The Delights of dsh (dom sylvester houédard)

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Cataloguing, Concrete Poetry, dom sylvester houedard, dsh, Typestracts

Hello! My name is Fran Horner and I am a postgraduate student at the University of Manchester studying the MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies. I am currently doing a placement at the John Rylands Library, which involves working with the archive of British Benedictine monk and poet dom sylvester houédard (dsh – he always referred to himself in lower case!). I am going to be regularly updating the John Rylands Library blog with my experiences and interesting discoveries!

Photograph of dom sylvester houédard. By kind permission of Prinknash Abbey Trustees.

My placement will consist of researching dsh’s importance in the fields of literature and art. He was one of Britain’s pioneers of concrete poetry: a type of experimental visual poetry which had its origins in Brazil, then Europe and was concerned with rebelling against conventional forms of poetry by focussing on the architectural form of letters. dsh’s most celebrated poem is Frog-pond-plop, 1965, and he is famous for his experimental use of his Olivetti typewriter to create ‘typestracts’.

dsh, Frog-pond-plop, 1965. By kind permission of Prinknash Abbey Trustees.

The John Rylands Library holds dsh’s book collection, which is vast, but I will be concentrating on his collection of little poetry and art magazines from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. 

Before I could properly get stuck in with the items in the archive, I was preoccupied with creating a suitable method of cataloguing – something I have never done before! Thanks to Janette Martin (Archivist and Curator) and Julie Ramwell (Rare Books Librarian), I successfully created a spreadsheet with various categories of information that were to be recorded. It has been interesting learning about what categories of information are essential for the catalogue, for example: publisher, year published, volume and editor are all extremely important; whether I liked or disliked the poems… not so important. I have also discovered things about the appropriate type of language and structure I must use within the catalogue: the language must be succinct and consistent to ensure its reliability and usefulness as a finding aid. In the future, researchers may be using my catalogue!

Luckily for me, some wonderful library fairies had already alphabetised the collection of little magazines, saving me a big job, so I began cataloguing the ‘A’s. I must now get back to cataloguing in the Reading Room, where I am sat in five jumpers, but I’m eager to learn more about dsh and his wonderful world of concrete poetry.

Two typestracts by dsh published in Approches, 1966, no. 1, p.86. By kind permission of Prinknash Abbey Trustees.

Here are two typestracts by dsh that I found in French literary magazine Approches from 1966. Check back to this blog in the next couple of weeks where I will explore the conception and style of dsh’s typestracts in more detail.

Loose insert giving the title of the typestracts above.  By kind permission of Prinknash Abbey Trustees.

Commend me to your prayers

Tags

#jrlReformation, Martin Luther

From Icones virorum illustrium (Images of famous men) Robert Boissard, Frankfurt, 1597

Martin Luther died on 18 February 1546 at the age of 62 in Eisleben, Saxony, the city where he was born. Luther’s actions had sparked a revolution that divided Europe and changed the course of history. Modern European identities were fundamentally shaped by the religious changes that he set in motion. The years of struggle, against the Catholic Church and amongst his fellow reformers, took their toll and Luther suffered from periods of depression and illness. One of the more poignant items in our Reformation exhibition is a letter written by Luther on 1 January 1528.

The letter is addressed to Gerhard Vilskamp, Rector of the community of Brethren of the Common Life at Herford in Westphalia. It is one of a number to survive from correspondence between the two men dating from 1527 to 1534.  Luther’s contact with the community began with Jacob Montanus, a friend of the German Lutheran reformer Philipp Melanchthon, who had moved there in 1522 to assist in their teaching activities. Vilskamp, along with his prorector, had been arrested in 1525 ‘as Lutherans and heretics’ by Bishop Eric of Paderborn and Osnabrück. After the city adopted the new faith in 1530, Luther supported the community in their appeals to the city authorities to maintain their communal life. The subject matter of the letter is particularly personal as Luther reflects on his recent struggles with depression and illness.

Ref. English MS 347/198

Grace and peace in Christ. I have received your most recent letter of consolation, my Gerard, with much pleasure and gratitude. May Christ reward you in eternity. In truth, this temptation was by far the most severe ever, and although it was not unknown to me from my youth, still so troublesome attack as this I had not expected. Nevertheless Christ triumphed, though my life was hanging by a most slender thread. I commend me to your prayers and [those] of your brothers. I have saved others, but I cannot save myself.  My blessed Christ, who passed through the depth of despair, death and blasphemy, will enable us to meet in his kingdom. In the meantime we must make sure that we serve Him in word and deed, but it is not in this that we are justified  – we are truly useless as servants , but our glory is to live in the world for Christ, forgetting our former evil life. What remains is that Christ is our life and our justification (ah, how hard and unknown to the flesh!), although hidden in God . Now I rejoice that I understand Peter  (with you as witness) that we must fulfill the experience of suffering that strikes our brethren in this world, however severe, until the end of this world.

Greetings to my Montanus and all the brothers. [Day] of the Circumcision, 1528.

Yours Martin Luther

Luther letter transcription and translation (with thanks especially to Professor Ulrich Bubenheimer and Dr Irene O’Daly).

Unfortunately we do not know the circumstances for the acquisition of the letter. However it does appear in a ‘List of Purchased Books 1893’, an alphabetical listing written by Mrs Rylands herself. It is one of two items under the heading ‘Luther’, the other being our copy of the 95 theses. You can see both of these treasures on display in our Reformation exhibition until Sunday 4 March.

Conservator’s Caviar: Isinglass Preparation

In January, the conservation team prepared some purified isinglass. Isinglass is a type of glue made of fish, more specifically the dried sturgeon swim-bladder membrane. This adhesive offers different qualities for conservation treatments, such as good ageing properties, flexibility and light fastness. Isinglass is widely used for conservation treatments, for example the consolidation of pigments, repair of parchment or prepared as remoistenable repair tissue.

Figure 1: Weighing isinglass

However, isinglass can’t be used in its raw form. Starting with sheets of the fish membrane, the isinglass must be dissolved, purified and prepared in a form ready to use. The full procedure takes approximately 3 days.

After weighing the desired amount of dried glue, the sheet is carefully cut in small pieces of a few millimetres length. The pieces are covered and left to soak overnight in deionised water.

Figure 2: The membrane is cut out in small pieces

The glue is then sieved, gently massaged then, divided into equal parts, and put to dissolve in fresh deionised water. The water is gently warmed in a bain-marie at 29 degrees, and frequently stirred up to facilitate the dissolution. At higher temperatures, the gelatine of the glue starts to degrade and its structure and properties are then altered.

Figure 3: Sieving and dividing the soaked glue in equal parts

Figure 4: Dissolving in a 29 degrees bain-marie

When the dissolution is completed, the isinglass is sieved twice through a thin muslin cloth to remove any impurities. The discs can then be prepared!

Figure 5: Second sieving through a muslin cloth

Figure 6: Preparing the discs using pipettes

Using pipettes, small drops of glue are carefully spaced out on a sheet of Melinex^©.

Figure 7: Isinglass drops on Melinex©

The drops need to dry whilst covered, protected from dust and impurities. This takes usually between 12 to 24 hours depending on the weather conditions.

Figure 8: Drying under a plastic cover

The discs can finally be peeled out of the Melinex and stored in a jar.

Figure 9: Isinglass discs ready to use

Figure 10: Isinglass discs ready to use

The discs are now ready to be diluted in water, warmed up in a bain-marie and used as an adhesive in a conservation treatment. Keep an eye out for our next blog to see it in action!

Norman Nicholson’s ‘Topographical Notes’ in the John Rylands Library

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Burgh-by-Sands, Cartmel, Cumbria, Millom, Modern Literary Archives, Norman Nicholson, Poetry, Topographical writing

Max Long, an English MPhil student at Cambridge University, visited the Library recently and has written a guest blog post for us about his discoveries in Norman Nicholson’s Archive:

The John Rylands Library is home to the Norman Nicholson Archive, which holds a comprehensive collection of the writer’s manuscripts and correspondence. Nicholson was first and foremost a poet, and his books, from his first collection Five Rivers (1944) to The Pot Geranium (1954) and Sea to the West (1981) sought to paint an intimate, honest picture of his local Cumbrian landscape, one in which rocks, people and industry were inextricably linked. This vision of the landscape was expressed too in his topographical works, which include Cumberland and Westmorland (1949), Portrait of the Lakes (1963) and Greater Lakeland (1968). Nicholson remained rooted throughout his life in his hometown of Millom, and his poetry reflects the often difficult experience of a struggling industrial town in the post-war years. Norman Nicholson has long been neglected by critics, who are often irritated by his religious preoccupations, his perceived provincialism and his sharp, uncomplicated verse which favours the palpable and the concrete over the abstract and ambiguous. However, the last decade has seen a much-deserved reappraisal of his poetry. The Norman Nicholson Society was established in 2006, and recently two biographies have been written about Nicholson, as well as several academic articles.

Nicholson’s archive is an entertaining collection to read through, given his unusual practice of constantly re-purposing old scraps of paper for new uses. Thus, drafts of poems are frequently written on the back of typed letters or bills addressed to him. The back sides of scribbled and notated typescript drafts of his own, too, were used for writing out poems, rough lists or even bits of topographical manuscript. Nicholson was reluctant to keep his manuscripts and correspondence. In a April 1963 letter, also conserved at the John Rylands Library, Lawrence S. Thompson, then-librarian at Kentucky University Library, wrote to Norman Nicholson requesting a “manuscript poem in your hand”. Nicholson replied that, “I am afraid that practically the whole of my manuscripts have been destroyed. It did not occur to me that anybody would be interested in them”.  He offered instead to send a manuscript of the topographical book he was then drafting, A Portrait of the Lakes:

You may feel that a topographical work will be of littel ineterst [sic] to American students, but the whole key to to [sic] imagery of my poetry can be found in this volume.

Copy letter from Nicholson to Lawrence S. Thompson

My own visit to the John Rylands was motivated by the hope of finding a notebook kept by Nicholson which might shed some light on how he wrote down his thoughts and ideas. The archive includes two folders called “Poetry in Progress”, which contain poetical drafts, mostly written on the back of rough pieces of paper. There are also two notebooks from Nicholson’s school years, which were re-used to write clean copies of his very earliest poetry, most of it unpublished. Another small notebook, with the title Wordsworth in Lakeland, is a compendium of information relating to William Wordsworth’s relationship to specific locations in the Lake District, drawing mainly from Dorothy Wordsworth’s diaries and The Prelude. However, there is only one notebook surviving in the archive which suggests continual and repeated use over time, recording immediate impressions of his surroundings and also scraps of reading and interesting anecdotes.

Front cover of Nicholson’s ‘Topographical Notes’

This is a small blue notebook which is labelled ‘Topographical Notes: Morecambe Bay etc.’ (NCN3/1/8). The notebook, which has a list of quotes about William Wordsworth in a very different hand on the back pastedown, as well as a quote from Matthew Arnold at the front, was probably also an old school exercise book of Nicholson’s. Several leaves have been torn from the front of the notebook, which are likely to have contained pages devoted to its previous use as school notes. A quick glance at its contents, which were indexed by Nicholson himself on the first page, suggests that the notebook was used largely to prepare for writing his topographical book Greater Lakeland (1969), which would place the notebook’s use in the late 1960s, in the immediate years before the book’s publication.

First opening of the notebook, showing Nicholson’s index

Nicholson’s notes are written in light blue ink, and are fiercely difficult to decipher. The writer’s rough notation, together with his abbreviations (including using a single vertical line to mean ‘the’) and the frequent rough sketches he includes beside his notes to describe buildings, mountains and other features of the land, suggests that the book was either carried around with him on short expeditions, or was used to record impressions immediately on his return. The contrast with the neat, organized notes from his Wordsworth in Lakeland notebook could not be starker.

This page includes some sketches of Cartmel Priory made by Nicholson

Although the tone of the notebook is characterized by an impersonal form of observation, there are a few moments where Nicholson allows a glimpse into his presence as note-taker. At Great Salkeld, after briefly mentioning the church’s fortified tower, he writes of a “road to river [..] Place where we picnicked”. The “we” here refers to Nicholson’s wife Yvonne, who helped him in his travels by driving him across the region during the preparation of Greater Lakeland. Nicholson never fully recovered from the tuberculosis that confined him to a sanatorium for two years when he was sixteen, and he struggled to walk long distances.

The notebook also includes a few rough notes from his reading, which are duly referenced with an underlined title of the book and its author. Writing about Eskdale Railway, for example, he includes notes taken from a book called Small Talk at Wreyland by Cecil Torr, as well as some information about Lancaster Canal drawn from Jack Simmons’s Journeys in England. What is interesting about these reading notes is that they are very sparse – when references from the Topographical Notes overlap with the content in Greater Lakeland, Nicholson usually adds much more detailed information. Perhaps the Topographical Notes were intended only for very quick notation, with Nicholson resorting to more detailed notes located elsewhere.

What is most fascinating about the notebook, however, is that it shows Nicholson’s note-taking to have served both his topographical and his poetical modes of writing. As Nicholson’s letter to Lawrence S. Thompson indicated, he clearly thought of both as closely related. The Notebook was in use towards the end of an eighteen-year hiatus in Nicholson’s poetic career, and some of the notes appear to show him looking at the landscape with the kind of poetic eye that dominated his later poetry. In his notes about Burgh-by-Sands, for example, he notes that there,

seems to be
1 single cooling tower over the water (overhead)
but, as you move over sands, you
see the tower slowly gets wider,
then splits into two, two – This,
is subdivided + you see four towers
side by side over four parallel
leeks of smor snot steam wh, before,
had appeared only to be one.

Nicholson’s notes about Burgh-by-Sands

Nicholson’s focus here, as at a number of other sections of the notebook, is with how elements of the landscape appear changed depending on the position of the viewer. As he moves across the sands, what seemed to be one tower, is in fact four. David Cooper has written recently about how Nicholson’s later poetry shows a deep concern with light and vision, and his last Faber collection, Sea to the West (1981), contains several poems addressing the changing view of Black Combe, a mountain overlooking his Millom home. As Nicholson’s only working notebook to survive in his archive, the Topographical Notes are a valuable asset in the John Rylands Library for researchers interested in Norman Nicholson’s poetry, his unique way of reading and describing the landscape, and twentieth century note-taking practices more generally.

We are grateful to the Trustees of the Estate of Norman Nicholson for their permission to reproduce the images in this blog post.

From Scripts to Spell Books: Reflecting on my Experience in ‘Curating Culture’

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Audrey Hepburn, Curating Culture, Manchester Museum, Teaching and learning, Whitworth Art Gallery

‘Curating Culture’ is a module available to undergraduates at the University of Manchester via the University College of Interdisciplinary Learning (UCIL).  It is taught by the University of Manchester Library Special Collections in conjunction with the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Museum.  Besides offering an insight into the type of work done by curators, archivists, librarians, conservators and other professionals, it enhances student employability by teaching transferable skills. One of our students, Maissie Killen, writes:

I am student at the University of Manchester, currently in my second year studying ‘Classical Studies’. When selecting my course modules, I was thrilled to see a curating-based course was available as my ambitions for the future involve being a museum curator and so this module seemed like a great way to achieve this goal. I have no regrets choosing this course and have found the differing topics each week enlightening but also a welcomed break from my other essay-heavy modules.

The course Curating Cultures consisted of one two-hour session a week and was led by Janette Martin and Donna Sherman.  Each session usually involved the visit of a guest speaker who spoke on a range of subjects, some being photography and online archives. My favourite session was the visit to the Whitworth Art Gallery where we met with the curator, Uthra Rajgopal. This was a personal highlight of the course as I appreciated the way she explained the meaning behind the artwork; rather than just describing the piece she would provide background information which only made it more interesting. The idea of turning a person’s mild interest towards an artefact into genuine enthusiasm is what encourages me to want to become a curator and this visit definitely assisted this desire.

As for the assessed aspect of the course, our first project was to select four objects and make them into an exhibition case which included an object list and label as well as images and a short blog. The romantic appeal of black and white films, along with a love of vintage clothing, assisted my decision to base my exhibition on Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey Hepburn filming Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) wearing the ‘Little Black Dress’.

Before my research, I was aware of Audrey’s success as an actress. However, it was only when I began further study that I found out about her harsh upbringing in Nazi occupied territory and her involvement in a resistant movement during the Second World War. I incorporated this aspect of her life into the project by including a photograph of a young Audrey Hepburn dancing to portray that her dedication to the arts started from young age. Her diligence as an artist was evident in my second object which was a script of Breakfast at Tiffany’s that Hepburn had meticulously annotated herself.

Hepburn’s annotated script of Breakfast at Tiffany’s,

As for my third and fourth objects, I attempted to show differing elements of Audrey’s life. I represented the glitz and glamour of her Hollywood lifestyle through the inclusion of her iconic ‘Little Black Dress’ as well as paying homage to her work with UNICEF through the addition of her Presidential Medal of Freedom. Throughout my research, my respect for Audrey grew and I tried to base my exhibition around the lesser known aspects of her life in order to commemorate her humanitarian work rather than solely her Hollywood career.

The second assessment involved working within a small group to create a plan for, and present, an educational workshop. After deciding that our target audience for the workshop would be lower KS3 (12-13 year olds), we referred to the national curriculum to help us select a subject to base it on. We quickly decided that the supernatural would be a good topic and believed the intrigue of the occult would appeal to a younger audience. In planning this, we drew upon the setting of the John Rylands Library to reinforce the theme of magic with its likeness to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts.  For the workshop, myself along with my peers Megan Bridgeland and Becca Selby, each selected an object taken from the Rylands collection Magic, Witches and Devils in the Early Modern World. I chose an object titled ‘The Three Living and the Three Dead’. This is an illustrative interpretation of a poem that told the tale of three men encountering three corpses who warn them to avoid avarice and urge them to perform the correct funeral rights to honour their deaths. I selected this object as it contains images which I thought would appeal to a younger age range as opposed to excessive amounts of text. I also chose my object as I thought that the coexistence of religion and superstition was interesting and worth further exploration as usually they do not interact however in this instance the supernatural is a consequence of failing to be religious.

‘The Three Living and the Three Dead’, from Incunable 15615

Our educational workshop also consisted of an activity where we presented a mock witch trial. This involved three characters who each read out a case study and the audience would have to decide whether they should be sentenced as a witch or not. This activity allowed for audience interaction whilst it was great fun creating the witch characters.

Overall I really enjoyed this course. It taught a range of valuable skills, from tips on how to change your writing style to cater for a certain audience to creating object labels as if they were for artefacts in a museum. The course allowed for independent research however it offered assistance when needed and I would definitely recommend it to others.

Catalogue of the Arley Charters now Online

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Arley Charters, Cataloguing, Charter Collections, Medieval manuscripts, Muniments, Seals, Sigillography, Warburton of Arley family

Volunteer Sandra Cruise reports on the completion of a landmark catalogue of the Arley Charters, begun by fellow volunteer Robert Stansfield in 2011.

A catalogue of one of the Rylands’ most important collection of muniments is now available via the library’s on-line catalogue, ELGAR. The Arley Charters, which mainly concern the Dutton and Warburton families and their Cheshire estates during the medieval period, are of national importance, noted for the large number of early charters and many fine seals appended thereto.

Deed of gift from Robert the hunter of Thelwall to John the Hunter of Appleton, n.d. [c.1250-1290]. Arley Charters, ARL/16A/2.

The charters, over 750 in total, form the earliest component of the collections of the Warburton family of Arley Hall, Cheshire. They commence c.1170 with gifts of land to one of the earliest family members, Adam de Dutton (fl. 1172-1212), who was both Steward of Widnes and, from 1178, Steward of Blackburnshire, and continue through the family’s change of name from de Dutton to Warburton c1311, concluding in the late 18^th century with documents relating to the fifth and last baronet, Peter XI.  The bulk of the collection relates to the medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods and to the family estates of Appleton, Aston by Budworth, Aston by Sutton, Chester, Dutton, Great Budworth, Lower Walton, Lymm, Newton by Chester, Northwich, Poulton, Pulford, Sutton, Thelwall, Warburton, Wincham and Winnington. Included are examples relating to the constables of Chester, several monastic charters, plus a small number of Papal bullae. In addition, there are some deeds of the 13^th and 14^th centuries relating mainly to Beverley in Yorkshire, to property which ultimately devolved on the Cheshire family of Winnington (later connected to the Warburtons through marriage in the early 16^th century).

As significant landowners, the family undertook many important roles, as already indicated. Sir Geoffrey I (d. 1248), also known as ‘de Budworth’, married Alice, daughter of John de Lacy, constable of Chester and was a member of the latter’s retinue on Crusade in the Holy Land in 1218. Some years later, Sir Geoffrey V (d. 1382) was a retainer of Edward, Prince of Wales, the ‘Black Prince’, indentured in 1367 to serve him in peace and war with two esquires.

Indenture of retainer from Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince) to Geoffrey de Warburton, 6 June 1365. Arley Charters, ARL/14/5.

Names of the witnesses of the charters can also be revealing, including in their number not only the Duttons’ and Warburtons’ eminent Cheshire neighbours, but also sheriffs and justices of Chester, whose names have helped to date some of the undated documents in the archive, and even, in some instances, the names of the clerk who penned the charter.

The collection is also notable for its seals. Examples include those of the constables of Chester, Royal (Great seals) and monastic seals, Papal bullae, plus many from the Duttons, Warburtons and other Cheshire families. Amongst the Yorkshire charters are some seals of women, such as Agnes de Castell and Isabella de Burton, and of a tailor, William de Scheldware.

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Also significant are the early examples of trade receipts, such as those of draper, John Ridley of Chester, and grocer, ‘Market’ Dingley, who supplied wares to Sir John Warburton in 1559 and 1560 respectively. There is also a small number of letters and other documents relating to the living of the church of Lymm-cum-Warburton in the 18^th century, plus other estate related papers, and a pedigree of the Warburtons of Hargrave, Cheshire, of 1696.

The catalogue is based on William Beamont’s printed calendar of 1866, compiled at the behest of Rowland Egerton Warburton (1804–1891), who had inherited the Warburton estates from his grand-uncle, the last baronet. The new version includes some 20 or more additional items not included in Beamont’s original, and is arranged in box, rather than in Beamont’s geographical order, which should make searching considerably easier for the researcher.

The archive provides a valuable record of the history and development of a landed family over 500 years. Topographical names and details, some of which may have long-since vanished, will be a rich resource for local historians.

Sacred Sounds and Radical Printing

Tags

#jrlReformation, Catholicism, Henry VIII, music, Protestant, Reformation

In the 1530s, England was in turmoil. After centuries of following the Catholic faith, people were being told that their beliefs were wrong, and the ways in which they should express them must change.

An ordinary experience?

‘The King’s Book’ detailed what Henry VIII’s subjects were meant to believe and how they should practice their religion.

It is hard to find out about the experience of ordinary people during the Reformation in England, but we do have some clues. Our current exhibition, The Reformation, includes a copy of the King’s Book (The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for Any Christian Man) in which Henry VIII addressed his people directly. Published in 1543, the King’s Book brought together a number of existing publications, including the Ten articles of 1536 and the Six Articles of 1539, with some significant edits. It was a traditionalist revision of the religious changes which had been sweeping the kingdom for a decade, reflecting Henry’s own shift back towards orthodox Catholic beliefs. There was, of course, one notable difference to Henry’s Catholicism: in England, the king remained head of the Church.

The importance of print.

We know that this book was popular since it was reprinted many times. This may indicate the wide appeal of the king’s word, but may equally demonstrate that people were desperate to know what they should believe, and how they should show it.

The Radical Print demonstration on Thursday 8th February will show the John Rylands’ nineteenth century printing press in action and offer an insight into how print revolutionised life in the fifteenth century.

Sacred Sounds.

Central to the experience of Christinanity for many people at the time were encounters with sacred music. On Thursday 15th February, the John Rylands will host Sacred Sounds, an evening performance by Ad Solem, bringing the music of The Reformation to life. Ad Solem is a student-led chamber choir and part of the Manchester University Music Society.

In the unique setting of the John Rylands Library, visitors will be able to experience some of the new music which the Reformation brought into people’s lives.

Join us at this free event on 15th February, to experience sounds of the Reformation which brought such change to people’s lives five centuries ago.

Sacred Sounds is a free, unticketed event but spaces will be limited. The performance will start at 5:45pm and conclude by 6.30pm.

Radical Print is a free, drop-in demonstration of the nineteenth century printing press between 11.15 and 11.45am on Thursday 8th February. Booking is not required.

For more information, please see the John Rylands Library events pages at http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/whats-on/.

The Language of Catalogue Descriptions

Tags

Christian Brethren Archive, Digitisation

The Heritage Imaging Team has recently completed a project to digitise 901 lantern slides held in the Christian Brethren Archive. As mentioned in a previous blog post, in the case of many of these slides, we had very little contextual information, or information relating to their provenance.

The creation of a catalogue for visual material without much knowledge of origin or content presents certain challenges and concerns.

If you are unable to identify the origin of the image, and the scene it depicts, the cataloguer may be reduced to simply describing what they can see, and thus descriptions like ‘Man under tree holding stick’ are born. As there were several cataloguers involved with this project, there are further concerns in terms of the standardisation of language, as one person may decide to to describe the same moving body of water as a river, and another as a stream.

There are also challenges in terms of the elements of the image which are chosen for description. Is the weather relevant? Do you mention any figures in the background, or stick to the foreground? The cataloguer may be fairly certain that the building depicted is a school, but without any corroborating data, may have to simply describe it as a building.

EOS/4/1/1/37

Another pressing concern is the importance of employing terminology that is culturally sensitive. If the cataloguer is unfamiliar with the subject matter and the culture depicted, it is crucial to try not to make assumptions, or produce descriptions which may prove to be inaccurate.

The cataloguer is left with the options of the potential inclusion of misleading, culturally insensitive information, or catalogue descriptions that are so bland and vague as to impart no useful information at all, thus rendering them not terribly useful as finding aids.

Early on in the process of cataloguing these slides, I decided that I would prefer to avoid misrepresentation by guesswork, and to opt for the best descriptions we could create based upon what could be identified within the images.

EOS/4/1/1/47

The inclusion of information generated by those belonging to the community to which the records relate, and from experts, has become a recognised and valued technique for descriptions of community collections and archives. Now that the lantern slides are available online, I am attempting to obtain more information from members of the Brethren Archivists and Historians Network, from members of the Christian Brethren, and from academics and researchers with expert knowledge on China, Africa and race relations.

There has also been some suggestion in the archival profession that perhaps an attempt should be made to return to archive catalogues created in the past, and improve the outdated terminology used within the descriptions. A problem with this approach is that, in 100 years, elements of the language which we currently use may be considered incorrect, or potentially offensive. Furthermore, the cataloguer must consider what terminology is likely to be employed by researchers when searching for records. It may be more helpful to enhance (rather than replace) descriptions with new additional terminology, to best ensure that a catalogue remains effective.

In the course of this project, I have come to appreciate again that the language used in archival description is important. The use of participatory description is significant and necessary, as we aim to be inclusive custodians of cultural memory.