils than conformists, as usual in family history.
How substantially did the Mathematical School, and its textbooks, contribute to the successful navigation of British vessels? This assessment is hard to find, here or elsewhere. Nevertheless, this reviewer's appreciation of Mr George Thomas, master in the Admiralty Hydrographic Service from 1808 until 1846, gained much from Clifford Jones' description of the school, staff and textbooks - as well as the additional details he kindly provided from the registers. The Sea and the Sky is published privately, in aid of the Christ's Hospital Archives, and may be ordered from: [email protected]
VOLUNTEERS NEEDEDOur recruiting team, fondly referred to as the Pressgang, is growing but we always welcome and appreciate extra help and support to share and spread the load.
If you can spare a couple of hours or more to volunteer in helping us then do get in touch. For more information about the role and what the team do please contact Howard at the email address below:
CONGRATULATIONSPatricia Blackett-Barber, a
former Secretary and member of Council, was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours for 'volunteer services to
Armed Forces Heritage'. Patricia collected her
award at a ceremony in March. We send her our
warmest congratulations.
