{"id":3193,"date":"2022-07-08T08:30:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T08:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=3193"},"modified":"2022-07-08T07:17:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T07:17:58","slug":"first-impressions-of-working-at-dorset-history-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2022\/07\/08\/first-impressions-of-working-at-dorset-history-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions of Working at Dorset History Centre!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello! My name is Kate and I started working at the Dorset History Centre in early June. For anyone wondering what it\u2019s like to work in an archive, here are some of the things I\u2019ve got up to in my first few weeks as a History Centre Assistant.<\/p>\n

Much of my time has been spent answering enquiries from researchers all over the country. I\u2019ve been struck by the range of enquiries we receive, from people wanting to pinpoint the locations of buildings in old photographs, to questions about a 1936 motorcycle accident in which the pillion passenger was saved by a blackberry bush! One of the most interesting I have looked at so far related to patients at Herrison Hospital<\/a> in the early 20th<\/sup> century. The records of their illnesses and experiences at the hospital are both fascinating and tragic. And some of the books they are contained in are ENORMOUS!<\/p>\n

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I have come across many weird and wonderful records already, and no doubt there are many more yet to be discovered! One of my jobs has been to sort through our collection of rare books (which is very exciting, as I have previously worked in a library and LOVE books, especially old ones!) There are some beautiful volumes covering really interesting subjects, but one of the gems for me is a book entitled Adultery Anatomized: In a Select Collection of Tryals for Criminal Conversation. <\/em>If you\u2019re wondering what criminal conversation is (I was too!) you can find out here<\/a>. Written in 1761, the book details some of the highest-profile trials for criminal conversation brought to the English courts, including one involving people residing in Dorset.<\/p>\n

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In all, there are over 800 books within the rare books collection. They may be \u2018rare\u2019 because they\u2019re first editions, limited in number or even the only surviving copies. You can search the rare books collection using the list in our Local Studies Library or have a look on the\u00a0LibrariesWest online catalogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, a lot of people who visit the Dorset History Centre do so to learn more about the history of their families. I\u2019ve not done much family history research myself, but hearing colleagues\u2019 and visitors\u2019 family history stories inspired me to look into my own. I had a go with Ancestry, but after much confusion surrounding the disappearance of my great-great-grandfather\u2019s wife Ethel and the appearance of an older woman he had \u2013 apparently \u2013 been married to for ten years, I became very stuck! Still, I\u2019m told the difficult stories are the most rewarding when you eventually do unravel them, so I\u2019m planning to persevere.<\/p>\n

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I couldn\u2019t finish without saying how exciting it has been walking through the repositories looking for documents. To me they seem like Aladdin\u2019s Cave, full of treasures waiting to be discovered! Sometimes, searching for a particular record has been frustrating (it turns out not all the documents the History Centre holds are catalogued \u2013 there are just so many records and lorry-loads of boxes have been arriving just in the short amount of time I\u2019ve been here!) But at least every time I go looking for a document I get to use the roller racking. I mean, who doesn\u2019t want to do that?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello! My name is Kate and I started working at the Dorset History Centre in early June. For anyone wondering what it\u2019s like to work in an archive, here are some of the things I\u2019ve got up to in my first few weeks as a History Centre Assistant. Much of my time has been spent… Read more First Impressions of Working at Dorset History Centre!<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[82,464,463,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3198,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions\/3198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}