Zoe Finlay Paper Conservation

Received in the same week last month: a signed, limited edition Banksy print; a painting by ‘Eagle’ comic illustrator;  a 17th century map of Northern England;  Japanese paintings and a 17th century Irish text.

I love this job for its sheer variety and the fact that you never know what may arrive next!

Here is a classic example of an ephemeral item which has now become a priceless national heritage. The recent donation of John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to three songs, including ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ , will surely be ranked as some of the British Library’s most treasured items.

For the full story, click here: http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/John-Lennon-Letters-and-Lyrics-donated-to-the-Nation-British-Library-first-institution-to-benefit-631.aspx

If you are interested in ephemera or would like to learn more about it, visit the website of the Ephemera Society for more information.

This is an interesting article I’ve just come across. What an amazing find and one which will add so much to our knowledge of the history of South and Central America:

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Conquistador-letter-found/29424

It’s always surprising what can turn up in archives.  With the passage of years and archivists coming and going,  the accumulation of large amounts of records and changes in technology, it’s not always easy to keep accurate records of everything within a collection. Old, handwritten records are a key example. Transcribing these to a digitised format takes time and money which most archives don’t have and if those hard-copy records are ever lost or damaged in a flood or fire, they are gone forever.

Volunteers often play a vital role in helping to input old records. If you’ve ever thought of volunteering in an archive or library, the Lit and Phil Library in Newcastle and the Ouseburn Trust’s archive both welcome volunteers to be involved in various tasks. Contact them for further details or follow this link to search for opportunities:  http://www.do-it.org.uk/search/opportunities?unit=mile&distance=5&location=NE1+2BB

I’ve recently booked a short holiday to West Stow Anglo-Saxon village  in Suffolk where I’m looking forward to watching a re-enactment of the magnificent mediaeval poem, ‘Beowulf’.

Beowulf, written by several anonymous scribes between the 8th and the early 11th century, is one of Britain’s most important surviving manuscripts and is recognised as one of the key texts of the British Libraries’ Cotton Collection.

I first saw a re-enactment several years ago on a great programme hosted by presenter, Michael Wood in 2009. The hour-long programme, (available here) investigated the evolution and history of the poem as well as it’s relevance to modern times, including along the way a trip to this region to visit the remains of the monastery of the Venerable Bede. The scenes of the misty fens and ancient buildings looming out of the fog mixed with the richness of the events which occurred in the area captured my imagination ever since.

If you have an interest in the Anglo-Saxon period and are based within the North East, I recommend a visit to Bede’s’ World, where Bede wrote the ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English Speaking People’  , a book which still today gives us a powerful insight into the life and times of the Anglo Saxons. 

The studio will be closed for a short while from Thursday 30th May, re-opening on Wednesday 05th June.

Thank you.

I’ve just come across this recent Guardian article which highlights the astonishing variability of costs for UK researchers who want to photograph documents within archives:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/may/23/history-research-costs-archive-fees

While some of the fees quoted may sound unreasonable, it’s true that we must also remember that archives are currently struggling to stay open, having suffered massive cuts to their funding.

If the fees are the answer to their existence, should we accept them? Or should the fees be standardised, with the possibility that a standard won’t help the differing financial positions across the country for each archive?

It’s a difficult predicament.