Visit of the Polish National Digital Archives

On Friday 14^th October ARMMS had a visit from Sebastian Zduńczyk, Artur Łysik, Arkadiusz Świątek and Andrzej Kochaniak of the Polish National Digital Archives - Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (NAC) – who gave a presentation about the their organisation. The NAC is one of the three main sections of the Central State Archive in Poland and is located in Warsaw.

Although an ‘Archives of Audio-Visual Records’ had existed in Poland since 1955, it was not until 2008 that it was transformed into the National Digital Archives as a response to the emergence and growth of information technologies. Its main activities are to preserve digital and non-digital photographs, film and audio recordings, and to create digital versions of non-digital archival material for sharing online. At the beginning of 2011 the archive held 30 terabytes of data. Although the NAC is part of the Central State Archive many of these collections are from external organisations.

A large part of this process involves scanning microfilm and each year; between one and a half and two million frames are scanned using state of the art equipment. The NAC also scans photographs and documents, either from its own collections or sent by external organisations. As well as being digitised these items are microfilmed as part of an overall preservation strategy and the NAC now holds some 72 million microfilm frames.

The NAC is also developing websites that permit public access to much of the digitised material and there are over 150,000 digital images on the Audiovis website. Another initiative is the development of a web interface – ZoSIA - that permits access to information about archival collections in the Central State Archive as well as regional State archives across the whole of Poland..

After the presentation the NAC team was given a tour of the University Archives. They were surprised to see photographs of a young Andrzej Wajda, the famous film director, taken by the Hungarian photographer Michael Peto, as well as other Peto photographs showing Warsaw’s immediate post-war restoration and development. These included an image of a part of Warsaw very near the NAC’s own building.

This insight into the work of the National Digital Archives was very interesting and enlightening and we were particularly impressed by the scope and scale of the organisation’s work.

Age of Revolution in the Archives

Over the next two weeks over 270 level one students undertaking the Age of Revolution module on the University’s History Programme will be carrying out a source based exercise which uses material from our collections relating to Dundee in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including maps, a hospital report and an extract from a Dundee Directory. This assessment encourages students to think about primary sources as well as some of the broader issues relating to the impact the industrial revolution had on Dundee, Scotland and the rest of Britain. In previous years many students undertaking this and similar exercises have come to the archives to enhance their work by making use of the many other sources we have relating to life in Dundee at this time, and we anticipate many of this year’s cohort will visit us over the next fortnight. Some of the collections consulted in the past include:

MS 11 Baxter Brothers & Co Ltd. The Baxters operated one of Dundee's major textile works. Their extensive archives include many records relating to the business as well as an account of the early days of flax spinning in Dundee written by Charles Mackie, 'an old mill manager'.

MS 17/P The Thornton Collection of Manuscripts and Plans This collection includes material relating to the coming of the railways to Dundee as well as several plans of Dundee and its buildings

MS 102 The Peter Carmichael of Arthurstone Collection. There are many fascinating items to be found in the papers of one of Scotland’s great factory managers and engineers including photographs of Dundee in the nineteenth century, personal correspondence and an excellent autobiographical account of life and trade in the city.

MS 134 Working Class Life in Dundee for Twenty Five Years, 1878-1903  This study by Dr David Lennox includes much material relating to the late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century as background to its arguments on the main period it covers.

THB 1 The Dundee Royal Infirmary Collection has a wide range of useful information on life in Dundee at this time including reports of the work of the hospital and disease in Dundee, patient admission registers and directors minutes

KLoc The Kinnear Local Book Collection has a number of rare histories of Dundee as well as publications produced in this period such as the Dundee Directories,  and the Rev. George Lewis's A course of lectures on the physical, educational and moral statistics of Dundee delivered in the Watt Institution Hall in December 1840

The archives also have many other collections which contain material relevant to students of the Industrial Revolution as can be seen from our On-line Catalogue (http://134.36.1.31/) and our source lists and subject indexes (http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/sourcetop.htm). In addition we hold copies of most of a number of useful texts on the history of Dundee in the industrial period which are available for consultation in the search room. These include:

L. Miskell, C. Whatley & B. Harris (eds) Victorian Dundee Image and Realities (East Linton, 1999)
C. McKean, P. Whatley with K. Baxter Lost Dundee (Edinburgh, 2008)
D. Swinfen, A. Smith and C. Whatley The Life and Times of Dundee (Edinburgh, 1993)
C. McKean, Dundee: An Illustrated Architectural Introduction/Guide (Edinburgh, 1984 & 1993)
C. Mckean, C. Whatley and B Harris (Eds) Dundee 1500-1800 Renaissance Burgh to Enlightenment Town (Dundee, 2009)

Dr Kenneth Baxter

Chessor Lillie Matthew

Born in 1914, Chessor Lillie Matthew studied art, design and architecture at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen. He then moved to Wales where was senior assistant at the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff College of Technology. In 1958 he was appointed Head of the School of Architecture at Dundee College of Art in succession to John Needham. Matthew clearly made an impression in this role, for just six years later, at the age of 51 he succeeded, H. Adam Crawford as Principal of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (as Dundee School of Art was by then known). He would hold this post until his retirement in 1978.

Principal Matthew's time in office coincided with a key period in Duncan of Jordanstone's history, when it ended its relationship with Dundee Institute of Art and Technology. Throughout its history the Art College had been a part of what was originally known as the Technical Institute, but by the middle of the twentieth century the College of Technology and the Art College had become virtually separate institutions. By the 1960s the relationship was being questioned with some suggesting closer integration of the two colleges into a polytechnic, an idea not welcomed by the Art College.

Following a review by Sir Charles Wilson it was Matthew's stance which prevailed and Duncan of Jordanstone finally became an independent college in 1975 with Matthew at its head. During the same period Principal Matthew oversaw closer co-operation between Duncan of Jordanstone and the recently established University of Dundee. In a groundbreaking move in 1974 a joint Faculty of Environmental Studies was set up which included departments from both institutions. The ultimate outcome of this process of co-operation was the merger of the Duncan of Jordanstone and the University in 1994.

Matthew’s period in office also saw the College introduce new courses, attract greater numbers of students, and expand the College library. His work as Principal and the contribution he made was praised by his successor Myer Lacome who noted that the College had been left in 'a very healthy state'.

Principal Matthew was a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and an Associate Member of the Town Planning Institute. A lasting legacy of his time at Duncan of Jordanstone is the Matthew Building, erected during his Principalship and named in his honour. More about Chessor Matthew can be found in the records of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, which are held by Archive Services.

Dr Kenneth Baxter

CAIS Study School, September 2011

September is always an exiting time for us as we upload new and updated course materials to the University's Virtual Learning Environment and prepare for the new semester. The high point in our preparations is the arrival of a new intake of students in Dundee for their pre-course Study School. It's a chance for new students to meet each other and the CAIS staff and tutors, find out how to use the University's online learning systems and to think about the professional issues facing recordkeepers and the theoretical basis for what we do. We really look forward to the Study School and we're excited about the sessions we have planned for the students this year. Everything starts this afternoon and we'll post updates on our discussions as the week unfolds.

Alan Bell and Sarah Wickham, University of Huddersfield and
CAIS Tutor,  leading a session on Records Management, September 2010