We are delighted to announce that the Archives Revealed funding programme has awarded four new scoping grants.
Archives Revealed focusses on transforming access to archives for a wide range of users, enabling more people to engage with the UK’s rich documentary heritage. It is a partnership programme between The National Archives, the Foundation and The Pilgrim Trust, and is the only funding stream in the UK dedicated to cataloguing and unlocking archives.
The recipients of this round’s funding are:
- Hastings Museum & Art Gallery
- Charlton Athletic Museum
- The Centre for Human Ecology
- Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
The scoping grants awarded to these organisations will fund tailored reports that incorporate expert advice on a range of areas relating to collections management and development.
More information about Archives Revealed and the grants awarded can be found on The National Archives’ website.
About the recipients and their funded projects
Hastings Museum & Art Gallery
“We are really delighted to have been awarded this scoping grant. It will enable us to better understand our extensive archives of local books and directories, maps, newspaper cuttings, photographs and local interest journals and magazines so that we can make better of use of these collections in the future. We would like to thank the Archives Revealed team and judging panel for their generous support of Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.” – Damian Etheraads, Museum and Cultural Development Manager
Charlton Athletic Museum
“We aim to use this scoping grant to tell our story to the widest possible audience within the fan base, the local community and the wider football and social history world.
Having a fully functioning archive will make accessing our entire collection possible for everyone. It will mean that we can complement our physical museum with a virtual museum while protecting the fragile objects that we, and others, own.
We hope the scoping grant will give us more knowledge and a clear road map as to how we should archive and catalogue our collection to bring it to a wider audience.
With the museum established and there being new ownership of both the women’s and men’s teams, it is likely that more and more archive material will be passed on to us so now is the time to put solid processes and policies in place.
This is a real boost for the Charlton Athletic Museum, enabling us to push on to the next level of professionalism. It shows that the museum is taken seriously as a genuine museum and archive, with important aims and objectives.
It is also real recognition of what all our volunteers and helpers have achieved to date that we are able to meet the strict criteria set by Archives Revealed and shows what an important community asset the museum is.” – Ben Hayes, Charlton Athletic Museum
Centre for Human Ecology (CHE)
Archives Revealed will support the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE) to make a public access library out of a wide range of social and environmental educational resources. The collection consists of multimedia resources including reports, publications and audio and video recordings collated since 1972. This internationally significant collection is unique in charting the development in research and thinking in the field of human ecology internationally. A large selection of this material will be made available for the first time through a publicly accessible digital resource library.
The scoping grant will help CHE reboot its educational resources into the 21st century enabling outreach to a wider range of learners, at a time when social and environmental concerns are increasingly urgent. In 2022, the centre will mark its 50th anniversary and launch the digital archive as part of these celebrations.
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council – Life in Walsall Collection
“Walsall Archives are very excited to have been successful in getting an Archives Revealed scoping grant for our Life in Walsall and Jack Haddock Collections as we know that there is a lot of competition for these awards.
This scoping grant is important to Walsall Archives as it means that we can get the assessment that will give us the information and advice to put towards our National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to digitise the Life in Walsall and Jack Haddock Collections of photographs and slides and make them publicly available online. These two collections are very diverse. ‘Life in Walsall’ reflects the borough’s activities from the 1850s onwards and contains photographs of landscapes, people and places including local industries and events and celebrations. The ‘Jack Haddock Collection’ of transport and canal photographs was the work of one dedicated and much-loved local historian who left his collection to Walsall Archives. With this grant, we will be one step closer to enabling many more people to access and appreciate this treasure trove of images.”
Photo: Charlton Athletic Museum
