Whilst Dorset History Centre is primarily known for its archive of historical documents, we also hold the Local Studies library, packed with books on places, people and subjects relating to Dorset as well as titles by the local authors, such as Thomas Hardy, William Barnes and the Powys family. We even have some sheet music!… Read more Archives A-Z: L is for Local Studies Library
In our thousands of records there are a wide variety of old jobs mentioned, many familiar to us in the 21st Century, but some which seem slightly peculiar to modern audiences. For this Archives A-Z we thought we would use the letter J to look at some of the more unusual jobs of old in… Read more Archives A-Z: J is for… Jobs of Old
We may have cheated a little with this entry, but we felt it was a good excuse to tell you a little more about what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ inside the repository. What are the repositories? Repositories (or strong-rooms) are the temperature and humidity controlled spaces which store all of the records we hold… Read more Archives A-Z: I is for Inside the repository
House history is something we frequently get asked about here at Dorset History Centre. There are a whole variety of reasons why knowing about a property can be important, be them legal, academic or just plain curiosity. We hold a range of sources which can help house historians find more information about their property. Maps… Read more Archives A-Z: H is for houses
At this time of year many of us are spending our free time in the garden. Our collections reveal a passion for gardening going back centuries. Changing fashions Plans for alterations to the grounds at Frampton House demonstrate the changing fashions in eighteenth century garden design (reference: D-SHE/22). In 1778 a survey of the grounds… Read more Archives A-Z: G is for gardens
Our 8 miles of shelving includes a special room for audio-visual material – film, photographic and audio records. This room is slightly drier and cooler than the paper and parchment repositories. Physical items are stored in archival packaging and labelled with a reference number so we can find them again. The challenge is that the… Read more Archives A-Z: F is for film
April sees the 18th annual International Edible Book Festival (yes, it’s a real thing!). So, we’re sharing a few examples of insects that enjoy eating books and other materials found within an archive, such as paper, adhesives and leather. Please note that these pests were not found at Dorset History Centre! We have an extensive… Read more Archives A-Z: E is for edible archives
‘Digital’ is all around us, every day. Working in archives is no different. We are just as interested in your photographs, meeting minutes or maps in a digital format as we were in paper. If something has historical value and will be interesting to be people in 50 or 100 years then we want to… Read more Archives A-Z: D is for digital
There are almost 320,000 records in our archive catalogue. This is the place where items in our collections are arranged and described so we can find what we’re looking for. If you have used archives before you will know that our catalogues aren’t arranged by place, subject or date. Instead, records are grouped according to… Read more Archives A-Z: C is for catalogues
It won’t surprise you that Dorset History Centre contains a LOT of boxes. Our environmentally controlled repositories have a capacity of around 49,000 archive boxes – not including oversize items. The boxes are made from materials that won’t have any negative effects on the unique items they contain. Collections arrive with us in various states… Read more Archive A-Z: B is for boxes
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