This week we are joined in conversation by David Luck, Archivist for the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

 Alongside his many other hats, David looks after the historic records held at Bethlem Museum of the Mind, including those from the Bethlem Royal Hospital, the Maudsley Hospital, and Warlingham Park Hospital.

Bethlem Museum of the Mind records the lives and experience and celebrates the achievements of people with mental health problems and it seeks to explore and discuss issues around mental health, both in the past and the present day, using its collection of art, objects, and archives.

CW: Please note this episode contains upsetting material concerning racism and mental health.

Visit the museum website here: https://museumofthemind.org.uk/

More information about their archives can be found here: https://museumofthemind.org.uk/collections/archives

This week we are joined by Hannah Mackay from the Perth and Kinross Archive. Hannah works with their sound collection, which since the 1970s has been collecting the voices of regional residents relating to all aspects of the history of Perth & Kinross.

In this episode about oral history, Hannah shares with us her work on the sound collection, some early oral history techniques and technologies, questions of ethics and consent, some tips for getting started with recording, as well as a favourite recording from the archive.  

Perth and Kinross Archive: https://www.culturepk.org.uk/archivelfh/

Perth and Kinross Archive collection guides:  https://www.culturepk.org.uk/archivelfh/perthandkinrossarchive/collection-guides/

Culture Perth and Kinross: https://www.culturepk.org.uk/

Oral History Society: https://www.ohs.org.uk/

This week we hear from four brilliant guests to learn more about the Scottish Political Archives (SPA) housed at the University of Stirling. 

Joining us are Rosie Al-Mulla, Archivist at the University of Stirling, Grant Thoms, Lecturer and Editor of the Scots Independent Newspaper, Bria Bednarick, volunteer on the Scots Independent Archive project, and Francis Bell, a student at the University of Stirling.

You can read more about the SPA here: https://collections.stir.ac.uk/archive-collections/archive-collections-a-z/scottish-political-archive/

To contact SPA about your research, visiting the archive or donating material, email scottishpoliticalarchive@stir.ac.uk

If you would like to volunteer with the SPA, search for available projects here: https://collections.stir.ac.uk/volunteer-with-us/

See more about SPA's current projects here: https://collections.stir.ac.uk/current-projects/

Read more about the Scots Independent here: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=97

Found out about the latest updates from the Scots Independent Archive project here: https://collections.stir.ac.uk/scots-independent-archive/

This week we are joined by Beck Price, the archivist for the Voices Through Time: The Story of Care programme at Coram. 

Voices Through Time: The Story of Care is an ambitious project to digitise the earliest part of Coram’s historic archive, going all the way back to 1739 when it was established as the Foundling Hospital, the country’s first home for children whose mothers could not take care of them.

As well as aiming to preserve this fascinating historical record online for future generations, it directly involves young people in care or who have been in care, giving them opportunities to both engage with the archive and tell their own stories. 

Find out more: https://coramstory.org.uk/about-us/ 

Contact the team: voicesthroughtime@coram.org.uk

Foundling Stories hub: https://coramstory.org.uk/corams-history/foundling-stories/.

No Place Like Home: The Story of the Foundling Hospital: https://coramstory.org.uk/no-place-like-home-the-story-of-the-foundling-hospital/

This week we are having a different conversation. Kirsty Brooks is an artist who works with glass to create site-specific artworks that respond to the history or functioning of its surroundings. The begining of her creative design process more or less always starts by rummaging in an archive. Join us as Kristy shares her processes, her favourite pieces found and conversations had, as well as her own creative archival project.

(hint: what do pigs trotters and peanut butter have in common?)

Read more about Kirsty's work here: http://www.kirstybrooks.co.uk/

This week we are joined by Sarah Cobham, CEO of Dream Time Creative, a place-based creative organisation set up with the aim to help other women feel empowered, enabled and emboldened in their creative and cultural voices.

Dream Time Creative won the 2023 Community Archive and Heritage Award with their project 'Forgotten Women of Wakefield' which aimed to redressed the imbalance in blue plaques in the town. 'No women of note' is what they were told, tune in to hear just how wrong they were. 

CW: There is mention of pregnancy loss in this episode

Watch Dream Time Creative's acceptance speech here: https://youtu.be/lXUKSasXPwg?si=_PZTqF7Cv5ztgx7y

Search the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery database here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/

Find out more about Dream Time Creative here: https://dreamtimecreative.org/

Read more about the Community Archive and Heritage Award here: https://www.archives.org.uk/news/community-archive-amp-heritage-awards-2023

This week we are joined by Principal Archivist at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Ally McConnel, to talk about their work bringing gardening and archives together, as well as the wondrous, tiny tangible moments that can be found within archives and how they can be heart and soul of a community in the most unassuming ways.

Learn more about Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre here: https://wshc.org.uk/

Find out more about WSHC's archive here: https://wshc.org.uk/our-services/archives.html

Browse their online catalogue: http://calmview.wiltshire.gov.uk/CalmView/

This week we are joined by Olivia Gecseg, Visual Collections Records Specialist at The National Archives (TNA), who shares stories from their perhaps lesser-known Visual Collections, including some Victorian creative problem-solving to odour. We'll learn more about some of the visual material that TNA hold, why they have them, and how you can explore them! 

Research guides for:

• Registered designs: Intellectual property: registered designs 1839-1991 - The National Archives
• Patents of invention: Intellectual property: patents of invention - The National Archives
• The National Archives’s catalogue, Discovery: Discovery | The National Archives

Some examples of registered utility designs, viewable online: Victorian bright ideas: Collection highlights – The National Archives

Some examples of registered ornamental designs, viewable online: Collection highlights: Victorian ornamental design – The National Archives