Summer Research Scholars 2023: Working with Archives

Annie Hawley, Rachel Humphries, Jasmine Williams

The 2023 Summer Research Scholarship Programme provided an opportunity for three second-year students to gain research skills and abilities to enhance their own research dissertation heading into their final year. The first project entitled, ‘Un/dis covering the Andrew Walls Archive: Documenting the decolonisation process in Missions’, was for two students working closely with the archive of Prof. Andrew F. Walls. Each student focused on a separate category of the archive; namely, Correspondence and the Unpublished writings and notes of Andrew F. Walls, aiming to organise the material into sub-categories, already identified, and sort alphabetically or chronologically.

The Andrew F. Walls Archive is an invaluable resource for the era of the decolonisation of missions’ ca. 1950 -1980, a process marked by the appearance of new structures for study, research and teaching in various parts of the world. The collection comprises lecture courses, lecture scripts and notes, reports, sermons, files of notes and abstracts, manuscripts of various sorts, pamphlets and ephemera relating to events and institutions around the world, and a large quantity of correspondence of the pre-digital era, gathered in the course of six decades or more, and reflecting events or processes in six continents.

The third student, worked closely with PhD scholar Oliver Mumford, and the archives of two of Hope’s founding colleges’; Sisters of Notre Dame Mount Pleasant Training College, and S. Katharine’s College, on the research project, ‘Mapping the Empire’, investigating Liverpool Hope’s imperial past. All three students also assisted in setting up and facilitating the 2023 Andrew F. Walls Centre Conference. Here they are to tell us in their own words of their personal experiences in working with archives.

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Annie

My name is Annie Hawley, I’m 24 years old and just finished my second year of my History degree. When I received the email, explaining that I was successful in obtaining the summer research scholarship working in the Andrew F. Walls Centre in the Archives and Special collections, I was very excited. As a history student, I love any opportunity to get my hands on documents written years before I was born, it’s a tangible piece of history that I get to experience.

This summer, I have been sorting and cataloguing the correspondence of Prof. Andrew F. Walls, founder of the research Centre for the Study of African & Asian Christianity. It has been a mammoth task, I mean the man kept everything from leaflets to email conversations to receipts for books. From the personal correspondence from friends and the students he taught all over the globe, it is quite clear that Andrew was well known and regarded by all that knew him. When sorting through his correspondence, I got a sense of Andrew’s personality. He comes across as a personable; humble and friendly man with a good sense of humour.

Students’ description of Andrew in a
thank-you card, dated 1985-86.

Andrew’s response to an email written at midnight from Hong Kong airport.

My favourite correspondence that I came across was a letter to a publisher on a piece of text that Andrew was to submit to them. Andrew’s response was as follows (paraphrased);

“I am sorry for the delay in getting this to you. Students may or not find it helpful anyway, nevertheless here is the text as promised.”

From what I can remember, this letter was late-on in Andrew’s career so he was well established, but the fact he downplays his own contribution, speaks of a modest demeanour.

When I first approached the task, I couldn’t get over how much correspondence there was and it wasn’t in any particular order other than grouped by the years on the letters themselves, so I knew this would be a long process. What was decided upon, was to chronologically order the piles of correspondence by month and year, where possible, and place them in the categories of ‘professional’, relating to Andrew’s career and the various roles he held. And ‘personal’, relating to correspondence from his family and friends throughout his life. I’ve had to scan through the correspondence and decide where it should be categorised. In doing so, I have found out that Andrew held multiple roles, such as when he was a councillor, and was an extremely hardworking man, displaying dedication and quality to whatever work he was engaged in.

I have really enjoyed sorting through Andrew’s correspondence because I have gained experience on working in archives. To be able to hold and sort through documents has been really exciting. They have been kept in remarkable condition and to read what was happening at the time, brought Andrew’s career to life.

by Annie Hawley

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Rachel

My name is Rachel Humphries and I am single honours history student. This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to apply for a research scholarship delving into the works of Professor Andrew F. Walls. As a history student this was a dream project to work on. The project was to sort through the hand-written and printed works of Professor Walls. As someone who hopes to work within archives and collections this was a special project with an opportunity to handle tangible pieces of a person’s personal heritage.
This was no ordinary or small task. Professor Walls was a man of many thoughts, opinions and outlooks. All of these were confined to numerous boxes of his handwritten notes on various subjects with theology. This was a huge undertaking as Professor Walls wrote on anything from the back of personal correspondence to official notebooks. At times there was no rhyme nor reason to the order of these thoughts.
It was very daunting at first, when confronted with the sheer amount of work I had to go through. I am a medical secretary by trade so my first thought was to look at the categories that I had been given and approach each piece of work with this in mind. A methodical approach was the only way to power through!

Annie and Rachel sorting through their categories of the Andrew F. Walls Archive

Once I started to work through the pieces of work, I realised there was no particular pattern. Some works were not even connected however it could not be denied that this was a man whose mind was constantly working. An image of him came to mind, of someone who would, whilst going about his day, have a thought on a particular subject and have the need to record it immediately.

As I delved deeper into the work, I was surprised at the range of topics that he was able to relate back to theology. My favourite was finding pieces written about Jane Austen. As my favourite author it was exciting to see her work analysed in a way I had not even imagined. Linking the church and its impact on Jane’s work given the parallels of her personal life with her father being a clergyman.

This project has been an absolute joy to work on. It gave me a small sense of what a profound thinker Professor Walls was. His dedication to the subject is unmatched. Also, the space in which we worked was amazing thanks to Karen, who made us feel so welcome and was on hand to help with anything we needed. It is of some small sense of pride to have had a hand, albeit a small one, in recording the works of what seems to be the hardworking, well respected deep thinker that is Professor Andrew Walls.

by Rachel Humphries

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Jasmine

My name is Jasmine Williams, I’m a 20-year-old second-year History student at Liverpool Hope University, and I have recently had the pleasure of working alongside PhD scholar Oliver Mumford, Dr Jody Crutchley, and Karen Backhouse, Special Collections Librarian, during a 3-month long internship programme from June to September 2023. The research project, Mapping the Empire, involved investigating Liverpool Hope’s imperial past. I dedicated a total of 100 hours to the project, and I gained valuable skills and experiences along the way. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to handle fragile texts within the archives that date back as far as 1895, and I was able to have an insight into how primary source research is conducted within the archives.

I started my internship by partaking in the Andrew F. Walls Conference on the 24th and 25th June 2023, where I helped to ensure that it ran smoothly by assisting the attendees and helping with the Zoom broadcasts.
Following the conference, I conducted my research in the archives from the 14th July until the 11th August, where I looked at the locations of overseas graduates from Liverpool Hope’s founding colleges, S. Katharine’s and Sisters of Notre Dame, to assess their engagement with the transnational teachers movement within the Empire.

Ultimately, I found that from the years 1906-1957, S. Katharine’s engagement with Empire was extremely limited. Some students were indeed sent abroad to locations such as the Bahamas and Canada. However, most students went on to teach locally after graduation. Moreover, many of those who went abroad did so much later, as many as 20 years after their graduation, as they were often pursuing degrees in their country of choice.

Sisters of Notre Dame, on the other hand, seemed to have a much more direct engagement with Empire than its sister college. From 1895 to 1910, 132 out of 730 students went on to teach abroad. Most went to teach in Ireland, however, some went much further afield to places such as Madras in India and Kenya.

Although the research project focused on Liverpool Hope’s engagement with Empire, there were some other aspects that I took a personal interest in. Some of the registers would record the locations of their students, and other interesting aspects of their lives for several years after they graduated.

For example, some of the graduates went on to become nurses during the First and Second World War and sadly one graduate was admitted to an asylum a few years after her first teaching job.

To finish off my project, I have completed a poster to show the locations of all the overseas graduates from both Sisters of Notre Dame and S. Katharine’s, as well as providing some information on the graduates including when they were stationed abroad, the grades they achieved, and
other information found from letters from the former students to the college.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the internship programme over the summer. I gained some valuable experience and skills that will help me with my dissertation, and future career opportunities. Moreover, I enjoyed getting to know and working alongside people at the university who I otherwise would not have had the pleasure of working with.

by Jasmine Williams

Greek School of St. Nicholas

Visit to Hope’s Special Collections

Ortelius, Abraham. Theatrum orbis terrarum. Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1584 [Radcliffe B567]

On Saturday 11th November, Archives & Special Collections welcomed children from the Greek School of St. Nicholas, Liverpool, with their teacher, Ms Ioanna Karageorgou, members of the school committee and a few parents, to look at some of the Greek texts we have in the Radcliffe early print collection belonging to Liverpool Cathedral. Naturally, the magnificent Ortelius’ “Theatre of the World” atlas of 1584 had to make an appearance so we could see, not only the Greece of 1584, but also Ancient Greece depicted.

Other books included works by the Greek Tragedians, Aeschylus and Sophocles, (Radcliffe B657 pictured below) the ‘Father of Comedy’, playwright Aristophanes, and poets Pindar, Homer, most famous for his epic Greek Trojan poem The Illiad, and Callimachus. Opposite is Callimachus’ Hymni, cum scholiis nunc primum aeditis. Sententiae ex diuersis poetis oratoribusq ac philosophis collectae, printed in Basel, Switzerland in 1532. [Radcliffe B264]

Sophocles. Tragoediae septem cum commentariis interpretationum argumenti Thebaidos fabularum Sophoclis, authore Ioachimo Camerario. Haguenau (France): Ex officina Seceriana, 1534. [Radcliffe B657]

What an enjoyable morning talking about old books and learning about the history and evolution of the Greek language. My special thanks go to my friend and colleague, Elpiniki Smith, for organising the event and also for acting as my personal interpreter! Elpiniki is the Course Designer at Liverpool Hope (for the next month anyway) and a member of St. Nicholas’ school committee and we wish her all the best as she starts her new position in Manchester in December. Although Elpiniki is leaving LHU our relationship with the Greek school will continue to flourish as we are hoping to establish this as an annual event.

The committee commented,

“On behalf of the Greek school of St. Nicholas, Liverpool, we would like to thank Liverpool Hope University for giving our pupils the opportunity to see these rare books, and enhance their understanding of the development of the Greek language throughout the centuries and the importance of the Greek language itself. We believe this is a culturally enriching activity for our pupils that we would like to continue for years to come.

A big thank-you to the Special Collections Librarian for accommodating us on a Saturday, and for her enthusiastic and engaging delivery of the session.”

Committee of the Greek School of St. Nicholas, Liverpool. 13 November 2023

THREAD ROADS EXHIBITION GUIDE

Thread Roads: Rewriting the Archive

Opening Event: Monday 10 July, 3-5pm
Venue: The Sheppard-Worlock Library, Archives & Special Collections

Thread Roads: Rewriting the Archive is an exhibition composed of new writing by students in Creative Writing and English Literature that explore Hope University’s historic archive and Special Collections to help us think about travel and belonging. Starting with Abraham Ortelius’ 1584 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), Artist & Writer in Residence Joseph Wray’s artist book of amended texts: Over, Under, Through: Together recounts the struggles faced by immigrants when crossing national boundaries. Two new poems Reimaging Kingdoms and Lifelines by Assistant Curator and Writer Mollie Hurrell trace encounters across time and how words can shape the way we see the world. Other works that feature include: Doodling in the Archives a prose work by Aiza Rafiq and extracts from poems by Jake Phillips. The exhibition is curated by Mollie Hurrell and Joseph Wray facilitated by Karen Backhouse and Catherine Morris. Red thread unites the disparate journeys made across the exhibition space: in Irish mythology, red thread, the colour of the Rowan berry, was seen to protect against the unlucky evil eye. By reclaiming the lines that separate us, we hope to see ourselves in those who have been most effected, to show solidarity with one another and protect our future time.

Student Service Awards 2023

Digitising the Radcliffe Collection medieval manuscript fragments

Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Josh Reid, I am 21 years old and a current student of Education Studies at Liverpool Hope University. I was in the very fortunate position of being able to apply for a role as a Special Collections Digitisation Officer in February 2023, as a part of the Student Service Award. The Student Service Award is an opportunity for students to gain professional skills in an academic setting to enhance students’ CVs and employability prospects after university life. The opportunity allows students to learn transferable skills, gain valuable experience and confidence, as well as building a network with potential future employers.

This project aimed to begin the creation of digital content of Hope’s collections for the up-and-coming new digital asset management system. This will provide a, much anticipated, way for researchers to engage with digital collections.

Radcliffe MS.54.2.12 11th century manuscript fragment on parchment

My role within this project was to digitise and preserve medieval manuscript fragments in the Radcliffe Collection belonging to Liverpool Cathedral. My journey took place in The Sheppard-Worlock Library’s Archives and Special Collections. My first task was to identify the manuscript fragments from the collection and create records on Excel spreadsheet using the information from the rudimentary catalogue listing and enhancing with added information from the items themselves. Whilst progressing through this first task, my next was to digitise the fragments by taking photographs of the individual leaves using a Canon EOS 70 D camera. I then uploaded these images to the PC and using image editing software, Photoshop and Paint.net, I cropped and orientated each image. After this process, I assigned each image with a reference number and added this to the Excel spreadsheet. I also added any descriptive information from the catalogued record to the properties of each image.

Radcliffe MS.53.1.5 A leaf fragment of a medieval manuscript with musical notation

This work gave me great insight into the history of the medieval period. By being able to visualise and actually have hands-on access to texts written on parchment that date from the 9th century to 15th century was a surreal experience. Every session felt like being in my own miniaturised museum that I was allowed to explore and make discoveries of my own.

To conclude this piece, I have enjoyed my time spent in Archives and Special collections and I’m very grateful for all the help and support I received during this time. I have gained valuable skills that can be applied to my university work as well as to my future prospects outside of university life. I was particularly pleased to be able to complete the digitisation within the timeframe of the Student Service Award project and look forward to seeing them online.

by Joshua Reid, June 2023

Beatrice Roberts

Warrington Training College 1922-24

Imagine my delight in receiving, by post, a small photograph album that once belonged to a student who attended Warrington Training College in 1923-24, with “snaps”, as she called them, chronicling the days of her college life. I feel sure she found friends for life in Lola, Maggie, Norah, Carrie, Sal, Jessie, Bunny, and the many others who feature in the album.

The photograph album was discovered in a second-hand bookshop in Manchester and purchased, along with some other books, for the images of early 1920s fashion, and they had absolutely no connection with Warrington Training College. Having re-discovered the album years later when sorting through stuff in the attic, with a view to down-sizing, they decided that it ought to be “returned home” and sent it on to us here at Hope.

In the Warrington Training College Archive, there is a gap in the students’ admissions registers for the period 1920-1928, probably due to a fire, in the December of 1923, which caused significant damage to the central block of buildings. First year students were redistributed among other Church Training Colleges, and the second years, of which Beatrice would have been one, were accommodated in another wing of the College which escaped damage. The College was finally closed in July 1924, until new premises could be found. This led to Warrington Training College moving to Liverpool in 1930, the site of Hope Park Campus today, and changing its name to the name of their chapel, S. Katharine’s.

Beatrice successfully qualified for recognition as a certified teacher with a second class in the Divinity examination in 1924, and began her teaching career at Chapel Street Infants School in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria.

by Karen Backhouse, Special Collections Librarian

Philosophy of Education

R.S. Peters Archive

In the Summer of 2021 Liverpool Hope University was gifted Richard Stanley Peters’ personal library by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB). The collection includes correspondence, photographs, handwritten notebooks, unpublished research, audio recordings of Peters’ lectures, and over 1000 books. Joint funding enabled Archives & Special Collections to appoint Archivist, Helen Kavanagh in March 2022, to archive and catalogue the collection. Here, she takes us through her discoveries and some of her personal highlights from the archives. 

The Peters Family from left to right: Kenneth, Penelope, Georgina, Richard and Maurice Peters, 1920s

Baby photos, school-boy letters, exam certificates and reams and reams of notes on every philosophical topic imaginable – these are just a few of the delights I’ve come across in the R.S. Peters archive. The largest, and, in my view, most interesting part of this archive is his correspondence. From 1937 to the end of his career, Peters’ letters, both written and received, chart the development of his concerns, disappointments, religious beliefs, and most notably, ambitions. His desire to succeed is evident in his very earliest letters to his ‘Mummy and Daddy’ (who usually resided in India), written while a student at Clifton College. He tells his parents how he wishes for a scholarship to Oxford, and explains that ‘Eton and Balliol is the standard example of a first class education. I have absolutely no hope of getting an open scholarship there’ before admitting he will try anyway. After several terms of striving for distinctions, he was awarded a Neale Scholarship to Queen’s College, notifying his father of the good news by telegram.

Telegram from Peters, informing his father that he had been awarded an ‘exhibition’
(partial scholarship) to study at Queen’s College, Oxford, 1937

The Second World War thwarted his ambitions, and he accounts for his decision to become a conscientious objector in a fascinating letter, illustrative of both his desire to please his father and his evolving religious conviction. ‘Once in the army I might be ordered… to take up arms in a moment of crisis which would mean refusal followed by court martial. In the Society of Friends [Quaker] Corps I would be working purely for humanitarian purposes not military… don’t feel too ashamed of me because I cannot reconcile Christianity and fighting… I cannot fight and remain a Christian… I find myself so much in sympathy with the religious beliefs of the Society of Friends that I am seriously thinking of becoming a Friend (Quaker) myself.’ This he did, and joined the Friends’ Ambulance Unit in 1940. He was later moved on to do youth work in Walthamstow, and materials from this period survive in RSP/4.

First Aid Certificate, issued to Peters prior to his war service in the Friends’ Ambulance unit.

There is evidence in the early letters, too, of the short shrift he paid to intellectual pretence and unclear thinking – a feature which later characterised his own writing. In 1937, at the age of 17, he complained about a book he had been forced to read in English entitled ‘Hydriotaphia’ by Thomas Browne. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve read it (being a moderately sane man)’ he wrote to his father. ‘Books of course have two main objects. ‘1 To show off. 2. To make money. But this book is one long “show off”… The man has made a long list of all he knows about the classics and strung it together in stuff which sounds like a literal translation of Tacitus.’ An amusing essay from around 1938, sent to his parents, has the title ‘No Great Artist Ever Sees Things as They Really Are’. Peters opens with: ‘This is an absurd statement. It is a rather typical epigram which, on first hearing, has a seductive, specious semblance of being very true and witty, but, on closer analysis, means practically nothing.’ These early writings reveal the fledgling steps of a man who was confident in his own clear-headedness, and never shy of calling out naked emperors in the academic world.

Peters in 1949, upon receiving his PhD.

In every account of Peters’ life that I have read, one characteristic is consistently highlighted: his industriousness. Peters, it seemed, loved to work. This would certainly explain his rapid rise through the University ranks, from PhD graduate in 1949 to Professor in the Institute of Education at University College London in 1962. His work ethic is also borne out by the sheer volume of letters that were both sent to and received by him during his most fruitful decade, the 1960s.

It was during this time that he wrote his most influential work, ‘Ethics and Education’ and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. There are 100 letters relating to his 1963 inaugural lecture, ‘Education as Initiation’, alone. He corresponds with many notable contemporaries, including fellow academics Michael Oakeshott, Israel Scheffler (‘My Dear Is’) and Shirley and William Letwin, parents of former MP Sir Oliver Letwin.

In 1975, at the age of 56, Richard Peters suffered a major breakdown on a lecture tour of New Zealand. The quantity and tone of his letters shift after this dramatic event. Colleagues offer to pop round for a cup of tea and a gossip rather than haranguing him for not replying to their messages more promptly, as they previously did. Peters ceases to write about his latest projects and opens up about his medication, his struggles with his newly-diagnosed Bipolar Disorder (‘that ghastly affliction’), and the difficulties in his personal life. After such a full, successful, fruitful career, these letters make for painful reading. His disappointment at no longer being able to work as he once did is evident in photographs taken around this time, in which he appears despondent and vacant; and in the speech he made on the occasion of his retirement in 1982. (The audio of this speech has been digitised, along with several other recordings of Peters’ lectures, as part of this project.) In it, he describes himself as ‘a shadow of his former self – alas’, and thanks the many colleagues who ‘carried [his] work in the department as well as their own.’ He also stressed his ‘good fortune’, telling colleagues that ‘I do not have to tell you how much my work in the department has meant to me. I have always been fortunate in that I found writing and research so enjoyable.’ With at least some satisfaction, he states that in the sixties, ‘I was able, I think, to give of my best’.

An excellent 1992 PhD thesis entitled ‘R.S. Peters: A Man and his Work’ survives among his personal papers. The author, Mavourna Collits, inscribed a bound copy to him with the words: ‘with gratitude for a life that made a difference’. After spending several weeks in the pleasure of Richard Peters’ company, this is certainly my impression of his life as well.

by Helen Kavanagh, Project Archivist
October 2022

Archivist Helen Kavanagh with the completed R.S. Peters Archive

The R.S. Peters Archive is housed in Archive & Special Collections (A&SC), The Sheppard-Worlock Library at Hope Park campus, Liverpool. The catalogue is available to download from our Finding Aids webpage.

Access is by appointment only, please email specialcollections@hope.ac.uk.

Online but not forgotten

We can all agree that this academic year has been a strange one and if the Archives & Special Collections were not regularly cleaned, for the preservation of the collections, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see tumble weed blowing through the well-ventilated Reading Room.

If our students couldn’t come to the collections then the collections would simply have to go to the students, albeit virtually. Advent term was spent honing my filming and editing skills to provide a series of introductory guides to the collections with demonstrations on how to handle rare books and archives. Topics covered FAQs such as, ‘How can I find materials in Special Collections?’, and ‘Can I take photographs of manuscripts?’ These short films are available to view from the Special Collections webpages.

Introductory video guides to using the collections

Working alone proved to be quite a physical and time-consuming task; setting up the camera, pressing record, running around the table to gesticulate in front of the camera, and then running back round again to press stop, playback and invariably starting all over again with a re-take. It became increasingly frustrating when I repeatedly fluffed my lines!

I much preferred working closely, or at least socially-distanced, in-between lockdowns, with academic tutors filming the teaching sessions that, pre-Covid, would have taken place in the Reading Room. Filming with colleagues meant I could stay firmly behind the camera. Dr Louise Wilson presented an introduction to Special Collections for our English Literature first-year students, show-casing some of her favourite books as material objects. Dr Kathrin Wagner held a virtual session for first-year Art & Design History students, taking a close look at a selection of illuminated Books of Hours and other religious texts.

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Dr Wagner received some very positive feedback from her students:

“To my mind, this extremely well-informed delivery was most effective during Dr Wagner’s tour of the Sheppard-Worlock Special Collections, her expertise on the sacred texts providing invaluable information about the relationship between function and form, decoration and reverence.”

Level C student feedback from Student Portfolio assignment

“A remarkable part on this block was the Special Collections visit at Hope Park library, which under current circumstances had to be carried out online, however was just as superlative.”

Level C student feedback from Student Portfolio assignment

I also worked with Dr Jody Crutchley to produce a series of videos as part of a new course focussed on methodologies for first year History students.

“A huge part of planning this had been giving students first-hand experience in utilising Hope’s amazing archive and special collections resources. However, then the pandemic happened and the shift to online learning meant that this would no longer be physically possible in the Reading Rooms, but we didn’t want the students to miss out. Karen stepped in here with the fantastic videos she produced that we could integrate into an ‘interactive lecture’ session. Students watched several of these short videos and then answered questions on a worksheet. These sessions were incredibly valuable to the students as they still had the opportunity to engage with the handling techniques, collections and gain a general sense of archival research remotely.”

Dr Jody Crutchley

The videos highlighted some of the different formats of material found in our collections, from old manuscripts, personal letters and newspaper cuttings, that you may expect to find in the archives, to the more unforeseen formats, such as, sound archives, photographs and even iconic sculpture and religious images.

Different formats found in Archives & Special Collections

Last, but not least, is the filmed session introducing the Nugent Archive. Every year our Education students studying Children’s Rights in Early Childhood, Undergraduate and Masters level, have the opportunity to delve into the Nugent archive to explore what life was like for many children in mid-nineteenth century Liverpool. Father Nugent was a passionate social reformer, appalled by the state of the homeless living in squalor, and dedicated his life to the education and rescue of destitute children. He was also an early pioneer of children’s emigration to Canada. Father Bennett was appointed administrator of the Liverpool Catholic Children’s Protection Society by the Archbishop of Liverpool, and remained for over 40 years. Details of the items in the archive can be downloaded from our webpages.

The Nugent Archive: Fr Nugent & Fr. Bennett

It would be remiss of me not to publicly thank the editing wizardry of our Multimedia Web Developer, Steven Hargraves, without whom none of these videos would have made it to YouTube. He had a lot of material to work with and not all of it was good!

Looking forward to the academic year 2021-22, I’m hopeful sessions will resume in person. Dr Crutchley has already booked in the History students so I hope this is a sign of things to come. The videos provided an opportunity for students under unusual circumstances and will remain helpful guides, but there’s nothing quite like experiencing archives and special collections in real life.

Teaching session in the Reading Room

by Karen Backhouse
Special Collections Librarian

Digitisation of the 1518 Sarum Hymnal ‘Radcliffe B97’

The month of May brought a ‘first’ to Special Collections; *DIGITISATION* has come to The Sheppard-Worlock Library. It was more of a toe dipping exercise than a full submerge, nevertheless, an encouraging start to an area of collection preservation and accessibility that has, until now, been relatively unexplored.

All set up and ready to go

The Project

The Sarum Hymnal in Manuscript and Print is a research project funded by the British Academy’s Neil Ker Fund. It is affiliated with the Academy’s series Early English Church Music (EECM) whose General Editor, Prof. Magnus Williamson, is also the project’s Principal Investigator. Prof. Williamson contacted us, through Liverpool Hope’s Visiting Professor Dr. John Milsom, to ask if B97 from Liverpool Cathedral’s Radcliffe Collection, a very rare copy of the Rouen (not Antwerp) edition of the Sarum Hymnal, could be included in the project.

The purpose of the Sarum Hymnal project is to investigate the earliest printed collections of plainsong hymns for the Use of Sarum, as well as their late-medieval manuscript forerunners. A wider rationale of the project is as a pilot for more general digitisation and investigation of early printed Sarum Service books – an important but relatively neglected bibliographical class in which the Radcliffe Collection excels. There are practical reasons to start with Radcliffe B97. This unusual edition was omitted from the industry standard Short-Title Catalogue and its associated microfilm series and therefore remains somewhat eclipsed by its better-known Flemish counterparts.

The Book

The book in question is, to give it its full title,

Hymnorum cum notis Opusculū diurno seruitio p. totius anni circulū apprime necessariū et ad cōcinnentiū confortationē: scđm vsum insignis ecclesie Sarisburiēsis nouissime secundu exemplar Parisius impressum optimis caracteribus elaboratum acad limam redactum.[Rouen: Venale habetur Rothomagi in edibg Jacobi Cousin. 5 Nov., 1518].

Known simply as, the Sarum Hymnal, or conversationally as B97.

Sarum Hymnal 1518, front cover

Inside front cover showing original wooden boards used for binding

Titlepage

Musical notation with rubricated staves

B97 (pictured above) is an exquisite quarto, beautifully rebound in red parchment, blind stamped front and back with gilt edging and gold tooled lettering on the spine. The inside front cover binding is designed to frame the original wooden boards, deliberately left exposed, together with marbled endpapers. On the title page, and throughout, is black and red blackletter typeface with contrasting black, squared musical notation set against the rubricated staves. Notably, a well-thumbed copy (dirty bottom right-hand corners) with evidence of paper conservation work having been undertaken, probably when it was rebound.

After receiving the initial request and obtaining permission from the Liverpool Cathedral, the owners of the Radcliffe Collection, it was necessary to assess the book for general fragility and to make sure the book was stable enough to undergo the digitisation process. It was absolutely vital to ensure the 1518 Sarum Hymnal did not suffer any damage in handling. The exterior of the book was then cleaned, using a small museum vac designed specifically for delicate preservation work, in final preparation for digitisation.

Digitisation

To initiate us into the world of rare book digitisation we were delighted to welcome Lynda Sayce from the international leaders in the digitisation of medieval and renaissance music books, Oxford University’s DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music). Assisted by Ken Lewis on image quality control.

Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM)

B97 under the lights

B97 on the operating table

Image quality control

Maintaining colour integrity is important. A colour key (pictured above) was used to calibrate the image capture device by taking several test images at the beginning of each batch. This helps to ensure colours are captured in their truest form. The colour key was used in every image taken throughout the project although it could be edited from the final images if desired. Lynda used white porcupine quills (no porcupines were harmed in the gathering of) to hold open the pages whilst the image capture was triggered remotely. Non-invasive, soft yet strong and easily edited from the final image, porcupine quills are ideal for the purpose.

In the near future, The Sheppard-Worlock Library hopes to collaborate on an RCUK-funded project with the British Academy, by which the Radcliffe Collection’s holdings in the field of Sarum Service books can be fully investigated.

Karen Backhouse
Special Collections Librarian

Addendum (March 2022)

I’m happy to report that the digital copy of Radcliffe B97 is now available to access from the DIAMM website.

The Dr Lois Loudon Collection: a significant Education Resource new to Special Collections

Special Collections has been fortunate to receive a significant collection of education research material donated by the Culham St. Gabriel’s Trust. The collection belonged to Dr. Lois Loudon, a prominent figure in Education and Church Schools in the North West. The Culham St. Gabriel Trust also provided funding to enable the appointment of an Archivist, Sean Macmillan, to catalogue the books and document the papers. I am delighted to announce that this project is now complete and here follows a taster of Sean’s findings. 

overview

Dr. Lois Mary Robertson Loudon (1938-2015) was a historian of education, education advisor, lecturer, author, guide, and general educationist who specialised in studying the relationship between the Church and Schools, with particular emphasis on the National Society and Methodism. Her academic studies and career spanned from 1956 to 2015. Louden was also an active member of the Lancaster Methodist Church and volunteered for many organisations, including the NHS Ambulance Services Trust. Louden was largely active in the Lancaster and Blackburn area, and took a special interest in the history and development of the schools and education authorities in that area.

biography

In 1970 Loudon embarked upon a PhD in Comparative Education at the University of North Carolina in the United States of America. Loudon completed her PhD in 1974 and lectured in the History and Philosophy of Education at Nottingham College of Education. From 1975 to 1990 Loudon was the Principal Lecturer in Education at St Martin’s College of Higher Education, Lancaster. St Martin’s was founded by the Church of England in the early 1960s as a teacher training college. By the 1990s, it had become a wide-ranging and ever-growing College of Higher Education, becoming a University College, and eventually merging with the HE College in Carlisle to form the University of Cumbria.

Loudon was an Honorary Advisor for the Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education, and was responsible for everything from School Admissions to Instruments of Government. Rev. John Hall, the current Dean of Westminster and Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, notes that Lois Loudon was a member of the advisory team when he was the Diocesan Director of Education for Blackburn, between 1992 and 1998. The Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education supported the 192 Church of England schools in the diocese, some of which were joint schools with the Methodist Church (North Lancashire District).

“Lois was always friendly, brisk and business-like, very practical and sensible, a single woman, academically a Mathematician. She was an enormous encouragement to me in my early times in Blackburn. Her active commitment to other aspects of life embraced the Methodist Church, where she chaired the national Day School committee, I believe for many years, and the Girl Guide movement, where she was also influential at national level.” Rev. John Hall, Dean of the Church of England.

Loudon was also a member of the Governing Body of Emslie Girls’ School, and was the Vice Chair at Ripley St Thomas Church of England High School. Loudon worked actively with Youth, and was involved with the Girl Guides movement from 1975 to 2000 as a District Commissioner, Trainer, Trainer of Trainers, Adviser, and Member of Council in addition to several other roles. Personally, Lois enjoyed walking holidays and travelling with friends. She rode a motorbike in her earlier days and was a very talented cricket bowler. Sadly, we have been unable to find a photograph of her.

“Lois was a pleasure to work with. She was a consummate professional, unflappable and always delivered what she said she would do by when she said she would do it. Her historical knowledge of the Church school sector was second to none and her research skills were A1. But most of all she was everything one could expect and hope for from a Girl Guide exemplar. She will be greatly missed.” Rev. John Gay.

main achievements

In addition to teaching, educating, and researching, Lois Loudon also wrote regularly on issues pertaining to Church Schools and Education. In 1992, Lois Loudon and David Urwin wrote the loose-leaf pamphlet Mission Management Appraisal: A Guide for Schools of the Church of England and the Church in Wales, published by the National Society (Church of England) and was often described as a ‘package’. The package was written for Governors and Teachers of Church of England and Church in Wales Schools. The resource was published at a time when the reforms occurring within Church Schools had created uncertainty and concern regarding schools being able to maintain their Christian vision and identity. The package was split into three parts; (1) Mission Statements, (2) Priorities and Quality, (3) Appraisal. It was considered to have been very influential.

Loudon and Urwin would go on to work together again, publishing Church School Inspection: A Guide for Schools of the Church of England and the Church in Wales, in 1993, and Church School Staffing: A Guide to Recruitment, Selection and Induction of Staff in Schools of the Church of England and the Church in Wales, in 1995. In 2003 Loudon wrote an article titled, The Conscious Clause in Religious Education and Collective Worship: Conscious Objection or Curriculum Choice (copies of this article can be found in LLP/1/8 of the Lois Loudon Archive). The article considered the grounds on which parents were able to withdraw children from religious education or collective worship. In 2011, Lois Louden wrote a book titled Distinctive and Inclusive: The National Society and Church of England Schools 1811-2011, to mark the 200th anniversary of the National Society. Loudon’s book provided an account of some of the major changes that took place in education and Church administration which affected schools. Louden wrote the book hoping it would inspire people, especially children, to find out more about their own school’s history.

the collection

The Dr Lois Loudon Collection consists of two halves; monographs and archival papers. There are over 800 monographs belonging to Lois Loudon, now generously donated to Liverpool Hope University by the Culham St. Gabriel Trust. These monographs include a variety of books, pamphlets, and reports, some dating back to the 19th century. The collection also covers a wide variety of topics including the general history of education, schools, and the Methodist Church. There are specific texts concerning Church Schools, public education, missionary movements, education as a value to society, education and law, women in education, and biographies and autobiographies of individual educators. Among the most rare and possibly most valuable materials in the collection are the six School Government Chronicles, which date from as early as 1885 and were an index or ‘gazette’ of issues in education at the time of their publication. They contain announcements and short articles regarding changes to school programs and structures. Loudon also owned a series of Wesley Historical Society North Lancashire Branch Bulletins containing a selection of prayers and society notes.

Another valuable set of resources are Loudon’s collection of The National Society Annual Reports (see image opposite). The National Society was established in 1811 to provide Education and Church Schools in every Parish, especially for poor children. The National Society is closely aligned with the Church of England. The reports Loudon collected run almost consistently, except for a few years, from 1920 to 1989 and contain a plethora of interesting and useful content regarding the National Society. For example, the 1969 report noted below contains information about Church Schools in 1969 in relation to issues they faced, new courses offered at that time, changes in their structure, and yearly accounts.

The second half of the collection contains over eight linear metres of archival material, catalogued as the Dr Lois Loudon Papers. Identifying a natural order to the collection, in addition to identifying what many of the papers were about, was not easy. Sadly, since her death, many of Lois Loudon’s papers had become much disorganised and some were lost during a house move in 2015. Moreover, Loudon was a good advocate for recycling in that she often printed new content on the other side of already used paper, which meant that some items were particularly difficult to identify. Three rough sub-categories can be identified; research, work-related materials, and personal materials. A significant aspect of Loudon’s personal papers is related to her research of education and church schools. This includes research organised by location and school, such as materials she collected relating to St Martin’s College, research organised by event, such as the 1902 Education Acts, and research organised by topic and type of school. Additionally, there are materials relating specifically to the Church of England and the National Society.

The collection also contains materials which largely relate to Loudon’s working and professional interests, such as her work with Methodist Schools and Lancaster City Council. The final part of the collection contains more personal items, such as membership paraphernalia and old receipts for book purchases. The sheer number of books she actively bought personally is indicative of her devotion and love for school education.

special thanks

Special thanks must be extended to the Culham St. Gabriel Trust for donating the collection in addition to the funding for cataloguing and preservation work. Moreover, special thanks to Rev. John Hall, Rev. John Gay, and Brian Gates for providing invaluable information about Lois that proved very useful in interpreting and cataloguing her papers.

Sean Macmillan
Archivist

For more biographical info on Lois Loudon or to download the archival listing, please visit the Special Collections webpages.