Hi everyone! I am now officially past the half-way point of the internship, but I still feel like there is so much more I need to learn and so little time to do it in.
This week in particular has been very informative, as I have been involved in a few different things apart from AtoM and the press cuttings.
As some of you may know, preparations for the garden party on Saturday are in full swing. The party, given for the benefit of our Friends, Partners and Trustees is an excellent opportunity for me to see a whole other aspect of the Archive in action. I have heard so much about different people I have yet to meet in the Archive offices who have such an influence on the work we do here, and I am looking forward to finally putting faces to many of these names. I am also excited about seeing all the displays and presentations that I heard were a huge hit the last time. It will allow me to learn about the work I am involved in from a whole new perspective. Come back next week for an update on this!
I was also able to put my thinking cap on this week as we tried to come up with a new potential service to offer Heritage Partners who wanted to handle archiving their own material. It was an eye-opening experience to realise that perhaps the recording and storage of information is not as straightforward as I thought. There were many different aspects we realised we would have to cover, from the logistics of storage to the digitisation of information, especially without a facility like AtoM. I am hoping to stay involved in this process and share the importance of the proper preservation of history with others who want to learn to do the same.
I am also looking forward to another session on development of the new website. There are a lot of people working very hard to bring it to you, and I am delighted to be a part of the process. When using websites in my everyday life, I never realised how much effort it takes to produce a good one. It has made me aware of the things technology allows us to take for granted, as well as look out for pitfalls that others may have fallen into, so that we may avoid them. Keep watching this space for more updates on the site, and we look forward to hearing your feedback when it goes live!
As usual, I read some truly fascinating stories as I catalogued cuttings this week. I know I usually write about my favourite restoration efforts here, and I did read about some truly lovely ones, but this week the stories that caught my eye had a slightly darker aspect. There is a rather macabre story about Gibbet Mill and how it got its name. At first I thought the name was perhaps some kind of sick joke, but apparently, two Irish tradesmen murdered their colleague over money at the mill, and the perpetrators were executed and gibbetted at the mill! How unfortunate that of all the history that this mill must hold, it is this event that makes up its identity.
I had also read about mills being used as mapping guides in general, but I came across a short submission this week about the futility of camouflaging Bidston Windmill in Cheshire during the war if other landmarks in the area were not to be treated the same way. It made me realise the military importance of these buildings, and how crucial they were to strategy and the safety of others.
If any of you have any fascinating stories of your own, any questions for me, or any feedback, please let me know in the comments below. Thank you all for continuing to follow me on my journey, and check back with me here next week for more updates!