Tag: #itemofthemonth

Library by the sea: the first printed catalogue of the Bamburgh Castle Library

Way before the existence of the large online library catalogues we are now familiar with, libraries users would have had to visit a library to find if it held the material they were interested in, or they might be able to consult a printed catalogue. Today, these printed catalogues are valuable to researchers and librarians interested in what libraries used to have on their shelves and how the library’s contents changed over time. They tell us about former library management practices and collection development. They offer an insight into what was considered appropriate reading material. Where libraries no longer exist, historic catalogues are important witnesses to how knowledge and information circulated among communities. They are occasionally also a source of information about who could use the library and on what terms.

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Item of the month: From tea rooms to decontamination centres – developments at South Shields sea front in the 1920s 

plan showing concrete platform with swimming bath and tennis courts, identifying parts of beach and land north of Lawe Road from different deeds, and marking row of buildings with red and blue hatching.

A post by archivist Andrew Gray

August means summer holidays.  And for many of us, summer holidays means days at the beach.  So this month, we celebrate the beaches at South Shields, and in particular the development of the foreshore north of the pier (Littlehaven beach) in the 1920s. 

Our item of the month comes in the middle of this development, so first some context.  The end of the 19th century saw the transformation of local government, culminating locally in the formation of South Shields County Borough in 1889. In 1896, the Corporation had got Parliament to pass the South Shields Corporation Act, “… to make better provision for the health and good government of the Borough and for other purposes.”  This gave the local authority extensive powers (among others) to acquire new lands, to regulate the use of the seafront and public bathing, and to lay out and manage public parks. During the first decades of the 20th century, they took advantage of their new powers, and development of the foreshores at South Shields was typical of this new ambition. 

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Item of the month: First world war novel or anonymised memoir: ‘The Crown Prince’s Jewels’

The Sudan Archive recently accessioned the papers of Philip Ingleson (1892-1985) and his wife Gwen (née Fulton, 1896-1986). Philip Ingleson was Governor of Darfur from 1935 until his retirement in 1944, his period in office probably extended due to the war. Unusually, Ingleson also served as governor in Halfa (1931-1932), Berber (1932-1934) and Bahr el Ghazal provinces as well. He thus must be one of the few people to have governed in north, south and west Sudan; he began his career in the Sudan Political Service in 1919 as an Inspector in Um Kedada, Darfur.

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Item of the month: 1933 Essay Book of Georg Backhaus

A post by Jenny Coulton, Archives and Special Collections Graduate Intern

This month marks ninety years since a series of events which culminated in the Nazi monopolisation of power in Germany. On March 23rd 1933, the Enabling Act was passed, allowing the Nazi party to pass legislation without the approval of the Reichstag. From this point onwards, a slew of vitriolic propaganda and indoctrination was produced, mentally preparing citizens for war, and encouraging them to denigrate certain social groups. Much of this indoctrination occurred within the classroom, and this month’s item was produced in such an environment.

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Item of the month: Codrington College, Barbados. After a drawing by the bishop of Barbados

A post by University Archivist Jonathan Bush

This print of Codrington College, Barbados, was sketched by William Hart Coleridge (1789-1849), the bishop of Barbados and the Leeward Islands, and is one of the earliest examples of lithography by William Louis Walton (1808?-1879). The date of printing is uncertain, but likely to be shortly before the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), which abolished slavery on a gradual basis in most parts of the British Empire.

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Item of the month: Ye Peakrel, a Winster Christmas hodgepodge, 1878

A post by Collections Assistant Jennifer Leach

Content note: Historic material will reflect the language of the original creators. Voices, objects and images from the past can display attitudes, opinions and relate to events which may be viewed as biased and offensive in today’s society.

As Christmas is fast approaching, this month’s item shows how a family in 1878 brought some festive cheer to those around them. This is a humorous newsletter “Imprinted at Winster Hall, in the County of Derbyshire, at the private press of Llwellynn Jewitt, F.S.A”, sold for the princely sum of “Nowt!” for private distribution. The newsletter states that only 25 copies were printed so perhaps these were to amuse friends, family or neighbours in the Christmas season.

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Item of the month: A disastrous royal funeral, 1821

Every month we’ll showcase here an item from our Heritage Collections.

The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was a dignified and solemn occasion observed by millions around the world. In marked contrast the funeral procession of Queen Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821), slighted consort of George IV (1762-1830), was a disorderly and violent affair. The queen, exiled and reviled by the Prince of Wales and then king in favour of his mistresses, had in the years of their estrangement become a figurehead for opposition Whigs and radicals pushing for parliamentary reform, a position she clearly revelled in. Her return from Europe after the accession of her husband caused riots but her support reached its peak in the parliamentary trial brought by Lord Liverpool’s Tory government. Her decision to attempt to attend the coronation – George IV had been careful not to issue her with a ticket – proved a step too far for popular public opinion and having been physically barred from several entrances to Westminster Abbey she was jeered by the crowd. She died within the month.

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