Introducing the Archives: The British Museum and Bishopsgate Institute
When:
—
Venue:
Online
Participate in a discussion panel, where Stefan Dickers (Special Collections and Archives Manager, Bishopsgate Institute) and Francesca Hillier (Senior Archivist, British Museum) introduce their collections, and discuss the archives they manage and care for.
Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives document the experiences of everyday people, and the extraordinary individuals and organisations who have strived for social, political and cultural change. Since the archive opened to the public in 1895 it has been steadily growing, with unique collections gifted and loaned to us. Some are London focused, but the lives they preserve and the issues they explore have national and global resonance. The collections offer both breadth and depth. We have 150,000 books, pamphlets, maps and photographs of London. The Lesbian and Gay News media Archive (LAGNA) alone holds 350,000 press cuttings. The photographic archives over 500,000 images. We have a growing oral-history archive and the collections contain fascinating ephemera, from banners and badges to club flyers and condoms.
The archive of the British Museum relates to the history of the Museum, its collections and its collectors. It is a vast collection, dating from the opening of the Museum in 1753 and covers everything from the building of the first Museum, Montagu House and the election of the first Trustees, to records of past exhibitions and the latest object acquisition. The archive has historically been distributed across the Museum site, and outstations, and has now been brought together under the jurisdiction of the Senior Archivist, with a view to creating a full catalogue of all the archive holdings. The Museum, as a public body, has a legal obligation under the Public Records Act, to make the archive accessible to the public, and part of this requirement includes having an accessible catalogue so people know what we have.
Contact name:
Hannah Lyons