Following the success of our previous Collections Fortnight, held in January 2024, staff at Dorset History Centre recognised that there is an ongoing need to spend two weeks each year working on many behind-the-scenes things that we cannot otherwise do when we are open to the public. We also learned that January is not an… Read more Collections Fortnight: December 2024
As part of the ongoing Thomas Hardy cataloguing project, we have been joined by Emma, an intern who is working alongside Dorset History Centre and the National Trust to unlock some of the gems hidden in the collection… — Some of you may have seen me at Dorset History Centre (DHC) if you are in… Read more The Empty Rooms Project and Thomas Hardy
Hello, I’m Ruth and I began working as the Thomas Hardy Project Archivist in mid-March. I have moved down to Dorset from West Yorkshire, where I was working at Special Collections and Galleries in the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds. Over the next sixteen months I will be creating a detailed catalogue of… Read more The Thomas Hardy Cataloguing Project is Underway!
A crowdfunding appeal by Dorset History Centre and partners Dorchester is home to the finest archive of material by and about Thomas Hardy in the world – that is, the primary sources which support and inform any new research into Hardy and his contemporaries. The archive is recognised by UNESCO as a collection of international… Read more Unlocking the Archives of Thomas Hardy – Dorset’s literary giant
With the exception of the fascinating recent blog about our conservator creating protective packaging for the wonderful plaster maquettes, it has been a while since we updated you about the exciting project to catalogue the archive of the renowned sculptor, Dame Elisabeth Frink. This collection was provided to Dorset History Centre in accordance with the… Read more Elisabeth Frink: A project update
Dorset History Centre is working in partnership with the National Trust at Kingston Lacy and the Priest’s House Museum in Wimborne on an exciting project focused on one of Dorset’s largest and most significant archive collections, that of the Bankes family. (more…)
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
Our recent work experience student, Ellie, shares her reflections on a week working in the county archives based at Dorset History Centre. Discovering archives I completed a week-long work experience placement at Dorset History Centre, discovering the archives and how they are managed. As this was the first time I had visited I didn’t have a clear idea of… Read more Work experience in the archives
Recently catalogued documents from the Poole Borough collection reveal historic attitudes to public punishment. The Tudor period was a bad time to be a criminal! Death sentences could be handed out for everything from murder to theft and even begging. In an era when public executions were common, and even seen as a form of entertainment, punishments… Read more Poole’s Pillory
Staff at Dorset History Centre have added the 300,000th entry to the archive catalogue and take the opportunity to shine a light on previously catalogued pieces of history. The archives described within the catalogue are diverse and include original manuscript and printed documents, audio-visual material, photographs, drawings, maps and plans, and, increasingly, digital records. This… Read more 300,000 records of Dorset’s past available to search online
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