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.