February 2020

25 People Speak Out!

February 24, 2020DorsetHistoryCentre No Comments

In partnership with volunteers from Bournemouth’s LGBTQ+ community, Dorset History Centre is adding twenty-five queer stories to the Dorset Sound Archive. DHC has worked carefully over eighteen months to shape a project and are delighted with the results. Trained volunteers, who collaborated on the design of the project, spoke with people from their early twenties… Read more 25 People Speak Out!

Dame Elisabeth Frink at Christie’s Lates

February 17, 2020DorsetHistoryCentre No Comments

David Johnston-Smith, the project archivist currently cataloguing the Dame Elisabeth Frink archival collection, was delighted to be invited to speak at a recent Christie’s Lates event on 13th January in London. David was due to be introducing the archival collection to the large and enthusiastic crowd these popular evening events encourage, whilst Annette Ratuszniak, former… Read more Dame Elisabeth Frink at Christie’s Lates

The Diary of John Foss: February 1851

February 10, 2020DorsetHistoryCentre No Comments

We are sharing a monthly look at the farm diary of John Foss, written from his dairy farm in Kingston Russell in 1851. February 1851 February starts with “a very rough wet morning new moon & Eclips in the sun”. Whilst there was an eclipse on the 1st Feb 1851, it was in the southern… Read more The Diary of John Foss: February 1851

Archiving the Archive

February 3, 2020Digital Team No Comments

As well as collecting archives from all around the county we are keen to preserve materials from a little closer to home. For many years archivists have been adding to the Dorset Record Office collection (D-1931). Yes – we archive ourselves!

As with other organisations, we are interested in keeping records which reflect the activities we are engaged in and the decisions we make. This includes projects we have led such as the Unlocking the Bankes Archive project and the Diary of RSM George Beck.

A recent office tidy-up revealed a rather fun group of photographs of the Record Office of yesteryear. We think they were taken in the 1980s – when the Record Office was based at County Hall. The service moved to the current Dorset History Centre building in 1991.

The searchroom of course looks slightly different – then featuring drawers of index cards rather the computers we use now. However the interest in curious documents – whether they be long, small, holey or nibbled – remains to this day!

Black and white photograph of 6 people holding a very long archive document — A long read!

A black and white photograph of a woman wearing a deer stalker hat looking at a small document through a magnifying glass

Black and white image of woman holding up an old document and peeking through a hole in it — A holey document

Black and white photograph of a pretend bug about to be squashed by a hammer. — Pest control!

Black and white photograph of the archive searchroom with several researchers sitting at desks looking at archival documents — The searchroom

Black and white photograph of a woman standing on a stool in the archive repository reaching for a box. — The archive repository

Keep an eye on our Twitter account (@DorsetArchives) for more from this collection and how things look now!