Use perspectives: cultural heritage sector placement on Honor Frost

Between February and April of this year Archives and Special Collections we were joined by Ma Xiu, a student studying for a MA in the Archaeology Department, as part of her professional placement in the cultural heritage sector. Ma learned about curation of archival material through her work transcribing the field logbooks of Honor Frost. This material included excavation notes, photographs and correspondence with Frost’s colleagues, in particular her work at Alexandria in Egypt.

I have been working for the Archives and Special Collections department of the Hartley Library at the University of Southampton. I’m focused on materials from one of the archival collections, the Honor Frost Archive (MS439). My main role includes transcribing Frost’s fieldwork reports and other documents, aiming to clarify the context of archival material and enhance its accessibility.

Honor Frost was a pioneering figure in underwater archaeology, noted for her groundbreaking work in the Mediterranean. Born in 1917, she transitioned from a career in art to archaeology, where she applied rigorous scientific methods to the study of submerged historical sites, notably around Alexandria, Egypt. Her contributions set new standards in the field, and her legacy continues through her writings and the Honor Frost Foundation, establishing her as a foundational figure in maritime archaeological research.

Honor Frost

Honor Frost’s contributions to maritime archaeology are particularly evident in her studies of the submerged sites at Alexandria. The reports filed under MS439/A4278/HFA/1/3/3 are a testament to her dedication and keen analytical skills. During her dives in 1968, Frost investigated the underwater ruins at sites like Silsila and Kait Bey, revealing the remnants of ancient structures that might very well be linked to the legendary Pharos of Alexandria or other significant historical edifices. These typewritten reports, painstakingly detailed, provide insights into the methodologies employed by Frost and her team, including stone sampling and careful observation of the underwater ruins’ layout and materials. The documents not only outline the findings from these dives but also include Frost’s recommendations for future archaeological undertakings.

Silsila Site:

Description and Findings: This location contains a complex of ruined buildings, evidenced by the presence of limestone masonry, columns, and other architectural fragments scattered across the seabed. The initial dive revealed the foundation of buildings, with granite and potentially marble components, indicating substantial structures once stood here.

Challenges and Recommendations: The site’s examination was hampered by sea conditions and the lack of adequate diving equipment. Honor Frost recommended the procurement of basic diving equipment for more thorough investigation and stressed the archaeological significance of the site, suggesting that further, more detailed exploration could yield significant historical data.

Kait Bey Site:

Description and Findings: The area shows colossal masonry and orderly ruins, suggesting a single significant building, likely collapsed due to an earthquake. Elements like statues, inscriptions, and architectural orders indicate this could be part of the ancient Pharos or a related temple structure.

Challenges and Recommendations: Similar to Silsila, the exploration was limited by visibility and equipment. The report suggests international interest and potential for excavation could make deeper investigation feasible. However, there are health risks due to pollution, and Frost suggests working conditions need to be improved for any substantial archaeological work.

General Recommendations:

1. Honor Frost recommends international collaboration for the excavation and study due to the potential historical significance.

2. She highlights the health risks from polluted waters and suggests solutions like adjusting work schedules or extending sewer pipes.

3. The necessity of proper equipment and professional salvage firms for lifting heavy masonry and ensuring efficient, safe excavation processes is emphasized.

4. The potential archaeological value justifies the cost and effort of excavation, with suggestions for UNESCO sponsorship and international funding.

Frost and others at the World Congress of Ancient Shipbuilding [MS439/A4278/HFA/1/3/1]

Currently, my work involves the transcription of six field logbooks that document Honor Frost’s fieldwork on the Pharos of Alexandria, recorded under MS439/A4278/HFA/1/3/1. These logbooks include letters, sketches, drawings, and photographs, which make the transcription process more vivid and narrative-driven. At the same time, challenges to my transcription work include the presence of French-language terms, cursive handwriting, and abbreviations.

Front cover of Honor Frost’s Alexandria logbook, 2005 [MS439/A4278/HFA/1/3/1]

The first transcript I produced corresponds to Honor Frost’s field log from her 2005 expeditions and interactions, primarily focused on archaeological investigations in the region encompassing Alexandria, Beirut, and other locations.

 Field Log Structure:

Correspondence: Two Letters between Frost and Dr. Jean-Yves Empereur discuss plans for archaeological site visits and studies, particularly in Alexandria. One letter is from a correspondent named Anne Marie.

Log Entries: Daily entries from 15 to 20 September 2005, describe her activities, visits to archaeological sites, interactions with colleagues, and the logistical challenges encountered, such as obtaining permits for site photography.

Useful information: Information about Alexandria, such as maps, attractions, rental fees and numbers and addresses for academics and institutions in Alexandria.

Colour photograph of a historical map of Port Alexandria [MS439/A4278/HFA/8/3/13/496]

Overall, Karen and Russell’s kindness and enthusiasm made my work in the Archives and Special Collections Department smoother than expected. Reflecting on my experience, I realize the significance of Frost’s legacy that goes beyond maritime archaeology. Her pioneering spirit, blending art and science, continues to inspire and shape the field. This placement has been more than just an academic exercise; it has been a journey through Honor Frost’s life and legacy. It has challenged me to consider the multifaceted dimensions of the past and reminded me of the enduring impact dedicated individuals have in the ever-evolving narrative of maritime archaeology.

Thank you to Ma for all her work and her careful transcription of Honor Frost’s logbooks; this was an important addition to our archival finding aids for this popular and very special collection.

User Perspectives: Charlie Knight on the Papers of Theodor Hirschberg

This week’s blog takes the “user’s perspective” format; we hear from Charlie Knight, Wolfson PhD Scholar in the Humanities, at the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, who has conducted extensive research on the MS314 Papers of Theodor Hirschberg.

On beginning my PhD at the Parkes Institute here at the University of Southampton in September 2021 my first port of call was at the Hartley Library Special Collections and a meeting with Karen Robson. My research interests broadly centred around the experiences of German Jewish refugees to Britain during the Second World War and thus the Anglo-Jewish archives promised to hopefully provide me with a collection of interest. A number of deposits were presented to me including the autobiography and correspondence of Desider Fürst (MS116/68), the papers of Dr Gerhard Kaufmann (MS334), and the letters and paperwork of Irma Lange and her son Hanns Lange (MS397). It was the papers of Theodor Hirschberg (MS314) however that eventually ended up as part of my doctoral research. A series of roughly 124 letters, mainly handwritten in German, the collection (as far as I am aware) had never been used for such research before and remained a largely unknown entity within the archive. Bought at auction in 2001, the collection comprises predominantly of correspondence written by and written to Theodor in the years 1938-41. MS314 equally comprises of a handful of notebooks filled with what appears to be chemical formulae which belonged to Theodor’s wife Therese Kronau whom he married in the 1950s. It is most likely through Therese then that the papers made their way to auction in the early 2000s.

Left: Young Ilse Böhm (undated), Private Collection of Sara Zamir; Right: Sara Zamir (Ilse Böhm) with the author, Haifa (January 2023)

But why these papers? The letters in MS314 are predominantly addressed to/received from three individuals: Theodore’s girlfriend Gertrud Lehman (1904-43), his step-maternal cousin Ursula Maria Gottschalk (1914-2007), and his paternal cousin Dr Ernst Böhm (1899-1940). From the collection we know Theodore wrote to a number of other relatives, friends, and associates during this period and beyond. Why this collection is incomplete is a mystery.

Translating Theodor

One of the issues with the usage of such rich collections is the linguistic difficulty for many students and researchers, myself included. It quickly became apparent that the papers of Theodor Hirschberg would require a professional translator’s eye beyond my own (lacking) German language ability. Kristin Baumgartner had previously worked for the AJRs Refugee Voices project and took on the task of translating Theodor’s letters. I asked Kristin how she approached such a rich collection as MS314:

“Before I started the actual translation of Theodor Hirschberg’s letters, I read through some of them to get to know him as a person. I wanted to understand his situation and the relationship to his correspondents. The German language is in general more long-winded than the English language and it seemed to me that these letters from 1938 onwards were particularly wordy. I didn’t just want to translate the content; I wanted to contain some of the structure and the feeling that this is a letter from more than 80 years ago without making it too complicated. I also didn’t just want to pass on the information of the letter. I wanted to give an idea who Theodor was as I got to know him. One can of course not be sure to “know” a person one has never met and only knows from old letters. However, I paid a lot of attention to details and came back to drafts several times. I considered various possible meanings of a word and sometimes felt it necessary to put a note in to explain why I had decided for a specific one. I also put in some explanations when there is no perfect equivalent.” [1]

A composite letter from members of the Böhm family in Antwerp to Theodor Hirschberg in London [MS314/1/77]

Expanding the Archive – Finding Sara Zamir

One of the most substantial correspondences within MS314 is that between Theodor in London and his cousin Dr Ernst Böhm (1899-1940) in Antwerp. Ernst’s mother Rosalie – Theodor’s maternal Aunt – married Siegfried Böhm, and together they lived in Brieg (now Brzeg, Poland) with their only son. Ernst’s relationship with his cousin Theodor seemed to be one they both cherished; in a letter to his maternal aunt Else Kunz, Theodor wrote that he ‘feel[s] such strong affection for my cousin and his children that his fate is at least as important to me [as Hans Walter Hirschberg’s]’. [2]

Ernst’s wife, Elise ‘Elli’ Heppner (1897-1942), was the daughter of the noted Rabbi and historian Aron Heppner (1865-1938); together, Ernst and Elise had two children Ilse (1928-) and Siegfried (1930-42). [3] Despite having no Rabbi or Jewish school in Brieg, the Böhms were a religious family, in a majority secular small Jewish community.^[4] Ernst’s father Siegfried had run a private bank at their home at LangeStraße which Ernst sold to a (as of yet unknown) larger bank. In 1938, Ernst was arrested in the November Pogroms and sent to Buchenwald; when he was eventually released on 5 January 1939, he was ordered by the Breslau Gestapo to leave Germany as soon as possible or risk being reimprisoned in another camp. Through various cities and journeys Ernst, his wife, his mother, his two children, and his sister-in-law Edith, travelled as far as Antwerp after being conned out of various travel documentation and finances.

From MS314 I was able to reconstruct their journey, financial and legal battles, and their attempts to leave continental Europe for the safety of another country. Although the letters stop in 1941, one of the last letters to mention Ernst, addressed from Theodor to a friend of his, Mary Dohan who worked at the Christian House for Refugees in London, reveals his fate and Theodore’s feelings over this:

“My cousin and friend, died in a camp in Gurs, Basses Pyrénées in early January at the age of 42. […] I do not know the cause of this death. Maybe pneumonia which led to his death due to the notoriously appalling hygienic conditions. I don’t know if he had been informed about his mother’s death. He was the world to her and he spent all his life with her until the 10th May 1940 [German invasion of Holland and Belgium] and except for the two months in the concentration camp Buchenwald. He was a man of exceptional qualities and even as a young man very successful; with great diligence he committed himself to charity work in particular as the head of his Jewish Community.” [5]

Ernst had been interned in St Cyprien Camp before being transported to Gurs. After learning of the death of Ernst and his mother in the letters I attempted to discover the fates of the other members of their family – Elli, Edith, Ilse and Siegfried. Through the online database of the Arolsen Archive (formerly International Tracing Service or ITS) I was able to discover the fates of Elli, Edith and Siegfried all of whom were deported to Auschwitz Birkenau in October 1942. Ernst’s daughter, Ilse, however was nowhere to be found in the available material. I was later surprised to find a Yad Vashem Page of Testimony written in Hebrew regarding Elli, usually written by a surviving relative, a translation revealed that the page had been written in 1999 by Sara Zamir. It only took a quick Google search to uncover that Sara Zamir was indeed the missing daughter Ilse Böhm from the MS314 deposit. Resident in a nursing home run by the Christian Zionist group ‘International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’ (ICEJ), Sara Zamir today lives in Haifa surrounded by her large family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

In January 2023 I was able to travel to Israel to meet Sara in person and show her scans of documents held in Southampton that she herself wrote over eighty years prior. Although Sara had recently been involved in a few projects telling aspects of her story, this was the first time any of the family were aware of other documents relating to Sara held around the world. [6] Perhaps the most notable output to emerge from the research surrounding MS314 was the reunion of Sara with the descendants of her rescuers. After the death of her father in Gurs, Elli Böhm made the decision to attempt to hide her daughter in Belgium with a Christian family. Through a contact of a distant relative of theirs, Elli was introduced to Raymond Vander Burght, a notary in the city of Vilvoorde, and his wife Laure. Raymond, Laure and their children hid Ilse/Sara until 1945 when she made the decision to leave for Palestine. After my meeting with Sara in January I was able to trace the few descendants of the Vander Burghts – one of whom, in July 2023 was able to meet Sara at her home in Haifa.

From a series of letters in the Hartley Special Collections to a family reunion eighty years in the making. Through the study of MS314, two families were able to reconnect and share a unique history which shaped both irrevocably.

I have written about Theodor’s letters further in the journal Jewish Culture and History which you can read here.

Thank you to Charlie for this interesting and informative post. We look forward to seeing you in the Archives again soon!

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[1] Email from K. Baumgartner, 17^th April 2023.

[2] TMWH to Else Kunz, 21^st April 1939, University of Southampton, Hartley Library, Archives and Special Collections, MS 314/1/4.

[3] Email from M. Heppner, 30^th January 2023. The author would like to thank Michael Heppner for his detailed history of Rabbi Aron Heppner.

[4] ‘Brzeg, Poland’, Jewish Virtual Library, Accessed via: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/brzeg, Last accessed: 12^th April 2023.

[5] TMWH to Mary Dohan, 16^th March 1941, UoS MS 314/1/120.

[6] Sara’s story was retold in the artistic project ‘Keep me in Mind’ directed by Christina Friedrich and Michael Brauchli. See http://keepmeinmind.net/en/, Last accessed: 12^th July 2023. Sara also gave an oral history interview for the German TV Magazine show Faszination Israel accessed via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eoocmnCzQU&t=600s, Last accessed: 12^th July 2023.

User perspective: cultural heritage sector placement

Between February and April of this year Archives and Special Collections we were joined by Huajing Chen, a student studying for a MA in the Archaeology Department, as part of her professional placement in the cultural heritage sector. Huajing learned about curation of archival material through her work on material relating to the excavation of cave paintings at Hornos de la Peña in the 1970s. This material included excavation notes, photographs and mouldings taken of markings on the cave walls which have been preserved in dental plaster. It is a part of a collection that is still being processed and catalogued and which should be available for research in 2024.

As part of the placement, Huajing wrote a report on some of her findings from the material:

The cave paintings clearly happened in two different periods, most of them in Hornos de la Peña happened in the period called Aurignacian and the Magdalenian. From these incredible artefacts from this period, we could more intuitively understand people’s lives at that time, people in the Magdalenian live with the herds of reindeer, horses, and bison. People live in a semi-sedentary life, they live in the cave as well, so we could find so many cave paintings in this place, also by the fact that people would leave paintings in caves, we could infer that people have their free time, consciousness, and aesthetics to create art works. The original artists focused on the depiction of the image itself, skillfully displaying the poses and complex compositions. The cave was in Santander, Spain. Because of the high value of the artefacts, it has become a popular view to visit in recent years.

Bison

From the recording, the bison is 75cm (about 2.46 ft) wide with no head, we could find it in the figure 1.0, in the picture, we could find the bison with no head is on the left-hand side of the view, next to the body is a trace of the bison’s head. Also, in some of the tracings it could clearly see that the Bison is with the head and some of the tracings there were only bison’s head, but from the documents, we could not find the detailed information about them, we could understand it as some of the information was missing.

Figure 1.0

Figure 1.1

Horses

From all the documents I have checked the number of paintings of horses is the highest of the number that can be collected in the cave. There were around six horses painting in the cave in different chambers, as we can see, the pictures down below, the paintings were in assorted styles, the first painting’s lines were simpler compared with others. In chamber A, we could find the horse’s hoof as well, we can see that horse is the normal and important animal to them. Figure 2.1 was thought of as a pregnant horse, this should be referred to a horse expert later. Some of the lines might be destroyed or it had never been finished.

Figure 2.1

Figure 2.2

Figure 2.3

Figure 2.4

Model 66: This model was collected near the horse painting, it is a surface of loose dirt on the grey stone. Also, according to the record, there was dirt filled in the lines of the horse.

Figure 2.5

In figure 2.5, we could clearly see that there were two horses in the picture, it was drawn in the same period, it has the same style.

Model 98.1

Model 98.2

For the model 98, it might be the samples around the picture one. In picture 1, we can clearly see that there were two horses in the picture, one big and one small. The model 98 was collected from the small horse, they do not collect any samples from the large horse, but it might because of the mud and material will be familiar with the mud near the small horse. Near the small horse, the sample was hard, mixed stalagmite and grey stone covered with wet mud. In the model 98.2, we could clearly see that there was a dark grey line through the sample, most of the clay was soft and wet, and were easily to fall off. But the sample was kept in a good condition, there just a little mud fell from the mud area, and there was nothing on the stalagmite. From most of the samples collected from the cave, we could find out that most of the mud was soft and wet, some of the samples do not keep in an exceptionally good condition with might cause by the condition of the mud. We can see that in the model 98.1, there were some green materials on the sample. According to the environment we can speculate it might be moss, but in the paper, it does not mention it in detail. The discolouration also might be caused by factitious.

Thank you to Huajing for all her work and her careful analysis of the material relating to the excavation. Look out for a blog about the collection next year when work to process, catalogue and repackage it is complete.

2020 – a year in review

And what a year it has been! It was certainly not as any of us could have envisaged. Yet despite all the disruption during lockdown and a shift in working patterns, Special Collections remained busy with an array of different activities throughout the year.

Exhibitions and events

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  Letter signed by “Captain Swing” to the Duke of Wellington threatening assassination, n.d. c.November 1830 [MS61 WP1/1159/114

• 

  Illustration of the attack and defence of the Westgate Hotel, Newport, November 1839 [MS61 WP2/64/74]

• 

  Fascist Hooliganism!: leaflet of the Jewish People’s Council, 1936 [MS60/15/53]

• 

  Image of crowds at the “Battle of Cable Street” in the Illustrated London News,10 October 1936 [Per A]

• 

  Headlines from an article in the Nottingham Gazette, 5 October 1936 [Rare Books Parkes quarto BZ8221.P73]

• 

  Badges of the 35’s: campaign for Soviet Jewry [MS 254 A980/4/1]

• 

  Red t-shirt used for Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry demonstrations featuring Yuri Federov, Josef Mendelevich and Aleksey Muzhenko on the front. Ida Nudel, Anatoly Sharansky and Vladimir Slepak are featured on the back [MS254 A980/5/1/3]

The first Special Collections exhibition of the year We Protest! opened as normal on 17 February, before sadly having to close early the following month as we faced lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic. Taking the Cato Street conspiracy of 1820 as its starting point, the exhibition also looked at two subsequent nineteenth-century protests, before exploring the work of a number of 20th-century protest and pressure groups – such as the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry – and of student protests. Highlights of this exhibition appeared as blogs in April: covering 19^th-century protests; opposition to fascism in the 1930s; and campaigns for change in the latter part of the 20th century.

With staff working away from site from March onwards and with restrictions in place, the planned autumn exhibition Voyages of Discovery could not be held as a physical event. We used the opportunity instead to create an online exhibition. To mark the 400^th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower in 2020, this exhibition explores voyages of discovery both in terms of travel and exploration of ideas and knowledge.

In early February, the Special Collections, which is the home to the Basque child refugee archive played host to an event where the inaugural Natalia Benjamin essay prize was awarded to Southampton student Josh Burns for his dissertation. Josh’s dissertation used journals produced by the children to evaluate Basque child refugee agency and identity, a topic he discussed further in his guest blog.

February also saw us play host to a year 10 student from Redbridge School in Southampton with an interest in history who wished to do some work experience with us. With a self-confessed fascination in the Second World War, Louie was able to work on documents relating to the Southampton Fifth, the RAF short course run at the University during the war, as well as material from one of our Jewish collections. In his reflections on his time with us, Louie talked about how informative and interesting he found his visit.

Sadly we were unable to host further events and visits for most of the remainder of the year, although we were able to run some research sessions for history students in November and December. We have contributed to the Science and Engineering Fair’s #SOTSEF goes digital with activities in its art meets science strand.

And our handwriting and printing activities also were part of online activities provided by Southampton City during the summer and as part of the Hands-on Humanities event in November.

George Bickham’s The Universal Penman (1741): part of the writing activity provided by Special Collections

Online resources

Staff worked on a range of projects in the lockdown period since March including on a number of online resources.

Special Collections launched a YouTube channel People, Papers and Pasts which hosts a series of films on items within the Archives and Manuscripts and Printed Special Collections and the stories they tell.  

 The first three films of the series are:

(1) an introduction to the Special Collections

(2) a look at the Duke of Wellington and the “scum of the earth” letter of 1813

(3) Gandhi’s note of 2 June 1947

We produced a Flickr online exhibition showcasing images of University sports teams and invited alumni to both identify team members and contribute to the exhibition.

Men‘s football team 1956-7 [MS1/7/291/22/4]

Telling their stories is an online resource relating to the Basque child refugees which forms part of the Special Collections website. Drawing on oral history testimonies and writings of the children, including from the magazines they produced themselves, the resource reflects on their experience in the UK.

And we were involved in Havens East, launched on 12 June, an online exhibition that tells the stories of the Basque child refugees who came to East Anglia to escape the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and using a range of material from Southampton.

Amistad Journal produced by Basque child refugees [MS404 A4171/6/1/1 Folder 1]

For anyone missing visiting exhibitions in the Special Collections Gallery and Level 4 Gallery, there is now the opportunity to revisit past exhibitions at the new Special Collections Gallery site.

Social media and publicity

Special Collections maintained a full social media programme throughout the year, with its weekly blog and a liberal use of twitter.

Chamberlayne Gas Column in Houndwell Park

The subject matter covered in the Special Collections blog has been as wide ranging as usual, reflecting something of breadth and scope of the collections that we hold. We marked Veganuary in January, as well as Chanukah and Christmas fare, based on recipes from the 18th and 19th century, in December. The Duke of Wellington and his archive featured in a number of blogs, from Captain Swing and the riots in Hampshire in the early 19th century, to Wellington at Walmer Castle and the Duke of Wellington as Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire. Other subjects included Gillow furniture, the Bournemouth Poetry Society, Pageant plays, the Titchbourne claimant and the Chamberlayne Gas Column in Southampton.

Photograph of Edwina Ashley showing examples of 1920s jewellery and makeup [MS62 MB3/63] featured in the 1920s women’s fashion blog

We also focused on a number of themes in the social media during the year. At the start of the year were a couple of blogs relating to the 1920s, covering women’s fashion and Southampton in that decade. Then in March, to mark Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we featured a series of blogs celebrating women in the Archives: these looked at four quite different subjects: the maritime archaeologist Honor Frost; the philanthropic work of Mary Mee, Lady Palmerston; the Union of Jewish Women collection; and finally Cissi Rosenfelder, who was Honorary Secretary of the Golders Green Beth Hamedrash in 1938-9 and did much work to assist child refugees fleeing from Nazi Europe.

May was local and community history month and the themed blogs for this month started with a look at two of Hampshire’s local champions Thomas Shore and Sir William Cope. The remaining blogs for the month ranged from tourism of country houses to the London Jewish community as reflected from the letter books of the Jewish Board of Guardians and finally art and theatre in Southampton.

The most enduring theme used throughout the year was that of “The stories they tell”, in which we looked at a range of items from the Special Collections and considered the narrative behind the objects as well as what the objects themselves tell us. The blogs in this strand ranged from an article on the model resolution of the Council and Christians and Jews, to pieces about the relic of the Royal George ship, refugees at Atlantic Park, Eastleigh, a letter written before the Battle of Waterloo, mobile ambulance synagogues, Rosicrucian plays, student songs and student life in the 1980s, travel journals for Palestine in the 1920s, the development of football, Raiza Palatnik, the ORT Technical Engineering School in Leeds and Southampton Fifth course.

Mobile synagogue ambulance at the Central Jewish Board Office, Athens, December 1945 [MS 183/374]

Finally, we were delighted to post blogs that reflected both work on the collections as well as in response to features that we had produced. As well as the pieces by Josh Burns and Louie Kesby that have already been mentioned, we hosted an article by Dr Martin Walsh on his work based in part on the archive of the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children (MS173). In June, we had a blog highlighting the stories you had shared with us in response to our own articles. While in October we had the first in what we hope will be a new feature of student societies as guest stars, with a piece by the Athletics and Cross Country Club. The Special Collections holds archive material relating to this society.

There were a number of themes covered in the Twitter account during 2020. We ran the second part of our Highfield in 100 objects tweets until April looking at the development of the University over 100 years. The themes of Monday Memories, Tuesday Trivia, Wednesday Wonder, Thursday Thoughts and Friday Feature or Flora and Fauna provided us with lots of fun as we delved into the collections to find relevant material, as did the Archives A-Z. For August our theme was holidays and journeys, whilst in September onwards we looked at student life. To mark the presidential elections in the US, our November theme was #Electionsincollections and we ended the year with #Winterwarmers A popular theme that will continue into 2021 is that of WellingtonWednesday. If you want to find out more about some of the tweets for 2020, do look at our final blog of the year in which we looked back at the most popular tweets.

Collections

The lockdown was not the most fortuitous time to collect material, due to restrictions on movement and issues about handling and quarantining of material. However, ensuring that archival heritage was not lost remained a pressing concern, pandemic or not, and one such case was that of the archives of the Nuffield Theatre which came to us in September after the theatre closed. Southampton City was sad to see the closure of this, a victim of the pressures on theatres during the current pandemic. The Nuffield Theatre on Highfield campus, which was designed by the architect Basil Spence, was officially opened by Dame Sybil Thorndike in March 1964 and there is material relating to its development amongst the University archives held in the Special Collections.  Due to this University link, we have been delighted to be able to provide a home for the archives of the NST.

Interior of Nuffield Theatre at Highfield campus

We also took custody of additional papers relating to Norwood charity in the summer to ensure that they too had a home for the long term.  Other material that we have acquired in the year, which is much smaller in quantity, has included a fascinating additional selection of papers of Christopher Collins who was private servant to the first Duke of Wellington as well as a separate small collection of items relating to the funeral of the Duke; small collections of university related papers, and papers of an individual involved with the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry.

And cataloguing work and work creating finding aids progressed throughout the year. Alongside work on new collections that is ongoing, we were also able to achieve significant work on parts of the Wellington Archive and on aspects of the Broadlands Archives during lockdown.

Looking ahead to 2021

With a range of projects and the implementation of a new Archives management system in progress, Special Collections is already looking at a busy year of activity.

User perspectives: Louie Kesby – Reflections on my time in the Archives

Back in the halcyon days before the lockdown, we were joined in February by Louie Kesby, a year 10 student from Redbridge School in Southampton. Louie, who has a keen interest in history, had asked to spend part of his work experience week in the Hartley Library in the Special Collections. Here he shares his reflections on his time with us.

My time here, at the archive, was very enjoyable and informative. I arrived and was shown through the storage rooms and was able to hold a legitimate letter from Queen Victoria which was breath-taking. I was then set to work on a computer where I had to read and list documents focused on Jewry in the 1940s-50s.

Archives strongroom

The documents were very interesting in finding out information about the political and social side of Jewry. It revealed a lot of ways Jews were being treated across the world post-war. It took me around two hours to completely read and write up the reports on the ephemera. I learned a lot from that task and now I have a nice printed copy of the list in a folder.

Following that I was set to read the Newsletters from the Southampton Fifth RAF Short Course at the University College, Southampton, sent to servicemen around the globe. It included accounts from airmen in a number of different issues, along with a roll of honour and descriptions of places that servicemen were stationed. I enjoyed this task as I love learning about life in war time and extra information on the life of airmen in conflict zones. This task took me a very long time, as there were a dozen newsletters that mostly took around the fifteen minute mark to read and around five minutes to write up.

Southampton Fifth Newsletter Supplement Number Three, c.1945 [MS303 A1058/3]

I was never short of work during my time in the Archives. If I had completed the reports on the Southampton Fifth I would have moved on to document images from the University that were taken years ago.

I was also shown where documents are cleaned and restored, which was very interesting to see. In addition, I received a tour of the room where exhibitions are held, I discovered how they are put together and what information is used. It’s very interesting to see the behind the scenes here at the Archives.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience here at the Archives. Not only have I discovered new information about a number of subjects, I have also learned how everything works in this establishment. My gratitude goes to the staff who have treated me very well and allowed me this experience. All of the staff are extremely friendly and welcoming, which is very good.

Thank you to Louie for his reflections on his time in the Archives. Join us for next week’s blog when we explore one of the collections on which he worked – the Southampton Fifth archive – in more detail.

User perspectives: Dr Martin Walsh on the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children

Dr Martin Walsh of the University of Limerick is a social historian whose interest lies in the preventative campaigns by social purity groups in England and Ireland who sought to protect young women from immorality by removing them, or at least shield them, from an unfamiliar urban landscape in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.  He is currently carrying out a transnational study of these campaigns for his second book, which will look at the history and the work carried out by groups, including the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children, in order to understand their apprehension about young women becoming a visible presence in the urban landscape.

Dr Martin Walsh

The papers of the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children are part of MS173 the Jewish Care archive at Southampton and here Dr Walsh reflects on some of the findings of his research on this collection.

At the end of the nineteenth century concern was expressed by middle-class social moralists about the increased migration of young country women to large towns and cities in England. The worry was that in this new and unfamiliar landscape they would, through their lifestyle choices, seek to become a highly visible presence in the urban landscape. Worse still, they would be targeted by unscrupulous individuals who would seek to ruin the young woman’s moral character. The need to regulate women’s everyday life came at a time of increased, government sanctioned, surveillance in the form of the Contagious Diseases Act 1864-66. While the legislation was repealed with the Criminal Amendment Act 1885 there was a continued belief that young women needed protection from the unwanted advances of men and, at the same time, imbue them with a sense of empowerment. A slew of social purity groups emerged who sought to act as the moral guardian of these so-called naïve country girls who, it was believed, would be lost in the temptations and maelstrom of urban life. They included the National Vigilance Association and the Travellers Aid Society both established in the summer of 1885. A slightly earlier but no less an important society was the Girls Friendly Society established by Mary Townsend in 1875.

Young women arriving from outside of England were also a concern. Many could not speak English, others could neither read nor write. Often when they arrived in London, for example, they had little money, and were unaware of the cost of accommodation or the distance between their point of entry and their end destination, which they assumed was easily accessible on foot. This was true of the thousands of Jewish women from Central and Eastern Europe who arrived in England. Many were fleeing the Jewish pogroms affecting Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, others were promised marriage or employment, and there were transient migrants on their way to North America. Almost all Jewish women entered England through London’s East End, where a cross-section of the poorer and working-class Jewish community resided. It was a dangerous and overcrowded place with its warren of lane’s and criminality; most noted for the Jack the Ripper murders of the late 1880s. Many of the promises of marriage and employment never materialised. Worst still, some of these women arrived in London only to end up on the next boat to South America as part of the white slave trade. Even in London there was a real risk of these women ending up in the clutches of brothel keepers when the promised employment fell through and family members were not there to protect them.

Recognising the plight of these young women Lady Emma Rothschild and her cousin through marriage Constance Flower (latter Lady Battersea) established the Jewish Ladies’ Society for Preventative and Rescue Work in March 1885. The society would undergo several name changes; in 1897 the Jewish Association for the Protection of Women and Girls, and in 1932 the words children was added – reflecting the changing nature of the work of the society (JAPGWC). The Rothschild’s had a long association with the society. Lady Emma Rothschild was President from its inception till her death in 1935, Lady Battersea was an Honorary Secretary until her death in 1931, Lady Emma’s sister-in-law, Lady Marie de Rothschild was also a member of the General Purpose Committee of the society, Lady Rozsika Rothschild, who became president of the society in 1935, was the daughter-in-law of Lady Emma Rothschild, Lady Rozsika’s daughter, Miriam, also joined the association at this time. The Rothschild name brought added currency to the society, but it was also, as we shall see, its downfall; as senior members died off, so too did the interest in the work of the association.

The first meeting of the new society was held on 23 March 1885, with the first official meeting held on 17 April 1885. At that meeting it was decided that there would be two aims for the society: establish a home for ‘fallen Jewish girls’ and to carry out vigilance work at the docks in London’s East End. With the realisation that the problem of ‘fallen Jewish girls’ was not as serious as first thought, it was decided to focus all of their resources and time into preventing young Jewish immigrant girls from being lost in the depravity of the East End of London. Uniquely the work was carried out by men. This contrasts with other societies such as the Travellers Aid Society who hired women to patrol the main railway stations and ports across England. If your goal is to protect women, then it makes sense to hire female vigilance workers. Yet, the JAPGWC choose not to do this preferring instead to hire men for the work. It is likely that they wanted to protect young, Jewish middle-class women from the harsh realities of urban life. This idea is borne out by the fact that a separate committee -the Gentlemen’s Sub-committee – was formed in 1890 and took over the vigilance work. At this point we see a clear delineation in the work carried out by the society. The original committee, comprised of women only, took over the domestic agenda, which included the training of young girls for domestic service and employment agency work. Whereas the work at the docks was supervised by a committee made up entirely of men.

The first agent to be appointed was Mr Reichmann who held the post for four years. The work at the docks was arduous, requiring the agent to meet as many boats as he could each year. For example, in 1893 the agent met 353 steamers, but failed to meet seventy-three steamers. The difficulty was when the ships arrived in London they did not always dock at the same point. Indeed, some moored outside of London at Tilbury. In the same year, 157 women were accompanied to their destination, eighty-four were lodged at the society’s home in Tenter Street because they had no friends or forward destination. Working all hours and in all weathers took its toll on the health of the agent. The second agent, Mr Steinhiem worked for ten years with the association until his health took a turn for the worst, and in 1901 he was forced to retire. The minutes of the General Purpose Committee, the General Council, and the Gentlemen’s Committee chronicle the last few years of Mr Steinhiem’s life. Upon his retirement he sought a pension of £1 a week or £52 in the year. Reluctant to do so because of the cost involved, but eager to acknowledge his contribution to the society individual members of the association agreed to support the payment. The payment continued for several months after his death in 1907 to ensure that his daughter was able to finish college. The job of the dock agent was multifaceted. They were required to build relationships with the owners of the steamships and their employees, to identify vulnerable women before they had a chance to leave the docks as well as the criminals who prayed on these unsuspecting women.   Additionally, they were required to learn a second language, usually Yiddish.  A number of methods were used to inform Jewish women of the services that were available to them. Before they left home, women were informed of the services of the society, posters were placed on board ship warning them of the dangers that they faced, and each agent wore a distinctive armlet.

The work of the society was always subject to external factors usually outside of their control. As already stated, the pogroms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century ensured that at times, they were extremely busy. The Alien Act 1905 – of which they approved of – provided the greatest assistance to the society. Prior to disembarkation women were screened by health officials to ensure that they were healthy. The health officials would direct the agent to any women they felt was in eminent danger. The First World War and the Defence of the Realm Act virtually shut off the flow of emigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. Such was the slow-down in this work that the Gentleman’s sub-committee stopped meeting from May 1917 until April 1919.

The First World War had unforeseen consequences for the JAPGWC, which was also felt by the other societies working to protect young women. Firstly, many women who had found employment opportunities outside of the domestic sphere during the war were not willing to go back to this type of work. Additionally, women coming into the workforce for the first time were also hesitant to enter a life of servitude preferring instead to work in shops, factories and offices. While the pay was lower, it did offer more flexible hours and freedom than they had hitherto enjoyed. Another challenge to the society was the loss of benefactors and subscribers throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. It is worth remembering that those that had willingly contributed to the Jewish cause had either died off or were elderly with reduced means caused by four years of conflict. Ironically, legacies left by subscribers and benefactors actually helped to sustain the society through this rough patch.  The most notable benefactor was Lady Battersea who left the society £3,000 following her death in 1931. However, the main way in which the society sought to stabilise their finances was by extending the work outside of London and to seek donations from the Jewish community from across England. Though as they noted themselves this was not an easy task as the majority of the Jewish community were poor. They did have a measure of success in establishing a base at Southampton where trans-migrant passengers sailed for America.

Ultimately these were only stop gap measures which staved off the inevitable.  As already stated, many of the original members of the JAPGWC died off in the 1930s including Lady Battersea and Lady Emma De Rothschild. In late 1943 the decision was taken to amalgamate with the Jewish Board of Guardians.

As they noted themselves ‘when great pillars are removed from an edifice, despite patching from time to time, the whole structure may eventually fall in ruins unless other means of sound support are available to replace them’.

So how effective was the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children?  It is easy today to see the society as some sort of a vigilante group trying to ensure young women conformed to a higher moral standard and to remove them from the temptations of urban life. This argument might be true for societies such as the Travellers Aid Society where the moral upbringing of young women was ignored; concomitant with the strong belief that they abandoned these values when they arrived in large urban areas.  This argument does not ring true for the JAPGWC. There was a genuine concern for young Jewish women entering England partly caused by the language barrier and partly caused by the seedier side of London that they disembarked from. There was also the altruistic nature of the Rothschild family and their need to help the less fortunate in their community. A final consideration in the need to establish the society was the fact that the Jewish community in England was a minority religious group and, therefore, it is likely that they did not want to be seen as a degenerate and immoral element of British society that could destabilise the moral code on which Victorian England was built on.

User perspectives: examining the Basque refugee children’s agency and identity using self-produced journals Amistad and Cambria House Journal

This week, former University of Southampton student and winner of the inaugural  2019 Natalia Benjamin Essay Prize Joshua Burns discusses his exploration of the self-produced journals Amistad and Cambria House Journal for his dissertation on the Basque refugee children’s agency and identity.

Amistad and Cambria House Journals [MS404 A4171 6/1/1 and 6/2/2]

When the SS Habana docked in Southampton in May 1937, it was a historic moment. Around 4,000 Basque children – along with mothers, teachers and priests – arrived in what remains the largest single arrival of refugees in British history.

Basque children refugees arriving in Southampton on the Habana [MS404 A4164/7/1/8]

The Basques arrived in Britain following General Franco’s fascist bombing campaign which saw the destruction of the symbolic home of the Basque nation, the town of Guernica, on April 26th, 1937. This was a deeply significant moment in international history, for it was the first time in which a concerted bombing campaign was targeted against civilians, causing intense outrage in Britain across the political spectrum.

Popular sentiment for the Spanish Republic was reflected through the Aid Spain Movement, as tens of thousands marched, demonstrated, collected, and held social events. This generated an estimated £2,000,000 to send medical personnel, supplies and food-ships to the Republic. Meanwhile, the ‘National’ British government was largely sympathetic to General Franco. It adopted a position of ‘non-intervention’, although this meant little when Nazi Germany and fascist Italy were financing and arming the rebellion. Consequently, it was made a condition of the Basques arrival that no public funds would be used to fund their presence. It was to be a completely ‘crowd-funded’ venture.

Leaflet for fundraising for Basque child refugees [MS404 A4164/7]

The humanitarian rhetoric used to appeal to the sympathies (and prejudices) of the British public made an important distinction between ‘Spainards’ and ‘Basques’. Crude national stereotypes, such as the ‘Spanish’ being bloodthirsty, cruel, excessively passionate and highly individualistic – legacies of the inquisition and the bullring – were used as a shorthand for explaining the Civil War and its causes, rather than articulating the complex political reality. In contrast, it was the alleged proximity of the Basques to the English that, according to one Manchester Guardian reader, made it necessary to, ‘welcome them with true British hospitality… the Basques as a race are closely akin to ourselves in culture and outlook’.

Nearly everywhere the children went they were referred to collectively as ‘Basques’, which conjured images of a ‘moderate, pious and hard-working people’ who were the ‘very opposite of the church-burning anarchism sometimes associated with the Republic in the British press’. ‘Basque’ became synonymous with a certain type of refugee, one that was dependent, vulnerable, weak, innocent and most importantly apolitical.

Children and adults, from the Papers of the Navarro Alonso family [MS370/8 A4110/1]

But this did not necessarily represent the reality. A collection of self-published journals, which are held in the Hartley Library Special Collections, are fascinating and help to complicate our understanding of the children’s agency – beyond the binaries of ‘protest’ or ‘submission’ which often accompany the study of refugees. Writing provided these children with a platform to right wrongs, express their feelings and share their opinions to a generally receptive British public. For example, one journal in South Wales, The Cambria House Journal, reached a readership of 4,000 at one point in 1939.

Cambria House Journal, February 1939 [MS404 A4171/6/2/2]

These children were not interested in simply resisting patronising attempts to depoliticise them, but to act as political agents in their own right taking ownership of their identities. As an anonymous author argued in Amistad – the bilingual publication that started on the third anniversary of the refugee’s arrival, ‘let those who still think Amistad is just a ‘group of Basque children’ which has no connection with our future activities get rid of the idea. Every festival that we organise, every football match we play etc. helps us to build up our organisation, which is one of the best weapons to fight fascism’. In another article, Antonio wrote of how ‘we are no longer “Basque children”, but “young Basques”’ which transformed their situation, ‘we have to unite and organize and study not only or what we would learn in a school, but to study more widely our situation in this country, discuss it for ourselves’. They weren’t to be the passive victims of fascism, as they were widely portrayed.

Amistad Journal [MS404 A4171/6/1/1 Folder 1]

The political milieu in which the children interacted is suggestive of the highly politicised identities that some of the children possessed, where transnational links and solidarities were made through a collective hatred of fascism – and the violence which had uprooted them. In South Wales, the children at the Caerleon ‘colony’ were adopted ‘en masse’ by the South Wales Mining Federation and attended political demonstrations, while their football team was named ‘España libre’ (Free Spain). Equally importantly, the journals also provided a space for engagement with a culture that many refugees had been isolated from since their arrival in Britain. Maria Aberdare from South Wales wrote to Amistad in December 1940 remarking that ‘there are no Spanish people that I know of for miles and I cannot speak or see one for months so I would like to thank you all boys and girls for making this enjoyment possible’.

A woman and children staying at Cambria House, Caerleon, South Wales, from the collection of Josefina Savery [MS370/3 A3046/16]

In 1941, four years after their arrival, Amistad described the activities of the ‘Basque boys’, who played a football match against an Austrian anti-fascist group during a trip to London. The links football could forge is perhaps further revealed through the distinctions drawn between the ‘Basque boys’ and the ‘young Spaniards’ that made up the team, revealing the different social and political identities that existed within London’s refugee community. The children behind Amistad did not necessarily perceive being ‘Basque’ and ‘Spanish’ as contradictory – as the ‘British’ did – but were more devoted to strengthening an inclusive republican identity. By suggesting that there was not an archetypal ‘Basque refugee’, there was a medium through which the children could articulate their grievances and disrupt narratives of British generosity which were dependent on the children behaving in a particular, submissive way.

Basque child refugees at the Carmarthen, Wales colony [MS404 A4171/2/4/2/3]

Amistad provided a space for an inclusive, political identity to be conceptualised, imagining the opportunities that a united group of young exiles could create through workshops, lectures, dances, football games and festivals. Most importantly, the journals show that refugees are not simply the passive, powerless victims they are often portrayed as – children even more so – but social and political actors in their own right. Fermin, a regular contributor to Amistad, explained how: ‘Although too young to understand the meaning of the word “republic”, the memory of those marching people is firmly stamped upon our minds, we may take our part in restoring that lost happiness and freedom to our country, Spain’.

Basque child refugees in Keighley, Yorkshire [MS404 A4164/2/2/8]

You can read Joshua Burns dissertation ‘The ‘Basques’ in Britain: An examination of refugee children’s agency and identity formation through self-produced journals Amistad and Cambria House Journal’ here: http://www.basquechildren.org/-/docs/articles/joshuaburns

You can read a report by Dr Ed Packard, University of Suffolk on the 2019 Natalia Benjamin Essay Prize event here, which was held at Special Collections: http://www.basquechildren.org/-/docs/articles/nbprize2020

You can find out more about the Basque child refugee collections we hold here: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/resources/basquecollections.page

 

User perspectives: researching and remembering the Basque refugee children of 1937 in the Special Collections

This week Dr Edward Packard, Lecturer in History at University of Suffolk and Trustee of BCA’37: The Association for the UK Basque Children, discusses his use of the University’s collections relating to Basque child refugees as part of a research project on the Basque colonies that existed in Suffolk between 1937 and 1939.

The Habana arrives at Southampton [MS404 A4164/4/6]

“Following a turbulent crossing of the Bay of Biscay, four thousand children from the Basque Country disembarked from the overcrowded liner SS Habana at Southampton on 23 May 1937. These niños vascos were refugees from the Spanish Civil War and were initially accommodated in a temporary reception camp at North Stoneham, near Eastleigh, before being dispersed in groups to approximately eighty ‘colonies’ across England, Wales, and Scotland. The government refused to provide any financial assistance for the young refugees, who instead relied on donations and other forms of support from private individuals, groups, and organisations. Most of the niños had been repatriated by the start of the Second World War, but around 250 settled permanently in the UK rather than returning to the dictatorship established in Spain by General Franco following his victory in the Civil War.

North Stoneham Camp [MS404 A4164/2/24]

The remarkable history of the Basque refugee children and the vast public effort to support them is not as well-known in the UK as the subsequent Kindertransport, or the internal migration of evacuees during the Second World War. However, since the start of the twenty-first century, public awareness of the niños vascos has been boosted by the activities of BCA’37: The Association for the UK Basque Children. The Association was founded in 2002 by Natalia Benjamin, whose parents taught and cared for some of the children, and Manuel Moreno, the son of a niña vasca, owing to their concerns that archival material related to the children was at risk of being lost. By developing a network of surviving niños, their family members, and others with an interest in the Basque refugees, the Association accumulated a wide range of written and visual sources about the children’s experiences in the 1930s and since. These were passed to the University of Southampton Special Collections in 2016 to ensure their preservation and to facilitate access for researchers.

BCA’37: The Association for the UK Basque Children 70 Years Commemoration Event Programme [MS404 A4164/1/2]

The archive, catalogued as MS404 (A4164 and A4171), is especially intriguing as it contains not only original and facsimile historical documents pertaining to the Basque children, many of which have not featured in published work to date, but also includes administrative papers and correspondence related to the Association’s activities. Besides gathering documentation, the Association has also been involved in numerous events, including exhibitions and educational work. Given that the memory and memorialisation of the Spanish Civil War remains controversial and contested in the present, these materials offer insights into the ways in which a specific organisation has been involved in the construction of the public memory of the niños.

Children and adults at North Stoneham Camp [MS404 A4164/2/24]

My own research focuses on the Basque colonies that existed in the county of Suffolk between 1937 and 1939, and I am also interested in the different ways that the history of the niños vascos has been told, and what remains untold. It is often difficult to research local case studies connected to the Basque refugees, owing to the impermanence of the colonies and the fragmentary nature of the surviving historical record. I found that the materials held at Southampton, which include further collections of relevant papers catalogued at MS370, helped me to fill some of the gaps and add texture to the history of the Suffolk colonies and the local experiences of the niños. For instance, while I considered myself very familiar with the history of the Wickham Market colony, which was located in a decommissioned workhouse, file MS404 A4164/2/13 contained several photographs that I had not seen before, including the children eating a meal inside the workhouse, and a striking image of some of the Basque boys with bicycles. While these subjects might sound mundane, the photographs help to convey a sense of the children’s experiences of colony life.

Basque boys with bicycles [MS404 A4164/2/13/5]

Among the other highlights of my visit to Special Collections was viewing an original souvenir programme for an ‘All Spanish Concert by the Spanish Refugee Children from Wherstead Park, and West-End Spanish Artistes’ held at Ipswich in December 1937 (MS370/8 A4110/1). Such entertainments were a crucial part of the fundraising activity required to maintain individual colonies, although the participation of ‘West-End Artistes’ was unusual – the songs and dances were usually performed exclusively by the children.

Souvenir programme for an ‘All Spanish Concert by the Spanish Refugee Children from Wherstead Park, and West-End Spanish Artistes’ held at Ipswich in December 1937 [MS370/8 A4110/1]

The enduring and poignant connection between some of the Basque refugees and those who cared for them is highlighted in a short letter, dated 1 January 1988 (MS404 A4171/2/3/1/5), by Poppy Vulliamy, then in her eighties, who had established a series of colonies, including in Suffolk and Norfolk, for a group of fifty older Basque boys in 1937 and 1938. She was writing to one of these ‘boys’, Rafael de Barrutia, now a man approaching retirement age, thanking him for a Christmas card. Poppy signed off ‘From your friend who never forgets you.’ The preservation of memory is a key theme that runs through the BCA’37 archive and influences its continuing activities in the present. These include an undergraduate dissertation prize, for which the Special Collections at University of Southampton are likely to prove an important resource.

Part of letter by Poppy Vulliamy, 1 January 1988 [MS404 A4171/2/3/1/5]

After spending much of my research trip to the Hartley Library pondering the relationship between historical experiences and the ways in which they are remembered, it seemed appropriate to head back to Southampton railway station via the Civic Centre to visit the plaque commemorating the arrival of the Habana over eighty years ago. I also reflected again that, while the Basque refugee archive at Southampton is inevitably incomplete, it offers significant glimpses into local refugee experiences. With the number of surviving niños vascos declining each year, these documents will only become more valuable in preserving the memory of this crucial part of Britain’s refugee history.”

Commemorative plaque of the arrival of the Basque refugees at the Southampton Civic Centre

2018 – Year in Review

As we move in to 2019 and new endeavours, we take a moment to reflect on some of the Special Collection activities of the previous year.

Exhibitions and events

2018 saw a programme of very different exhibitions hosted by Special Collections. The first exhibition of the year in the Special Collections Gallery and Level 4 Gallery was Print and Process, 1 March to 8 June. The exhibition, which revealed and identified a broad range of print processes, included prints from the Library’s Special Collections, from the University Art Collection and from Fine Art students at the Winchester School of Art.

Print and Process exhibition

In late June, we held a conference on Basque child refugees together with the Basque Children 37 Association and the University’s School of Modern Languages. In conjunction with this Special Collections played host to the exhibition In Search of the Basque children: From Bilbao to Southampton by the Salford based artist Claire Hignett. Inspired by the archives of the Basque child refugees, Claire Hignett’s exhibition used the properties of domestic textiles to explore memory and the items we keep as souvenirs of our lives.

Floor game exhibit from the Claire Hignett exhibition

The autumn exhibitions under the title The Great War Remembered formed part of the University’s Great War, Unknown War programme marking the centenary of the end of the First World War. My War, My Story in the Special Collections Exhibition Gallery drew on the Special Collections to present a range of stories from the First World War, including of the University War Hospital at the Highfield campus. We were delighted to have on loan as part of this exhibition the oil painting The Shadow of Cross of War, A Night Scene in University War Hospital, 1918 by William Lionel Wyllie. On show in the Level 4 Gallery were John Garfield: Armistice 1918 – The Cost a photographic journey through cemeteries and memorials of the Great War, and My Ancestor, Their Story which drew on family material from members of staff and students at the University.

In addition to the research sessions and visits for our own students – such as that mentioned in a blog by Dr Jonathan Conlin – we have an on-going series of events and visits for external visitors. These have included themed drop-in sessions on local history and nineteenth-century society and sessions showcasing British culture for Chinese teachers in June. Special Collections took part in Hands-on Humanities for the second year in a row in November 2018, running interactive events relating to handwriting and printing and creating a digital mosaic image from the items created on the day.

Writing and printing activities at Hands-on Humanities Day

We hosted a visit by the Hampshire Archives Trust, including a talk about the history of the University War Hospital and a private view to The Great War Remembered exhibitions, on Saturday 1 December. Special Collections also ran workshops on promoting collections as part of the Southern University Libraries Network training day on Tuesday 11 December.

Social media

As well as the on-going programme for the Special Collections blog, highlights of which are mentioned below, autumn saw the move from using Facebook to the new Twitter account@hartleyspecialc Features on Twitter so far have included tweets about unusual items in the collections and a glimpse behind the scenes for the national Explore Your Archive campaign and extracts of a student account of armistice 1918.

Sample of knitted spaghetti, one of the unusual items featured on Twitter for Explore Your Archive

The past year marked a range of anniversaries tied to the collections and blog features have included: the 35^th anniversary of the arrival of the Wellington Archive at Southampton on St Patrick’s day 1983; the coronation of Queen Victoria in June 1838; the anniversary of the birth of Isaac Watts, father of English hymnology and son of Southampton; and the 70^th anniversary of the foundation of the NHS. Some of the commemorative days featured have been International Women’s Day; Knit in Public Day; National Sporting Heritage Day; Dear Diary Day; Read a Book Day focusing on the dangerous art of reading for women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and British Polo Day.

During May we ran a series of blogs on resources relating to Ireland in Special Collections, such as the poem Farewell to Killarney. Heywood Sumner; the celebrated Hampshire naturalist Dr Canning Suffern; William Mogg, a Southampton-born sailor who was involved in Arctic exploration in the 1820s; Richard St Barbe Baker; Charlie Chaplin and, to mark the start of the World Cup, Lord Mountbatten and his association with football organisations, were some of the individuals to be the subject of blogs. The art of watercolours, cooking for court and countryside, China in the 1880s and botanical treasures of Stratfield Saye are some of the other subjects that have featured. University related blogs focused on the student societies – the Boat Club and the Scout and Guide Club – the University as a War Hospital and what the library accession registers showed about cooperation during the Second World War.

New collections

There was an increased volume of new archive material acquired by the Special Collections during the year. Of particular significance was the Honor Frost Archive, which provides a fascinating insight into the work of a pioneering figure in the field of maritime archaeology. We also were fortunate to acquire a small collection of material relating to Sir Denis Pack, one of the Duke of Wellington’s generals in the Peninsular war, and additional collections of papers of Basque child refugees.

Another significant new collection that arrived during 2018 was the Rollo Woods music collection. Rollo Woods (1925-2018) was a former Deputy Librarian at the University of Southampton, but also a leading expert on folk music who wrote several books on the subject. He was a founder member of the Madding Crowd, the Purbeck Village Quire and the West Gallery Music Association. In 2015 Rollo was awarded the gold badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society for a lifetime of work promoting the folk arts. His collection includes manuscripts of music that he acquired and his working papers relating to his research on West Gallery Music.

Pages from a Dorset carol book, 1803: part of the Rollo Woods music collection [MS442/1/2]

The most recent acquisition has been the papers of Gertrude Long. This collection contains a wealth of hitherto unseen images of the University War Hospital, complementing the papers of Fanny Street, another VAD who worked at the Hospital, and whose papers are another recent arrival.

Fanny Street (centre) with her fellow VADs [MS416/13/4]

Looking ahead to 2019

With the imminent arrival of further acquisitions, new cataloguing projects, a programme of exhibitions – opening with The Leonardo Link: Image-Making from Anatomy to Code on 18 February 2019 – the Wellington Congress 2019 on 12-13 April and Jewish Archives Month in June, it is already looking to be an active year. 2019 is also the centenary year of the move of the University to the Highfield campus and Special Collections will be contributing to celebrations for this. Look out for the first Highfield Campus 100 blog at the end of the month.

Donkeys, Chintzes and a Mysterious Fragment: eighteenth-century trade and politics in Special Collections

In this week’s blog Dr Jonathan Conlin discusses a group visit by undergraduate History students to the Special Collections.

From the slightly soapy feel of vellum to the sweet smell of laid paper, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century archives are a feast for all the senses, not just sight. This week eight third-year history undergraduates joined me at Special Collections for a hands-on session looking at the economic life of eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland. The visit formed part of a year-long Special Subject addressing the great economic thinker Adam Smith (1723-90). In first semester we engage in a lot of close reading of Smith, in search of tools to help us answer the big questions: what is wealth? what is happiness? how can a process of development Smith called “the progress of opulence” make us better as well as richer human beings? Smith’s world can be an alien place, however. Special Collections allows us to touch, smell and even read vestiges of the trading activities which we discuss in the seminar room, week-in, week-out.

MS 62 Broadlands Archives BR4/1/1

Starting with grand adventures in pursuit of profit, a 1695 contract [MS 62 Broadlands Archives BR4/1/1] records Henry Temple’s £100 stake in a £6,000 entreprise: a round-trip voyage to India. Worth around £14,000 today, this was a significant investment in the cargo of two ships, the Scarborough and Rebecca, who would probably have returned with spices and printed cottons. Over the following century the Industrial Revolution would see such chintzes being woven at home in Britain, on machines, rather than handlooms – a process which in turn helped bring about the “Great Divergence” in the economic fortunes of Europe and Asia. These are all big questions we return to again and again in the course. Holding the paper in your hand, however, more urgent questions spring to mind: did the ships complete their perilous journey?

MS 155 AJ144/5A/1

Fifteen years on and the War of Austrian Succession has broken out, with Britain and her allies fighting France in Spain and elsewhere. For government contractors like Joseph Cortissos there was no business like war business: large fortunes were to be made supplying armies in the field with donkeys, wine, horses, bread and other goods. Given the healthy margins, competition was tough, and Cortissos (a former diplomat) would have had to pull every string in his reach to get this prize. Written in Portuguese and English, his accounts of goods provided to allied English and Portuguese armies [MS 155  AJ144/5A] are clearly working documents, as the columns of scribbled sums on the back attest. Contracting was a risky business, however, and just as controversial as it is today in warzones like Iraq (heard of Halliburton, anyone?). Cortissos’ bills were never fully paid.

Detail from MS 64/3/1

A collection of papers [MS 64/3] from Portlaoise (Ireland) dating from the late 1770s shows the grubbier side of Georgian “democracy” in all its glory. The Irish parliamentary seat had been controlled by the Earls of Drogheda, but in 1776 control partly passed to the Parnell family, whose papers are at Southampton. “Management” of elections required keeping close tabs on voters. Voters had first to be created: any Freeman of the Corporation could vote, so borough patrons simply created hundreds of (hopefully!) loyal voters, men (women did not get a look in) who could be trusted to place their vote (in public – no secret ballot then) for the right candidate. Once created, voters had to be watched, as long lists of votes with worried crosses next to the names of voters considered “doubtful” demonstrate. This machine ran on patronage, outright bribery and lots and lots of beer, consumed by the barrel over the week-long poll. Political life was lively and everyone had their part to play: but was it democracy?

And so to the vellum. Tucked at the back of the file is a long thin strip of vellum with what appears to be a list of names partly discernable on it. This clearly is (or rather was) a roll; you can see the join where the sheets of vellum were stitched together. But where is the rest? Is this the electoral roll of the borough? If so, why is it here in Southampton? Someone seems to have snatched it and then attempted to shred it. Why? And, having lost most of it, why did they keep one long, narrow, twisted piece? As a relic? A prize? The most exciting finds are those which defy description.

Dr Jonathan Conlin teaches modern history at the University of Southampton. His books include a biography of Adam Smith, for Reaktion’s Critical Lives series.