Behind the scenes at the archives: doing work experience with York St John’s Historical Archive collections
By Jasmine Reed and Connor Brown, second year History students at YSJ
As part of our History, Community and Culture module, history students such as ourselves were tasked with finding a work placement. Being interested in the world of archives, myself and another student were given the opportunity to take part in a project placement based within the York St John archives. Here we would not only get a peek into the archives themselves, but also the ways in which contemporary sources are catalogued in online systems and stored in specialist temperature-controlled rooms. As the placement progressed, we were able to dive into cataloguing a range of items such as photographs and magazines dating from the mid-19th century up to the late 20th century, all depicting student life at both the York (St. John) Diocesan Training College and the Ripon Training College. As this post will show, this placement was more than just looking at historical pieces as the placement tested our organisation, teamworking and research skills to name a few. Overall, this placement opportunity was not only enjoyable but also gave us some vital experience working within the historic sector.
Cataloguing – Photographs
For our first project, we catalogued photographs that were donated by family members of old students. The first step to cataloguing was to learn how to use the online archives and how to catalogue a source. Cataloguing the photographs correctly was important, as it helps archivists and historians understand what the archive includes as well as the details of sources. We decided to catalogue the photographs in year order, making it easier to collate all photos in the same year.
Within the photos there was a lot of sport photos from the men’s college, at the time known as York St. John’s Diocesan Training College. It was incredibly intriguing to see the photos and the diversity of sports offered to students. There was a variety of sports being shown in the photographs from the regular sports the men played like rugby and football, to the athletics and gymnastics team. With some of the photographs, there was a list of names of students on the team. We made the decision to catalogue the names making finding individuals within photographs easier.
It was interesting seeing the same people in multiple photographs, for example, Rev H. Walker was a common face in the photos. Being principal from 1908-1935, he had a reputation of not being liked by the students for his strictness, petty regulations and for not understanding ‘that the students were not young lads but men…’. We then arranged all photos in date order for it to be stored in a better layout.
After the men’s photos, we moved onto cataloguing the women’s photos. These photos were strikingly different to the men’s in that there were largely only year photos for the women, and a complete lack of sport or other activities pictured. Being mainly from the pre-1960s, these photographs perfectly reflect the unequal attitudes, morals and principals between the two gendered colleges; especially as the female students at Ripon were encouraged to partake in more ‘domestic’ tasks.
Cataloguing – Magazines
After the photos, we catalogued old magazines from both colleges. The first set of magazines that needed to be catalogued were the White Rose Magazines, Spread-Eagle and the Ripon College Association produced for the students at York St John and Ripon College respectively. Impressively, the White Rose magazine produced over 70 volumes of the magazines published from when it first started in 1893 up until the 2000s, and some years had multiple prints. Like with the photographs, we catalogued them and arranged them in date order, so it was easier to find the exact magazine more easily.
Both White Rose and Spread Eagle had similarities in the content of the magazines. They listed different articles written by students about a variety of topics, such as the different theatre productions put on and short stories. Both magazines include a list of students as well as those who have graduated from the colleges. The men’s magazine from after 1918 include pages of “fallen Yorkists” and it is a list of students who lost their lives or was marked missing from the First World War, we found this interesting and a nice touch to the magazine to honour their sacrifice in such a devastating war. On the lighter note, the St. John’s magazines also contain more satirical pieces, with drawings of comedic caricatures and written jokes. Comparatively, the Ripon College Association magazines appear to have less of a student input and instead are more focused on documenting events such as balance sheets of receipts and expenses, as well as chapel accounts for example.
Creating Displays
On the more creative side of things, we were given the chance to create displays centred around the photographs, letters and books we had been cataloguing. This challenged us to think about how we wanted to display certain items and how we wanted people to engage with the display. After some consideration and experimental planning, we decided we wanted to go for a display that was easily accessible (i.e., placing captions and pieces that could easily be seen at a glance) and placing the pieces in order by year, creating the illusion that the audience could be looking at the college through the years. We had freedom in its creation, being able to pick and choose a selection of our favourite photographs and magazine volumes. We picked photographs such as one of the first principal of the college William Reed, a class photograph from the 19th century, beautiful drawings from students depicting the front the college and the streets of York (found in the White Rose Magazines) and felt inclined to include the infamous Principal Reverend H. Walker (‘Taggy’), who appears in the group photographs more times than one can count.
Reflections
Jasmine Reed
For me personally, this placement was more than just a great opportunity to get a feel of working in an archival environment. While I gained valuable experience working with archival systems such as Archive Hub and how to catalogue items in a systematic and organised order, it also gave me the opportunity to work first hand with primary sources, those of which I am all too familiar with as part of the history course. During the cataloguing of the photos, it was particularly interesting to match names to faces, and be able to research more about certain photos using the student magazines we had previously catalogued. Furthermore, it was especially intriguing to note the differences between the Ripon Training College’s magazine (the Ripon College Association) and the York Training College’s magazines (the White Rose and Spread Eagle) in terms of content. For example, the White Rose (men’s) issues had sections dedicated to sports results and ex-students lists while the Ripon College Association (women’s) had sections dedicated to births and marriages instead. Overall, from being able to see the archive storage room with its abundance of beautifully decorated books from the Victorian era, to being able to physically handle parts of the collection, my time at the York St. John archives has been an enjoyable experience all around.
Connor Brown
The placement was a one-of-a-kind experience as I got to understand the importance of the archives and how managing it and ensuring sources are catalogued correctly can benefit the user. It has also been great in working on displays and showing off the history of the college and how it has transformed since the 19th century through different photos, as well as important documents produced by students like the letter of reminiscence from the Second World War. The new skill sets I have learnt from working in the archives would benefit me in the future when I am working on my career, and it may lead me into a career path I have not anticipated, as it was such an enjoyable experience.
