The time has come for me to leave Explore so I thought I’d share a few of my favourite memories with you from the last 7 months. And what an incredible 7 months it’s been! I feel very privileged to have had the chance to work on the York: Gateway to History project- I’ve met so many wonderful people, from community groups and volunteers to researchers and colleagues.
I really feel like the project has had an invaluable impact both in terms of vastly enhancing the way the archives are stored and in terms of community engagement- and to have played a part in it has been brilliant. But enough of the soppy stuff- here are some of my personal highlights…
- Working with the community collections volunteers
Working with the 8 regular Thursday volunteers has been an absolute treat. We were lucky enough to get a wonderful mix of volunteers that all worked really well as a team. In total, they catalogued 5 large archive collections over a period of 6 months (wait for it- that’s 99 boxes, 203 volumes and 32 rolls in total!). They really were fantastic.
2. Watching the ‘York Panorama: What York Means To Us’ art installation come together
As an art-lover this had to have a place in my favourite memories didn’t it?! Since I started at Explore, I have watched the art installation slowly take shape- from the initial concept into a physical installation on the first floor landing at York Explore. It has been incredible to see how the brilliant Emily Harvey took people’s personal memories of York and turned them into a vibrant panorama that accurately depicts how York residents see their city.
3. Normandy Veterans ‘film premiere’
Explore has done a lot of work with the York Normandy Veterans Association to help them create their own archive (NVA) through the York: Gateway to History project. Most of the work on the Veterans project had already been done by the time I arrived at Explore back in June, but I did some transcriptions from oral history interviews with the veterans and learned a lot about them (and just how inspirational- yet astonishingly modest- they are!). In December, we created a short film telling the story of the Veterans and their archive.
We invited the Veterans to Explore to have their very own ‘film premiere’. Watching the film conjured a mixture of emotions for them- joy, pride and even a few tears. To see what the project meant to the Veterans and to have the privilege of meeting them really was a once in a lifetime experience.
4. Voices of the Archives
My latest project was Voices of the Archives- a campaign to showcase some of our community collections from the viewpoint of the people who use them most- local community groups, researchers and volunteers. We’ve collected around 30 public responses to various archive collections and used them to create a booklet and 3 pop-up banners (now on the first floor landing at York Explore).
Watching the booklet and banners go from an idea, to a rough draft, to an initial design and finally into physical objects has been a really exciting process. The feedback we’ve received about the collections whilst doing the initial crowd-sourcing has demonstrated the value placed on the archives by our local community- and that’s what a lot of my work has been about; enhancing community engagement with the archives. To see the impact of the Gateway to History project in this way has been a really great way to end my time at Explore.
So there you have it- four of my favourite memories from the past 7 months. I could go on and mention the York Scouts Open Weekend, creating a display of the Poppleton History Society’s archive at Poppleton Library, presenting at my first Gateway to Your Archives workshop… and so much more- but if I did that you’d still be reading this in a week’s time!
So that’s it from me on the blog. To all of you I have met through the Gateway project- thank you for making it such a wonderful project to work on. I leave Explore with lots of happy memories. Goodbye to you all!
Welcome to the blog of the Explore York Archives Service 
This blog illustrates a brilliant project: creative, imaginative, with a big legacy. A wide range of Archives have been catalogued and revealed, with many individuals & groups engaged in exploring them. Thanks for your contribution, Jenny.