Goodbye to the Archives and Special Collections Service, Tremough

After a fantastic nine months, my traineeship has far too quickly come to an end. It's been the best possible experience I could have hoped for, for which I must give all my thanks to my manager, Sarah.  The last year has furnished me with experience of most aspects of the archive profession and has allowed me to go on some great trips visits and training opportunities. I couldn't mention these without mentioning the Erasmus placement I undertook in July to a university archive service in Berlin. Not only did I get to visit a city that I've always wanted to go to, but I also gained experience of an archive in another European country, which is probably quite unusual for someone in my situation.

A highlight of the year has been working on the Tom Cross Archive catalogue. Tom Cross was a painter and Principal at the Falmouth School of Art (predecessor of University College Falmouth) in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection includes some beautiful sketchbooks, copious amounts of research on artists and art history, and fascinating material relating to his published work. I felt I'd really got to know him through the Archive, and certainly learnt a thing or two about art! I was completely overwhelmed when I was presented with one of his paintings as a leaving gift, kindly donated by his wife who I came to know quite well through my work.

A real achievement has been the initiation of a Social Media policy for the Service. This was something I'd been keen on from the start, and the first step was setting up this blog. The major breakthrough was our Twitter Project, which launched in June. We've been watching our followers steadily increase ever since. There is no doubt that there is a lot of work involved in keeping up a successful Twitter profile, but it's been a great way of promoting our collections and networking with other archives and archivists. I will certainly be keeping an eye out on future #CornishWordoftheDay tweets; these have been my favourite to write, with words like 'silly-wig' and 'popey duck'! (Follow @FXArchives to find out what these mean!)

Despite the perfect Cornish summer I was looking forward to never quite appearing, I've really enjoyed living here. Making the move from south-east London was a bit of a culture shock, but actually a very pleasant one. On the rare sunny days, it certainly all felt worth it when I could spend my lunch break wandering around the beautiful grounds at Tremough. I've also met some fantastic people here, and would like to thank the whole of the Library and Information Services team for making me feel so welcome.

I'm very sad that this experience has come to an end, but can't wait to begin my studies at UCL in a month's time and begin the next stage of my career. I would like to say a final thank you to the Archives team, especially to Sarah, and I wish the next Intern the best of luck.

World Book Night

World Bok Night is coming up on the 23rd of April. To celebrate, Library staff at Tremough will be giving away FREE copies of books! On this literary theme, I have been busy putting together a display to promote our Patrick Gale archive, which will be up tomorrow in the group study area of the library and will contain handwritten drafts of novels, a fillm treatment, and other exciting treats.

For those of you unfamiliar with Patrick Gale, he is best known as an author, and flew to fame when his novel Notes From an Exhibition was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club in 2008.Yet he has also written a film, scripts for television sitcoms, and many articles and reviews for newspapers and magazines. All of these are represented in the Archive, and you can browse the catalogue here.

If you are on campus, come and have a look at my display!

Friends of Tremough Visit

Sarah and I were back to work last Sunday (yes, a Sunday!) to speak to the Friends of Tremough group about our Archive and Special Collections Service. The group was created about a year ago by members of the local community to try to forge more positive links between Tremough and the surrounding communities. Many of them had connections with the site from when there was a girl's convent school here. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and they were all very interested in what our Service has to offer.

Before they arrived, we set out some of our favourite items from the archive, such as beautiful sketchbooks from Tom Cross, notebooks with sketches and scribblings from Kneehigh Theatre, a volume of the Camborne School of Mines magazine and a student register, and a script written by Nick Darke for Morecomb and Wise. Of particular interest to some members of the Group was the original paperback book jacket design for Patrick Gale's 'Notes from an Exhibition'. Despite not having heard of the author before, one member of the group assured us that she would buy the book and pass it round her quilting class! We had also brought out a letter from Elizabeth Anderson, written to Gale, in which she describes her memories of Barbara Hepworth, who appears as a character in the book. Let's say she paints a less than flattering picture!

It was a really positive experience, and the group had lots of questions for us and were extremely interested in what we do. Some said they would even like to come back and spend a day in the reading room, going through some of our collections. Also as I have now only been working here for two months, I haven't yet become familiar with all the collections, particularly the Nick Darke and Patrick Gale archives, so it was useful for me to also get a general overview of all our holdings. Several proposals came out of the visit, as to how we can help them and vice versa, and we might hopefully get a spot in their newsletter. So I hope this will be the start of a very good relationship with some valuable members of the wider community.

UCF Timeline

Coming to work in a new organisation, particularly an archive service, can be quite daunting, as you have to familiarise yourself with the nature of the organisation and the archives it holds pretty quickly. This is why its been great to get stuck in to some enquiries. One of the best ways to get to grips with an archive is by answering enquiries, as it involves researching your holdings, and you come to learn quite quickly where you might look for future enquiries.

The first I was given was to be an ongoing project to carry out over my first few weeks here. I was asked to put together a timeline of the history of the College, which was great for someone new to the organisation. Using various sources, I have managed to complete a timeline from the foundation of the Art School at Arwenack Avenue, Falmouth, in 1902, right up to 2013/14, when UCF will become Arts University Cornwall.

Foundation stone of Falmouth Art School, laid by Lord Levan in 1901, at the site at Arwenack Avenue, Falmouth

It has been a fascinating journey, and particularly interesting to see how the College grew, as well as coping with several threats of closure. My main resource was a series of research files, created by a team of researchers who were to make a book about the College. The book was shelved, but our archives service was able to hold on to the many pages of research that had been done. The majority of their sources were newspaper articles, minutes from meetings, reports, and histories written by old principals and students, as well as interviews.



Advert from Lake’s Falmouth Packet, 14^th January, 1938

This advert from the Falmouth Packet shows what classes were available for students in 1938. Back then, the School was a private venture, with classes costing a few shillings a session. By the end of 1948, the art classes had been recognised by the Ministry of Education and the School became the Falmouth School of Art. The School relocated to the Woodlane site, and continued to grow until it was finally recognised in 1975 by the Council for National Academic Awards as a centre for a three year programme of study leading to the award of a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art. In 1984 the School was threatened with closure by the National Advisory Body for Public Sector Higher Education but a rescue mission was put into action, strongly supported by Cornwall College, and a reprieve was granted. The Falmouth School of Art changed its name to the Falmouth School of Art and Design in 1987, and then again to Falmouth College of Arts in 1995. In 1999, the College aqcuired the Tremough site to accommodate the increasing number of students and courses taught, and in 2004 Exeter's Cornwall campus was transferred there. In the same year, the Privy Council granted the College the power to award taught degrees under their own name and in 2005 it became University College Falmouth. The latest development was the merge with Dartington College of Arts, which saw the transfer of Dartington courses to Tremough in 2010. The next stage for the College's development will be 2013/14, when the new specialist Arts University in Cornwall will be created.

I'm really glad I had the chance to do this research. What I have very briefly outlined above is the rapid growth and transformation that the College underwent over the last century, and I now feel I have a good knowledge of the organisation and the context of the archives service. As the college developed, so did its resources, which allowed for an archives service to serve not only the students, but also any potential external users. Just as the College will continue to grow, we hope to too.