Tuesday 22 October 2013

Meet the Collections: Charles Woolf


‘Hints for New Students... 18. Don’t forget an umbrella’

-          1927 Camborne School of Mines Magazine


After my first few weeks here, I am now settling into life in Cornwall. I have been to an Oyster Festival, eaten a Rhubarb and Custard Pasty and have been blown around all over the place by the windy weather.
I definitely think this tip from the 1927 CSM magazine for new students is still a very wise one!

In the office there is a running joke about how there should be a Trainee Anorak that is passed down to the new recruit each year!

With the weather included however, I am realising just how beautiful Cornwall is and this is really well captured in our Charles Woolf Slide Collection. 
Acer Japonicum (Japanese Maple)
 
Charles Woolf was a photographer whose love affair with all things Cornish began when he first visited the County in 1933. After making Newquay his permanent home in 1935, Woolf opened his own photographic business at Chester Road. In addition to the everyday business, he and his assistant Joyce Greenham would utilise their skills to capture many aspects of Cornish life and environment.

Frozen lake, Trenance Gardens, 1954 Feb 6

Many of these slides have been digitalised and are spanning the period 1953 – 1981, and as I sit here on this autumnal afternoon, I am instantly drawn to these pictures of Cornwall through the seasons.
 
Gathering daffodils in St. Dominic, 1960

Charles Woolf's father and his dog, circa 1953

Thursday 3 October 2013

Hello!

A little bit about me

My name is Rosemary Everritt and I am very happy to introduce myself as the new Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant at Archive & Special Collections, Falmouth University & University of Exeter, Penryn Campus for 2013-2014.
I hope to use this blog, throughout the year, to track my journey into the world of archives, whilst I undertake this traineeship. I hope that I can introduce to you some of the tasks that a Graduate Trainee is likely to encounter, as well as showing you some interesting items in the collections that I come across along the way- and why you too should discover archives!

I know I found it helpful and interesting to read Mary’s and Graces’ blogs whilst I was learning about archives, so I hope that mine can perhaps go some way to being similarly useful for you.
Having relocated from Portsmouth for this post, I can't wait to explore Cornwall and its heritage whilst I am here. So far I have become particularly intrigued by the Cornish language used in the Gorsedh Kernow Collection! Diskudha Kovskrifenn, as is in my title, translates as 'discovering an archive'.


A selection of books held in The Chris Brooks Collection of Victorian Culture

 

 How I discovered archives

Over the last few years I have been volunteering in archives whilst studying English Literature at University of Portsmouth, most recently for The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection. Prior to this I also volunteered for the Dickens Community Archive Project with Portsmouth City Museum which sought to create a website highlighting the recent history of Portsmouth and its residents in celebration of Dickens’ bicentenary. Before this, I first of all carried out an internship with my local theatre as it began to set up an archive.

Therefore it was the study of literature and a personal interest in history that brought me to archives so now I can’t wait to have a peek at the Chris Brooks Collection of Victorian Culture, here at the Penryn Campus, with all those lovely Victorian novels!

I hope that this blog might be helpful in some way and I would love to hear from you about your interests in archives or these collections specifically, so please do feel free to get in touch.