Borthwick Newsletter - January 2023

Posted on 5 January 2023

Welcome to the Borthwick's January newsletter

January in the Archives - delve into our catalogues with this month’s featured description

Julia's engagement to Joseph Rowntree, and good wishes for the new year [Rowntree Family Papers, [Jane] Ransom, Benslow Hill, to Julia Seebohm, RFAM/JS/VC/29/13]

What’s new?

Between 12th and 16th December, we had our annual Collections Development Week, which is when we spend concentrated time working on all the aspects of archival work that it can be tricky to get to throughout the year. Over that week, we catalogued, retroconverted, packaged, reshelved, and cleaned. Hoovering the strongrooms and washing our bookrests and document weights, whilst something we keep on top of throughout the year, is a really important part of our conservation work during this week. We also finished the huge task of reshelving all the material we’d sent off-site over the summer whilst we had our shelving upgraded. We cleared a whopping 9 pallets of boxes and have got them all back into their usual places in our strongrooms. We also worked on more than 10 individual collections, cataloguing and refining descriptions, and making over 800 new entries in Borthcat - see our ‘New Catalogues’ update below for more details!

Work on the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust archive has continued apace - with all 2,600 files and 303 boxes (plus 4 loose ledgers) all boxlisted now! Ongoing work on the archives of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has also resulted in box lists for 124 additional boxes of material (1,256 new files), with just four boxes of material left to list before they can all be added into the catalogue. Watch this space for updates!

New Accessions

In December, we took in additions to the archives of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, the University of York, the British Orthopaedic Association, Trevor Wishart, Alcoholics Anonymous Great Britain and Frankie Howerd.

New Catalogues

Twelve jars of Craven's Sweets from the 1980s

We’ve got a bumper crop of new catalogues and lists this month, having added the boxlists for the Marks and Gran archive and the Barry Took archive to Borthcat, as well as the newly retroconverted parish record lists for Brayton, Warthill, North Grimston and Strensall parishes.

We’ve added a number of new full catalogues too, including the Darrell Buttery Papers, the John and Mary Todd Archive, Cravens Confectioners Archive, the British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (BOFAS) archive and the York Spiritualist Centre Archive, as well as the papers of Clifton Hospital Amateur Operatic Society, Charles Peake, Alan Frank Wakelin, Frederick and Mary Sayers, and a series of papers relating to the Diocese of Middlesbrough. One of the most interesting small collections catalogued are the letters from Richard Wood to Brigadier General Bethea, dated 1945, regarding McCloskey General Hospital in Texas, which mention the hospital's work with injured soldiers, the occupational therapy it offered, and meetings with 'amputee cases'. In fact, many of the catalogues reflect a military theme this month - the BOFAS archive includes an interesting volume on the Army Foot Survey, published in 1952 by the National Research Council of Canada, and the Sayers archive concerns Frederick Sayers experiences in the Second World War including contemporary diaries of his active service and corresponding diaries of life at home in wartime Manchester from Mary Sayers. The updated entries for Strensall parish also include documents relating to the licencing of the garrison church of St Wilfred for weddings in 1940. Even our confectionery collections have a military link too - the papers of John Todd, added to our archive for his records relating to the creation of the Aero, also include his military medals and service certificates.

You can see a newly created guide to all our military collections on our website.

Number of archival descriptions on Borthcat on 1st January 2023: 116,238

Borthwick Out and About

We were really pleased to contribute four exhibition cases showcasing just some of the highlights from our collections, all on a Christmas theme, for a December fundraising event run by the Vice Chancellor and the Office for Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni (OPPA). We included a medieval archbishops register, records from Rowntree & Co, Christmas TV past and Christmas cards and poetry from the front lines of the First and Second World Wars, including the poem ‘Chance Memory’, by the Borthwick’s own former director, Canon J.S. Purvis.

Promotional image for BBC programme Digging for Britain including a profile shot of Professor Alice Roberts and a listing for each episode of the series

Earlier in the year, our Access and Digital Engagement Archivist, Laura Yeoman, did some filming for the latest series of the BBC’s Digging for Britain, highlighting the story of York anchoress Isabel German through records we hold here at the Borthwick. You can catch the episode on BBC iPlayer now - we’re episode 6, from about 17 minutes in!

On Wednesday 11th January, join our Art Curator, Helena Cox, for her upcoming talk ‘The art of the possible: the York art collection and the public good’, where she’ll be exploring the richness of the University’s art collection and how it can support both teaching and research as well as a deeper engagement with the city of York and wider global community for the public good. Book your tickets!

There’s still time to explore two ongoing art exhibitions on campus too. ‘We Are York - Celebrating Local Artists of Colour’ is an exhibition of contemporary art located in the lobby of the Berrick Saul Building, and ‘Concrete Opinions’ is an exhibition curated by undergraduates and is in the lobby of the History of Art Department. This exhibition features artworks from the University’s art collection, spanning 1960s to the present day. Both exhibitions are free and open to all!

Archive of the Month: The records of the Women’s Land Army

What is it? Papers relating to the Women’s Land Army from the archive of Lady Celia Milnes Coates.

Where can I find it? The papers are boxlisted on Borthcat

Why is it Archive of the Month? This collection, although only comprising a few boxes, provides a really rich insight into the lives of Land Girls based on farms in parts of North Yorkshire during and after the Second World War. It contains the names of hundreds of women who left their homes to live on farms, in boarding houses, and in hostels, working together or alone. We know that the work was hard, the hours long, and the conditions often challenging, because they tell us so in their own letters, and in the reports of the North Riding committee and the group of county ladies who acted as local organisers. The archive shows us both sides of the land army; the bureaucratic work needed to keep it functioning, and the physical and mental stamina of the land girls who carried out its mission - as well as telling stories of new skills learned, friends made, and connections to the communities and families the land girls worked in, having often travelled far from home.

The work of the WLA, and their associated service the Timber Corps, also changed the North Yorkshire landscape - both requiring ever-increasing supplies of food and timber to fuel the war effort. Large swathes of woodland were felled, and crop and dairy production significantly intensified. Lady Celia’s surviving papers include records of North Yorkshire farms from 1940-1942, recording acreage, stock, crops and numbers of workers. As part of the North Riding War Agricultural Committee Labour Subcommittee, Lady Celia reported on the training and preparedness of the WLA, but also retained detailed notes about male farm workers who were being called up, or being released from military service on account of their reserved occupation. These records provide a detailed insight into changes to farming across North Yorkshire, and into the types of work with which agricultural workers were involved - including beekeeping, harvesting hops, potatoes and turnips, hay production, ploughing, hedging, milking and market gardening.

The National Archives have recently released 90,000 digital images of their Women’s Land Army Index through Ancestry, and it contains records relating to many of the women also recorded in our collection. This exciting resource will help researchers and families to trace the life stories of individual land girls and to explore their wartime experience. You can also find out more about the Land Army records we hold here in our podcast from last year!

The front cover of the the Land Girl magazine from Septermber 1940, including a pen and ink sketch of a land girl on the left, holding a bucket, facing a cow on the right.

We’ll be back with more news next month!