This month for LGBT+ History Month, we are pleased to launch the newly catalogued Amy Dillwyn Collection (ref. DC6). Amy Dillwyn (1845-1935) was a pioneering female industrialist, novelist, social justice campaigner, and, according to Professor Kirsti Bohata, ‘a queer writer of international significance’’. The Amy Dillwyn papers include – Amy’s handwritten journals (1863-1917) a copy of…Continue Reading ‘Take me as you find me … I am not ashamed of being myself’
Explore Your Archive 2021
In case you missed it 20-28 November 2021 was Explore Your Archive week! The Explore Your Archive campaign takes place every November and enables services to showcase treasures from their collections, promote their holdings and to help people discover more about archives generally. The main message of the campaign is that archives are for everyone,…Continue Reading Explore Your Archive 2021
Landscape, environment and archives – History Day 2021
This year’s theme is environmental history so, along with other archives, museums and libraries participating in this year’s History Day on 4 November, we’re discovering how our collections can be used to research the impact of industry on nature, landscape, climate change and much more. The Lower Swansea Valley Project In the 1960s an innovative…Continue Reading Landscape, environment and archives – History Day 2021
Back to School: Archives & Adult Learning
Archives Assistant Stephanie Basford-Morris reflects on her experience of going ‘back to school’ as an adult with a distance learning MA Archives Administration course, and highlights material giving an insight into adult learning over the decades in the Richard Burton Archive collections. Do you remember the particular joy of buying new stationary for back to school? This childhood…Continue Reading Back to School: Archives & Adult Learning
Premieres and the red carpet in the Richard Burton Collection
The #ExploreYourArchive theme for this month is firsts, so we’re going to look at our namesake, Richard Burton, and some of his premieres a.k.a. first or opening nights! Some thoughts about first nights, stage and screen, are found in his diaries which form part of the Richard Burton Collection- ‘We went to London for the opening…Continue Reading Premieres and the red carpet in the Richard Burton Collection
Remembering Raissa
On the anniversary of Raissa Page’s death, archivist, writer and researcher, David Johnston-Smith gives an update on activities to celebrate the photographer’s life and work. Today is the 10th anniversary (28 July 2011) of the death of photographer, Raissa Page, whose archive we were lucky enough to receive in 2014, and which was later catalogued…Continue Reading Remembering Raissa
It’s A Mystery!
Our Archives Assistant Steph Basford-Morris follows the trail of the Explore Your Archive theme this month – #ArchiveMystery – leading her to discover links with pioneering ITV mystery drama! The starting point for this mystery trail was the papers of Elaine Morgan, part of the Richard Burton Archives’ Welsh Writers in English collection. It includes…Continue Reading It’s A Mystery!
Daily Life Records in the Archives
Lifelogging and bloggers who record their daily events are not just a twenty-first century phenomena. Archives Assistant Sarah Thompson explores examples from our Archive collections to look at ways in which people have been recording their daily life throughout the centuries. One of the earliest examples of daily life in the local area was discovered…Continue Reading Daily Life Records in the Archives
The land of song- music in the South Wales Coalfield
Music played an important part of cultural and community life in the South Wales Coalfield. Brass bands, choirs, jazz bands and operatic societies were formed to raise money and spirits. Talents were showcased at local or National Eisteddfodau and miners’ galas. Choirs and Operatic Societies Jazz bands Brass and silver bands Eisteddfodau and Galas…Continue Reading The land of song- music in the South Wales Coalfield
Investigating innovation
We hold a number of letters patent and patent specifications in our collections, but knew very little about them, or the innovations they might reveal. Do they hold much research potential? Surely they would only contain minimal details, to protect from imitations? We did some digging to find out more… Very basically, a patent gives…Continue Reading Investigating innovation