238 years ago, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. And John Adams envisioned future celebrations of the event.  In a letter to his wife, he wrote:  “It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of Devotion to God Almighty.  It out to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward for ever more.”

A Stilt-Walking “Uncle Sam,” 06/1973. National Archives Identifier 549573

That vision of the future got off to a slow, but no less passionate start.  On July 5^th 1777, John Adams wrote to his daughter from Philadelphia describing events of the first anniversary:  Invited to dine with President Washington aboard the frigate Delaware, Adams wrote:  “…we were saluted with a discharge of thirteen guns, which was followed by thirteen others, from each other armed vessel in the river; then the gallies followed the fire, and after them the guard boats.  The President and company were saluted with three cheers, from every ship, galley, and boat in the river.  The wharves and shores, were lined with a vast concourse of people, all shouting and huzzaing, in a manner which gave great joy to every friend to this country, and the utmost terror and dismay … [ Read all ]

Just a quick post with updates on some of the latest additions to Special Collections.

Thanks to donor David Nudelman, we’re now home to 356 Russian books on checkers. They join our already rich Haynes collection on checkers, and they should be of interest to anyone with an interest in Soviet book design. Here are two examples:

Another donor has given us a collection of toy printing/sign-making sets. They’ll join our Updike Collection on the history of printing.

We purchased a rare certificate of membership in the Repeal Association of Ireland:

And a very fun item that you’ll have to visit to get a proper sense of. “Stulz Wonderpictures” is a small advertising booklet that doubles as a visual toy. The images inside are printed in two colors and in such a way that the first image presents a scene and text (“Where are the fish?” for instance, with a picture of a fisherman). When the included red plastic sheet is placed over the image the original scene disappears and a new one takes its place (in the example above, fish swimming in a stream). Not only is it a whimsical complement to our children’s collections, it’s a fascinating piece of printing ephemera. And best of all, this amusing toy, seemingly aimed at children, advertises whiskey made by the Stulz Brothers company in Kansas City, Missouri.

Back in happier, non-World-Cup-matches-between-Belgium-and-USA times, this is what the New York state governor said. Listen to the whole, happy broadcast here.

Arlette Farge, Director of Research in Modern History at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, has written a wonderful little book about doing research in archives.

“Contact with the archives begins with simple tasks, one of which is handling the documents.  Combing through the archives—a beautifully evocative term—requires a host of tasks, and no matter how complex the planned intellectual investigation will be, they cannot be bypassed.  They are both familiar and simple, and they purify one’s thoughts, temper the spirit of sophistication, and sharpen one’s curiosity.  These tasks are performed without haste, and necessarily so.  One cannot overstate how slow work in the archives is, and how this slowness of hands and thought can be the source of creativity.  But more than inspirational, it is inescapable.  The consultation of these bundles, one after another, is never finished.  No matter how carefully you prepare beforehand, sampling documents and putting together research guides in an effort to limit the number of texts you will have to consult, your patience will inevitably be tested.”

Archivist Matt Law reviews Chinese Exclusion Act Files.; Location: National Archives at Riverside, Perris, CA; Photographer: Joseph S. Peñaranda

“Reading patiently, in silence, you will regularly run up against various obstacles as your eyes travel across the manuscript pages.  Many documents have deteriorated physically, and torn corners or … [ Read all ]

Photo: Janice Kinory

On arriving back at our office, I realized that my photos don’t look much like those from the archive. In our oldest images, from c. 1870, we can see roads and footpaths, which no longer exist, including the one adjacent to the Heal Stone currently being removed by English Heritage (EH).

Lantern slide: H.M.J.U. Underhill, c.1870

In general, many of the viewpoints in our images could only be duplicated now by getting special permission from EH as they require entry to places, such as the centre of the stone circle or the rear of the Heal Stone, which are closed to general visitors.

Lantern slide: H.M.J.Underhill, April 18th 1895
“From the ‘Altar’ looking ENE exactly”
You can’t stand here today without special permisson…

Most importantly, some of the stones were straightened in the 1950s and 60s to stabilize them, so the leaning stones in our modern images are now standing upright – but this is how Stonehenge looked in c. 1910 when photographer R.W. Wylie visited…

Photographer: R.W. Wylie
Glass plate negative

One unexpected feature of my trip was the presence of a rook sitting on a fence post next to the visitor pathway near the stones, calmly allowing itself to be photographed. As rooks are usually wary of humans, I wondered about this odd behavior. Later, I recalled that the old visitor centre had been nearby, with its picnic area where rooks and seagulls had begged for food. I’m sure this “rook star” was a veteran of that era, hoping for a handout.

Photographer: Janice Kinory

I’ll close with a note that anyone planning to visit Stonehenge can greatly improve their day there by taking the time to pre-book their mandatory timed entry ticket on-line at the EH website, https://english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge. You can still buy tickets at the site on arrival, of course, but the queues are long and you may have to wait for entry.

Dr Janice Kinory (janice.kinory@arch.ox.ac.uk)

Research Assistant, HEIR

This space has far too quiet lately!  We’ve been busy delivering workshops as well as preparing for several new exciting projects, including a new exhibition, upcoming walking tours, and gearing up for new community-led projects.  I’ll update more on that later, but for now, a recent reminiscence workshop we held…

We all know that archives are a necessary stop for many historical researchers and family historians, looking to gather information.

At the same time, archives (with their many stories, both familiar and unfamiliar) are also catalysts for hearing, sharing, and gathering the experiences of others. With this in mind, we held a reminiscence workshop, Told & Untold Stories: Protecting London’s Children During the Second World War, here in the IOE Archives during May.

Evacuees
Girls Day School Trust Archive Collection

The event, offered in conjunction with the Raphael Samuel History Centre’s month-long heritage festival, London at War, explored the experiences of London ‘s children, along with the adults working to keep them safe. We uncovered untold stories from our
archive collections, and heard from participants’ own histories, while lecturers and PhD candidates shared their research.

Discussion often revolved around the theme of evacuation: those who stayed in London and the UK, and those who went abroad. Attendee Margaret described the ‘mutual envy between the people who stayed and the people who went… My parents were a bit smug about not sending us to America or Canada’.

Reminiscence Session

Meg, who was evacuated to America, described her time abroad as a ‘huge educational experience’, having discovered other views. Margaret echoed those sentiments, recalling a friend who returned with surprise that England was a monarchy. Mary
described her childhood in Wimbledon, and the amount of bombing she and her family experienced.

We had our own collections on display: from the bomb damage of schools and the implementation of air raid precautions found in the Girls Day School Trust
collection, to the National Union of Women Teachers and their support of teachers sent to teach evacuated children. Teachers wrote to the NUWT, frustrated at being separated from their former pupils, others wrote to express how enjoyable the experience had been. Upon returning to a crowded London school following the war, one teacher complained of the ’44 hooligans’ she had in her class.

More than anything, the NUWT and its members were concerned about the impact of war on their students.

The shadow of war has darkened our personal and professional outlook; its effect on the education of our children is one of the gravest of its menaces. Whoever made this war it was not the children, and it is our part to see that they suffer no more than can be helped from its horrors and deprivations
– Ellen Hamlyn, London Unit President, NUWT
September 1940

A huge thank you to everyone who made the trip to the IOE to attend this session.  The only request from attendees was for a longer session, as everyone had so many compelling stories to share; so, we will definitely offer similar workshops in the future.  Also, a big thanks to the Girls Day School Trust alumnae network for sharing this event with their members!  While we have GDST archives in our collections, it was great to hear the experiences of GDST alum, firsthand.

These reminiscences are in the process of being made available as audio oral histories online, so keep your eyes peeled! If you know of a group that would be interested in a reminiscence workshop using the IOE archives, please send me an email at alexandra.hall@ioe.ac.uk, or call 020 7911 5483.

Last week, Doshisha University President Koji Murata and Amherst College President Biddy Martin met to formally extend the already friendly relationship between the two schools that dates back to 1875.  (See photos of the signing ceremony.)  This recent event prompted me to look back at the origins of our relationship with Doshisha, and consequently at the founder of the University, Joseph Hardy Neesima.

Niijima Shimeta was born in 1843 in Tokyo, Japan to father Niijima Tamiki, the recording secretary to Lord Itakura.  At age 21, despite Japan’s restrictive policy of national isolation, Niijima stowed away on a ship headed for Shanghai, there transferring to the Wild Rover, a schooner headed for Boston, Mass.

Two pages from The Manga Story of Jo Niijima

Upon reaching Boston in 1865, the schooner’s captain, Horace Taylor, introduced Niijima to Alpheus Hardy, the ship’s owner and a trustee of Philips Academy in Andover and of Amherst College.  With the support of Hardy, Niijima, now legally known as Joseph Hardy Neesima, was baptized into the Congregational Church and studied at Philip Academy.  Following his graduation from Philip Academy, Neesima went on to attend Amherst College, becoming the first from Japan to earn a college degree from a western institution in 1870.  Neesima studied at the Andover Theological Seminary before returning to Japan as a Christian missionary.

From Doshisha University photo album 4 https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:42385/asc:42410

In 1874, Joseph Hardy Neesima established Doshisha College, a Christian school in Kyoto.  Within ten years, the school grew from six students in a one room schoolhouse to 230 students with several spacious buildings.  In 1886, Neesima raised money to enlarge Doshisha into a university with the creation of graduate departments and an all girls school.  Joseph Hardy Neesima was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Amherst College in 1889 and died one year later in Tokyo, Japan.

From Doshisha University photo album 4
https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:42385/asc:42390

More information about Doshisha University and the school’s founder, Joseph Hardy Neesima, can be found in the Archives at Amherst College.  The Joseph Hardy Neesima (AC 1870) collection in the Archives and Special Collections contains correspondence to and from Neesima, as well as Neesima’s photo album.  The Amherst College Digital Collections (ACDC) has digitized four Doshisha  University photo albums.  The Doshisha University collection in the Archives contains correspondence, ephemera, photographs, printed matter and media documenting the long-standing connection between Doshisha University and Amherst College.  And be sure to read The Manga Story of Jo Niijima, published by Doshisha University in 2009.

Motoi, Yasuhiro. The Manga story of Jo Niijima: a quest for freedom. Kyoto: Doshisha University, 2009.

Amherst College and Doshisha University have fostered their friendly relationship for over a century, which has including Amherst – Doshisha faculty and student exchange programs.  Last week, Presidents of both schools have committed to continuing their friendship for five more years.

From the Doshisha University photo album https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:42648/asc:42673

The City of Vancouver Archives is pleased to announce the public release of the second batch of records from the British Columbia Sugar Refining Company fonds (BC Sugar), donated to the Archives in 2011 by Lantic Inc.

Refinery construction gang, 1891; Reference code: AM1592-1-S5-F03: 2011-092.1737

The records of BC Sugar document the activities of Vancouver’s first large-scale industrial operation that was not a sawmill or related to the railways. The company continues to operate its historic refinery on Vancouver’s waterfront to this day.

This second release (of an anticipated three) focuses on the business records of the company’s subsidiary, Canadian Sugar Factors Ltd., and the holdings of the BC Sugar Museum, founded as a unit at BC Sugar in the 1970s. This release includes records that document how BC Sugar extended its reach across Western Canada through acquisition of competitors, and how the BC Sugar Museum built its collection and made it available to the public:

• acquisition and further operations of Canadian Sugar Factories, Ltd., including renovations to their sugar beet refinery in Raymond, Alberta, and construction of the two later refineries in Picture Butte, Alberta and Taber, Alberta;
• artifacts from the Rogers family, BC Sugar and its subsidiaries;
• the foundation and operation of Western Canada’s first sugar beet refinery in Raymond, Alberta by the Knight Sugar Company; and
• the operation of the BC Sugar Museum and their acquisition of records and artifacts from BC Sugar, as well as small collections of records from other Canadian sugar companies.

Unexpected finds in this second release of records include ­­­­ephemera from the Rogers family, acquired by the BC Sugar Museum, including records of family members’ involvement in BC Sugar. Below is Forrest Rogers’ driver’s license from when he was a manager at BC Sugar subsidiary Ozama Sugar Planation and Factories in the Dominican Republic.

Dominican Republic driver’s license; Reference code: AM1592-1-S6-F06.

The records of the BC Sugar Museum include a collection of ephemera related to BC Sugar operations, including examples of bags used to package sugar. Packaging sizes went up to 100 pounds!

Sample BC Sugar cotton bag; Reference code: AM1592-1-S8-F122.

Note the instructions for removing ink from the bag. Sugar bags were commonly recycled for household textiles and clothing.

Detail of sample BC Sugar cotton bag; Reference code: AM1592-1-S8-F122.

This release also includes records of BC Sugar’s longest-lived subsidiary: Canadian Sugar Factories, which has refined sugar beets in Alberta for almost 80 years. The Company’s first refinery was located in Raymond, Alberta. The following map shows the location of the Canadian Sugar Factories refinery relative to the location of the old Knight Sugar Company Refinery, the first sugar beet refinery in Western Canada.

Plan of Part of NW 1/4 Sec. 16 and Part of SW 1/4 Sec. 21, all in Tp. 6, R. 20, West 4M; Reference code: AM1592-S16: 2011-092.4968.

Over the course of the year, we expect there will be one more release of BC Sugar records, which will consist primarily of the extensive photographic holdings of the BC Sugar Museum. Stay tuned for further information!

The City of Vancouver Archives would like to thank Lantic Inc. for its financial support for the archival processing of the BC Sugar fonds, which has made it possible for the Archives to make these records available to the public at this time.