This is the fourth blog in our series on the railway plans. In the last part we explored how the plans are graded, which informs how our Conservator approaches the work. Due to the large number of plans a volunteer, Clare, was taken on to help conserve those plans graded two. These plans mostly require… Read more The work of a Conservation Volunteer
The work of an Archive Conservator is diverse. One day could be spent looking through a microscope, consolidating flaking pigment with a 000 brush, the next we could be using a backing hammer to shape the spine of a book. A Conservator’s toolkit needs a plethora of tools to ensure we have the right instrument… Read more Tools of the Conservation Trade
In the third of a series on the railway plans we hold at Dorset History Centre, Jenny Barnard, the Conservator here at Dorset History Centre details the problem of conserving the large railway plans we hold. — The railway plans present a complex conservation challenge due to three main aspects: their size, the material from… Read more The challenges of the railway plans…
In the second of a series on the railway plans we hold at Dorset History Centre, Colin Divall, emeritus professor of Railway Studies at the University of York, describes why the railway plans are such an important source of information. — Building railways meant land, and land meant property. By the 1830s, when mainline railways… Read more The Importance of the Railway Plans and Sections
Within the strong rooms of the Dorset History Centre are a collection of extremely popular and highly used documents. It may come as a surprise to some that these documents are plans of railway undertakings. Whilst they don’t have the immediate visual appeal of an illuminated manuscript or estate map, the information they provide can… Read more Getting the records back on track!
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…)
Many of us have carefully stowed our treasured photographs and newspaper clippings into albums for safekeeping. Unfortunately some albums, particularly self-adhesive varieties, are actively deteriorating those items we hoped to protect. I had the privilege of working on a collection relating to the Burma Campaign of World War Two which included photographs, newspaper clippings and watercolours. These… Read more Remembering the Burma Campaign
Treswell’s Survey contains the first pictorial description of Corfe Castle, alongside a series of beautiful maps of Dorset, but their full charm could not be accessed due to the volume in which they were bound. Our Conservator describes releasing the maps so they could be justly appreciated. The Treswell survey, ‘Maps of Dorsetshire’, is a… Read more Bankes Archive: Releasing Treswell’s survey
Amy Ridgway shares her experience of working at Dorset History Centre during a placement for her history PhD. My usual use of Dorset History Centre (DHC) is as a researcher in the search room. As a history PhD student at the University of Exeter, I have been using documents from the Bankes Archive, namely account… Read more On the other side of the desk
Our Conservator has completed the conservation of a large parchment map belonging to the Shaftesbury Estate. Here she describes the challenges of working with this complex material. As the Conservator at Dorset History Centre, I have the privilege of working on some fascinating and intricate documents, and in 2015 my skills were tested when I… Read more The conservation of Wimborne St Giles parchment map
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