Archive Service Accreditation is the UK standard for archive services, and 2024 marks 10 years since the Richard Burton Archives at Swansea University became the first university archive in the UK and the first service in Wales to receive accreditation status after the launch of the standard in 2013.
To mark the occasion, we’re delving into the Archives to explore some of our highlights from the past 10 years:-
2014: The ‘lost’ Dylan Thomas notebook
In December 2014, the University successfully bid at an auction in Sotheby’s for the ‘lost’ Dylan Thomas notebook. This notebook, which is now held in the Archives, is one of five notebooks used by Dylan Thomas; the other four are held by the State University of New York at Buffalo. John Goodby, Professor Emeritus (Arts & Humanities) at Swansea University, and editor of the centenary edition of Thomas’ poems, described it as the “most exciting discovery since the poet’s death in 1953”. The notebook was edited by John Goodby and Adrian Osbourne and was published The Fifth Notebook of Dylan Thomas in 2020.
2015: Sandfields: A Community Built on Steel
We were delighted to see pupils from Sandfields Comprehensive School draw inspiration from archives to examine the history of their community and create a public exhibition from their research. The exhibition was launched at a community event in Sandfields in March 2015 and was the result of a joint project, Sandfields: A Community Built on Steel, between West Glamorgan Archives, Swansea University, the National Waterfront Museum and Sandfields Comprehensive School, Port Talbot. The school closed in July 2016, and pupils were transferred to the new Bae Baglan School as of September 2016.
2016: Union Matters: conserving early records of the South Wales Miners’ Federation
A project to conserve and digitise three volumes of records created by the South Wales Miners’ Federation, funded by a grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust / CyMAL (now Museums, Archives and Libraries Division of the Welsh Government – MALD) was completed. The volumes date from 1899 to 1934 and contain a wealth of information on a wide range of subjects including the regulations on the release of coal miners from the Army, the 1926 General Strike, the use of Chinese ‘slave labour’ by Transvall mineowners, and the economic depression of the 1930s. The late Professor Hywel Francis, historian and former MP described the materials ‘of considerable significance to all scholars interested in the history of coal mining, trade unionism and contemporary Welsh society’.
2017: Burton@14
The Archives were pleased to welcome young people involved with the Burton@14 project. The Heritage Lottery funded project was led by Eirwen Hopkins of the Choice Project, who brought together a group of collaborative partners from the region: Neath Port Talbot College, Neath Port Talbot Library Services, and the Richard Burton Archives, the Choice Project and Taliesin Arts Centre at Swansea University. During their visit the young people participating in Burton@14 got to view and work with Richard Burton’s diaries and other items from the collection. This visit was one of many experiences that the project offered to help young people to find out what it was like to grow up in Port Talbot and see how different – or not – the issues facing a young person were from those experienced by today’s local young people.
2018: Amy Dillwyn: The Pieces of Me
An article about innovative uses of archival collections, co-authored by Professor Kirsti Bohata, Dr Katrina Legg and Mandy Lane, was published in the May 2018 Group for Literary Archives and Manuscripts issue of ARC magazine. ‘Take me as you find me .. I am not ashamed of being myself’ explored the life and impact of the pioneering female industrialist, novelist and social justice campaigner, Elizabeth Amy Dillwyn (1845-1935), and how the collection held in the Archives has been used to by Masters students to develop research skills. In addition it examined how Amy Dillwyn, and her archives, were an inspiration to artist Mandy Lane, who created a series of works including ‘The Pieces of Me’ and ‘The Iron on the Dress’. Amy Dillwyn’s collection is currently being researched by MA students on the Department of History module, Communicating the Past: Public History using Historic Collections.
Dr Katrina Legg and Mandy Lane, 2018
2019: Raissa Page
Raissa Page (1932-2011) became a self-taught documentary photographer after a successful career in social care. Catalogued in 2019, with funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Raissa Page Collection ranges from 1978 to 2010 and comprises a vast photographic collection including images of demonstrations and political conflicts like Greenham Common and the Miners’ Strike, and images depicting institutional care – of the elderly, of children, and of those with poor mental health.
The Collection is a wonderful addition to the Archives, and Raissa’s photographs have been used in a number of publications, articles and TV broadcasts. They have been the inspiration for an MA module ‘Communicating History’, an online exhibition ‘Life Through a Different Lens’, and an upcoming 2024 publication ‘Raissa Page: A Life in Photography’ by David Johnston-Smith.
Not to be reproduced without permission
2020: Swansea University Centenary
There was huge activity in the Archives in the lead up to the University’s centenary in 2020. Work was conducted to catalogue the University’s archive collections, and we received over fifty new deposits of University related material between 2017 and 2020. The Archives supported Dr Sam Blaxland on his research into the history of the University, as well as the oral history project Voices of Swansea University, 1920-2020. The project captured the memories and experiences of over eighty former staff and students of Swansea University. The recordings have been preserved for posterity in the University Archives, and have been featured in Dr Blaxland’s centenary publication ‘Swansea University: Campus and Community in a post-war world, 1945-2020’ (University of Wales Press, 2020).
We launched the Swansea University: Making Waves since 1920 exhibition at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea. It included photographs, video and oral history recordings from the University’s archives, a recreation of a 1960s student bedroom, music map of Swansea and an interactive 3D model of Singleton Abbey.
In September 2020, Assistant Archivist Emily Hewitt took part in a podcast series recorded with Dr Sam Blaxland ‘A History of University Life’
centenary exhibition, 2020/21
2021: Becoming Richard Burton
The Archives were involved with the ‘Becoming Richard Burton’ exhibition, which followed the remarkable story of how Richard Jenkins became Richard Burton, star of stage and screen. It was held at National Museum Wales, Cardiff, and included Richard Burton’s diaries and many other items from the collection at Swansea University, and could be enjoyed between November 2020 and October 2021. The accompanying digital exhibition, which contains interactive content complementing the physical exhibition’s programme, is available via https://becomingrichardburton.museum.wales/.
2022: Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Swansea Years
In summer 2022, an exhibition entitled ‘The Tractatus Odyssey and Wittgenstein’s Swansea Years’ was displayed at Swansea University Library. The exhibition covered the early years of 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the build-up to the publication of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (published in 1921). It also explored Wittgenstein’s connections with Swansea and the legacy that he left through fellow philosopher Rush Rhees and the Swansea School of Philosophy.
2023: Bridging Cultures
Assistant Archivists Stacy O’Sullivan and Emily Hewitt worked with the University’s Academy of Inclusivity on Bridging Cultures – an exciting project with the aim to education, celebrate, and inform students and staff about acceptance and tolerance of people from different cultural backgrounds. The project included a workshop about the history of the international student experience, creation of oral history recordings and a physical exhibition at Swansea University.
© Richard Burton Archives
2024: Coming up
The Archives continue to welcome staff, students and members of the public to access our collections for their research. The service also continues to host student groups from a vast number of academic departments such as History, Social Policy, Disability Nursing and Geography, including the MA module Communicating the Past: Public History using Historic Collections whereby students investigate an archival collection and produce an online website.
In January 2024 we welcomed PhD student Susanne Rosener for an internship at the Archives. Susanne worked on the Centre for Contemporary German Culture Collection, which includes material relating to the development of the Centre, correspondence with visiting German writers and poets, and photographs. Susanne worked on listing the material, translation, and wrote a series of blogs, the first of which you can read here.
More recently we have been supporting a number of researchers and media companies wishing to use the collections held in the Archives, including the South Wales Coalfield Collection and the Raissa Page Collection, providing content for the 40th anniversary of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike.
We’re now anticipating the launch of the publication ‘Raissa Page: A Life in Photography’ in 2024 and gearing up for the centenary of Richard Burton’s birth in 2025.
The Richard Burton Archives is the corporate memory and archive repository of Swansea University and holds material of local, regional and national significance. The Archives selects, preserves and makes accessible to all the records of historical value created or acquired by the University. Through its holdings and the expertise of its staff the Archives actively supports the mission of the University to provide an environment of research excellence, to deliver an outstanding student experience with teaching of the highest quality, and to enrich the community and cultural life of Wales and beyond.
Please visit our website via https://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/richard-burton-archives/