Friday 31 January 2014

Heading into 2014

The New Year of 2014 is well on its way now, heralded by weather so miserable that you could almost wish for snow. In the Archive, we’ve been keeping dry and cosy, dealing with visitors wishing to look at a range of material, including textile records, First World War letters, architectural plans and University records.

We’ve also been working with some recent accessions to the collections, some of which came in just before Christmas. One accession is material generated by the Episcopalian Diocese of Brechin that includes some newly discovered letters to Bishop Forbes. We’ve recruited some new volunteers, and one of them will be working through the scrawl of 19th century handwriting so that they can be properly described and added to the BrMS collection.

The work of the volunteers is much appreciated by Archive staff who come in regularly and create basic lists of collections. At the moment, volunteers are working on our growing collections of comics, a mountaineering club collection, Dundee Rep Theatre posters and programmes and the Kerr Anderson papers.


Finally, if you follow us on twitter you may have seen the Alex Coupar photographs that we’ve been featuring (twitter.com/UoD_Archives). Alex is a renowned photographer from Dundee, whose work ranges from street-scenes and views to candid portraiture and press shots. We’re incredibly lucky to have his collection here in the Archive, and we’re seeking funding so that we can bring Alex’s work to a wider public. So, watch this space…

Dr Jan Merchant