Archives West Midlands

Last day to register for in-person attendance at our conference is today (11 Aug). For online delegates registration continues to start of the conference. Find out more here. openingdoors.eventsair.com/ara2025/
Conference dates are 27-29 August in person in Bristol, UK and online

New #DigitalHistory site:

South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories

"explores the links among South Asians across the United Kingdom, as well as the connections between South Asians and other groups in Britain, from the 1830s to the present day."

southasianbritain.org/about-databa...

#History 🗃️

We've extended the booking deadlines for our ARA2025 conference: In person - by 11th Aug and online right up to start of conference. Find out all about the conference here: openingdoors.eventsair.com/ara2025/

#skystorians 🗃️#archives

Photograph of the Modern Records Centre exhbition space featuring cabinets full of archive material and a poster advertising 1965 on the wall.

👀We've got a brand new exhibition - "1965: The Year When..." which dips into the archives to explore stories from that year, the year when the University was founded. See a taster here: warwick.ac.uk/services/lib... or pop in during our opening hours. On until 19th September!

A free course to help you and your colleagues become carbon literate AWM is offering its members are free one day course in carbon literacy.  TThe course aims to improve awareness of the carbon emissions with regards to archives, records management and special collecti...

#ArchivesWM members a free one day course in carbon literacy! Run twice to maximise members’ opportunities to attend. Increase your awareness of the carbon emissions with regards to archives, records management and special collections. Developed by The National Archives & the Carbon Literacy Trust.

Hundreds of medieval medical manuscripts now accessible Over the course of the last three years, and thanks to the generous support of the Wellcome Trust, the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project has been enhancing the discoverability of medieval m...

190 mss, over 7000 pages of medieval medical recipes, 42000 new images, 7700+ texts, new cataloguing, imaging and conservation treatments - oh my!

We're so pleased to have been part of Curious Cures
Congrats to @theul.bsky.social and everyone who worked on it 🎉👏👏
www.lib.cam.ac.uk/stories/curi...

The National Archives are holding a webinar
🗓️17 September (2pm)
to launch ‘Spaces, Places and Belonging’ Community Hub – a national programme supporting inclusive, community-led research across the UK’s galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and heritage sectors 👇
#ArchivesWM #archives

Records Management Advisor | 27 July, 2025 | Jobs and careers with Staffordshire County Council Jobs and careers with Staffordshire County Council - An opportunity has arisen to join Staffordshire County Council as part of a forward thinking and innovative team at an exciting time of informatio...

📢 Job Opportunity📢
Records Management Advisor with Staffordshire County Council

2024 - 2025 - Portals Cataloguing Grants Awarded 2024 The Mulberry Bush Organisation – £39,615 With the help of Archives Revealed, The Mulberry Bush are undertaking a project to catalogue the historical records of The Cass...

Update!
This year #ArchivesWM member service Sandwell #Archives received funding for its “Illuminating Chance Glass” cataloguing project. A project archivist is now on board with the project moving forward. The Chance Brothers collection spans the the early 17th Century to the early 20th Century.

Snap Time. For Master and Man. The Warwickshire Miners Strike, which was provisionally settled by an additional five minutes allowance, centred round the question of snap time, concerning which the late Sir Alfred Hickman, Chairman of the Warwickshire Coalowners Association, wrote to a contemporary as follows: “There may well be differences of opinion as to whether fifteen minutes is or is not sufficient time for the necessary refreshment, but there can be none as to whether the Warwickshire men should take a longer time than all the rest of the country. With leisure follows course on course Of soup, fish, entrees, sweets, But when his miners ask for more “Snap” time, Sir Alfred bleats. The miners say, “ What’s good enough For you, will do for me; Come take your lunch along with us, And quickly you will see That fifteen minutes in eight hours, Is not exactly fair, To give us in a filthy mine, But we don’t think you care.”

#OTD 'Larry' produced a cartoon highlighting the Warwickshire miner’s strike of 1909. The cartoon neatly contrasts working conditions and attitudes between workers and owners at a time of growing industrial unrest.

More 'Sentinel' cartoons online at cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

Beep-Beep, Yeah! Read about our next Feature Exhibition - Beep-Beep, Yeah!: The Sounds and Songs of the Motor Car - due to launch in July this year!

Beep Beep!
New exhibition at one of #ArchivesWM member services.
The British Motor Museum, Gaydon, Warwickshire explores the sensory connection to the sound of a car in a brand new exhibition space.
The museum also holds the world's largest collection of British cars.

Online & free
@womenshistnet.bsky.social conference
The theme Women in Archives, Museums & Personal Collections
📅4 & 5 September (Can register for one or both days)
#Archives

Flyer (pink background with text in black) details of free carbon literacy training for Archives West Midlands member services

Flyer (pink background with text in black) details of free online carbon literacy training for Archives West Midlands members services

📢Calling #ArchivesWM members📢
Free online course in carbon literacy for your staff and volunteers. The course will run twice, in September and repeated in December.
All details👇
@mrcwarwick.bsky.social @shakespearebtrust.bsky.social

Exhibition News! Visit Sandwell Archives to celebrate 40 years of the West Bromwich African Caribbean Resource Centre
Monday 4 August– Friday 29 August 2025
#ArchivesWM

Environment and sustainability at ARA’s 2025 Conference — Archives & Records Association Last year’s conference had as its main theme sustainability and we continue to provide a focus on how we can all tackle climate change and balance environmental sustainability with the sustainability ...

Last year’s conference had as its theme sustainability. This year's conference continues to discuss the environment & sustainability. In this article we highlight those sessions dealing with this theme:
www.archives.org.uk/news/environment-and-sustainability-at-aras-2025-conference

Book by 5th Aug

SfNP Two Decades in Digital Preservation: Reflections on Lessons Learned ARA Section for New Professionals meets with Sharon McMeekin to learn from her experiences in Digital Preservation

Confused about where to start with digital preservation? Come along and find out in our demystifying session with @sharonmcmeekin.bsky.social, Wed 23 July, 15:00:

Do you have ancestors from Shropshire?
Or do you live in Shropshire with an interest in family history/genealogy?
If so Shropshire Family History Society can offer support and have resources available to help you in your research.
Take a look at their new website 👇

And I forgot to add you can listen to our podcast on this project - The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland - featuring Zoe Reid (pictured in the article) here sites.libsyn.com/448569/beyon...

A conference for all record keepers — Archives & Records Association The ARA Conference is a great opportunity for Records Managers, Information Governance professionals and anyone involved in digital preservation. Uniquely in the record-keeping sector our conference ...

The ARA conference is for all record-keepers: including Records Managers, Information Governance professionals & digital preservation. It attracts people from a range of disciplines setting innovation & best practice into a wider context.

www.archives.org.uk/news/a-conference-for-all-record-keepers

Drawings of women modelling tennis outfits from 1920. Article includes instructions on how to make your own tennis dress. From the Young Women's Christian Association archive.

Anyone for tennis? #Wimbledon #Tennis

"If so, be sure to provide yourself with a frock that will allow you room to move and leap and to stretch your arms".

To look this stylish follow the instructions in 'Our Own Gazette' 1920, part of the YWCA archive.

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/YWC/...

Records Specialist: 19th Century/Modern Parliament at The National Archives Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top...

The National Archives are looking for two Records Specialists to join their Collections Expertise & Engagement department #jobs

#Archives #JobKlaxon - top job in Cumbria! recruitment.cumbria.gov.uk/trentl_webre...

Poster using one of John Harris's photographs taken at Orgreave on 18 June 1984. It shows a police officer in riot gear mounted on a police horse, leaning across to strike a woman with a baton. The woman is looking open mouthed and has one arm raised in an attempt to protect herself. The caption on the poster reads: 'She was only trying to help... Lesley Boulton lifts up her arm to protect herself from a police baton, writes Joy Copley. Her crime? She was trying to help a picket with crushed ribs outside Orgreave coking works'. The poster was published by Twentieth Century Press Ltd. and is part of the Report/IFL Photographic Bureau archive (document reference: 1179/6/6).

Poster published by the printing union SOGAT on behalf of the National Union of Mineworkers. It includes the caption 'Stop the police state' and an image of a police officer in uniform with an arm band marked with the letters 'SPG' (Special Patrol Group). The police officer is giving a Nazi salute in front of a colliery (including pit head wheel). The poster is part of the archives of the National Union of Mineworkers, which is currently being catalogued.

Policing, the Miners' Strike and the Battle of Orgreave

Posters produced during the 1984/5 strike from the archives of Report/IFL Photographic Bureau and the National Union of Mineworkers

95 digitised sources on support groups and the dispute online at cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

Anyone can vote for nominees for our ARA Excellence Awards. We have 2 nominees for Record Keeper of the year and 5 for Record-keeping service. If you are in #London #Essex #Falklands #Gloucestershire #Buckinghamshire #Ireland you have skin in the game! www.archives.org.uk/ara-awards

People interested in this might also like to know that the archives of Dorothy Thompson, historian of Chartism and related movements and wife of E.P., is at the University of Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent: libstaff.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/co...

🚨Did you know we have over 9000 images digitised and able to view and purchase on our York Images webpage. 

🔎Delve into the history of York by browsing through our categories or search to fit your research needs or curiosity desires.

👇Link Below👇

https://images.exploreyork.org.uk/Default.aspx

Exciting opportunity with the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (BMIHT ) is seeking an Archivist (Cataloguer) to play a key part in the collections information, development and management of the BMIHT Archive, ensuring tha...

📣Job opportunity in Warwickshire📣
The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (BMIHT) is seeking an Archivist (Cataloguer) to play a key part in the collections information, development and management of the BMIHT Archive.
Closing date 29 June 2025.
For more details 👇

Remembering Coal: Legacy, Memories, Heritage The University of Birmingham is hosting a one-day event titled Remembering Coal: Legacy, Memories, Heritage to mark its links with the mining industry. Click to download the conference programme. T…

Remembering Coal. One-day event at the University of Birmingham next Monday (16 June). Details…
sslh.org.uk/2025/06/11/r...

Photograph of 13 small children captioned 'Performance of the Council's propaganda play "A Health Pageant," by the scholars of an L.C.C. Infants' School'. One child is dressed as a possible nurse. The rest are wearing placards containing a range of public health messages including 'Play in the open', 'Bath often', 'Clean your teeth', 'Haste to bed' and 'Drink water'. Only one of them ('Play in the Open') looks particularly happy about the situation. The image is from 'Health and cleanliness : a text book for teachers', published by the Health and Cleanliness Council in 1938.

From 'Breathe through your nose' to 'Care for your feet', a cast of largely unimpressed London infants spreading the municipal health message in 1938

More excellent health advice available through our digitised sources on British healthcare, 1900-1948, at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...