Category Archives: Activity

The archive of the Greene Family is now available

20th century, Cataloguing, Humanities, Modern, Newly available (2025), Newly available (2025), Women, ,

The catalogue for the archive of the Greene family is now available, with material ready for consultation in the Weston Library. The archive largely comprises personal correspondence and photographs belonging to Graham Carleton Greene, CBE, publisher, and his mother, Helga Mary Connolly (née Guinness, other married name Greene), literary agent.

Helga Greene, c. 1930s. © Courtesy of Alexander Greene.
Helga Mary Connolly, 1916-1985

Helga Mary Connolly was born to Henry Samuel Howard Guinness and Alfhild Holter. She married her first husband Sir Hugh Carleton Greene in 1934, the couple had two sons, Graham C. and James C. Greene. Following their divorce in 1948, she opened the Helga Greene Literary Agency in 1952, which operated from Eaton Mews West in the house adjoining her own home. Her literary consultant, Kathrine Sorley Walker, later wrote in Remembering Helga, (1987) that Helga considered her agency ‘a small and very personal literary agency.’1 The agency represented authors including American mystery writer Raymond Chandler (from 1957), Austrian artist and poet Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Crossman M.P. and zoologist Lancelot Hogben (from 1953). Helga was engaged to Raymond Chandler upon his death in 1959, inheriting his literary estate and would become the authority on permissions for adaptations of his works.

Her personal papers primarily consist of correspondence with her first husband, the broadcaster Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, brother of the writer Graham Greene. The earliest letters derive from their engagement whilst living in Berlin in 1934. The letters also provide coverage of family life during a period of upheaval in Europe, after their expulsion from Berlin in 1939 (Hugh C. Greene was the Daily Telegraph’s Berlin Correspondent from 1938). The family was separated for periods of time, owing to Sir Hugh’s work in the RAF and as Head of the BBC German Service, MS. Greene family 1. A portion of the papers concern personal letters from members of the theatrical and literary community such as Tove Jansson, C.P. Snow, Mary Norton and Ivor Novello, MS. Greene family 3-4. The main business papers and correspondence of the Helga Greene Literary Agency are catalogued with the archive of Raymond Chandler.

Graham Carleton Greene CBE, 1936-2016

The bulk of the papers in the archive belong to Graham Carleton Greene, CBE who held the position of managing director of the publishing house Jonathan Cape from 1966-1988. Alongside an influential career in publishing, the papers and correspondence cover decades of involvement with numerous charitable organisations and cultural institutions. Graham was actively involved in shaping organisations including the Publishers Association (President, 1977-1979), Statesman and Nation Publishing Company (Chairman, 1981-1985), GB-China Centre, (Chairman, 1986-1997) and the British Museum (Chairman, 1996-2002). By this point, he had been a trustee of the museum for 24 years (from 1978-2002). During his tenure as chairman of the British Museum, he was involved with the redesign of the Great Court, with it opening in December 2000.

Outside of his professional life, Graham’s extensive personal correspondence spans six decades, and includes letters from a range of friends, particularly those who were extended hospitality at dinner parties arranged by him and his wife Sally. Literary dinners and parties were also thrown in celebration of new publications, including for a biography by Anthony Howard of his mother’s former client and friend, Richard Crossman M.P., MS. Greene family 39.

From left: Graham, Helga, Hugh and James Greene. © Courtesy of Alexander Greene.

Several boxes of family photographs provide a snapshot of the life of the Greene family over many decades, with Helga and Hugh’s life in 1930s Germany, family holidays in the 1940s and Graham and James’s Eton school days in the 1950s all featuring. Photographs of Graham’s later travels to China are also included, MS. Greene family photogr. 5. He would go on to visit the country on multiple occasions and work to establish copyright treaties whilst chairman of the GB-China Centre in 1991.

The Bodleian Libraries also hold the papers of Sir Hugh Carleton Greene and the archive of Vivien Greene.

Sources:

  1. Remembering Helga, (1987). MS. Chandler 39 ↩︎

Catalogue of the Dictionary of Medical Eponyms by Austin Seckersen is now available

20th century, Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Modern, Newly available (2025), Newly available (2025), Sciences,

This collection comprises material collected by Seckersen for a dictionary of medical eponyms. The dictionary was never published. It also includes a set of glass negatives of portraits of those whose names have been used as an eponym.

Catalogue of the Dictionary of Medical Eponyms by Austin Seckersen

The catalogue of the archive of F.W. Hirst is now available

20th century, Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Humanities, Newly available (2025)

Francis Wrigley Hirst (1873-1953) was a journalist who wrote for numerous publications, including The Speaker, The Manchester Guardian, The Tribune, and The Nation. He was chief editor of The Economist from 1907 until 1916. Due to his outspoken campaigning during wartime, where he published numerous pieces against conscription, on irresponsible war finance, and on the threat the war posed to civil liberties, he was forced to resign. In 1916, he set up his own paper, Common Sense, which was devoted to a negotiated peace, retrenchment, and the economy. In 1921, Common Sense was discontinued, and as Hirst’s influence within liberalism waned, he drew his attention to giving lectures in South Africa, Austria, and widely in the United States. Hirst unsuccessfully stood for Parliament as a Liberal in 1910 and 1929, and in June 1936 he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council. Hirst wrote extensively about Adam Smith, William Ewart Gladstone, and John Morley. He died in 1953 of influenza, and a book titled F.W. Hirst By his Friends was published in his remembrance in 1958.

The archive comprises diaries, working and personal correspondence, literary and political papers, and press cuttings both by and of Francis W. Hirst.

Catalogue of the archive of Francis W. Hirst

The catalogue of the archive of Terence Ranger is now available

20th century, Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Humanities, Newly available (2025)

Terence Osborn Ranger (1929-2015) was a historian of African history. While working at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, he was horrified by the colour bar and, alongside his wife, became active in politics both inside and outside of the university. He was denied citizenship, possibly due to his political associations, and was declared a prohibited immigrant in 1963. He began working at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the pioneering African history department. During his time at Dar es Salaam, he wrote several books, including Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896–7 (1967) and Dance and Society in Eastern Africa, 1890–1970 (1975). In 1969 he moved to the University of California at Los Angeles as a professor and then in 1974 he moved to the University of Manchester as chair of modern history. During his time at Manchester, he began to introduce African history into the curriculum. Ranger was the Rhodes chair of race relations and a fellow at St Antony’s, Oxford, from 1987 until his retirement in 1997. He returned to Zimbabwe to teach at the University of Zimbabwe as a visiting professor (1998-2001) and spent time researching for his book Bulawayo Burning: The Social History of a Southern African City, 1893–1960 (2010).

The archive comprises working papers and correspondence, including material related to: academic appointments, research on African politics and history, and societies Ranger was associated with.

Catalogue of the archive of Terence Ranger

The catalogue of the archive of Thomas Lionel Hodgkin is now available

20th century, Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Humanities, Newly available (2025)

Thomas Lionel Hodgkin (1910-1982) was a historian of African history. He spent time in Palestine, in a cadetship in the Palestine civil service, which made him very aware of the nature of Western and British imperialism. After he resigned, he wanted to stay to observe the aftermath of the April 1936 Arab uprising but was made to leave by the British administration. He returned to Britain in 1936 and joined the London Library and the Communist Party. He met his wife, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, in 1937 when she was in London to photograph insulin at the Royal Institute.

He worked for the Workers’ Educational Association in north Staffordshire and, in September 1945, he became secretary of the Oxford University delegacy for extra-mural studies which took him to the Gold Coast and Nigeria in 1947. This began his interest in African history, and he wrote for West Africa on the background to African nationalism. After leaving the delegacy in 1952, he travelled extensively in Africa. He published his book Nationalism in Colonial Africa in 1956, before turning to the subject of Islam in Africa. He worked in several universities in America and Canada, and became director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana in 1962. He became a senior research fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, and lecturer in the government of new states in 1965, where he supervised students from many countries. He published several books during his life, including Perspectives (1960), African Political Parties (1961), and Vietnam: The Revolutionary Path (1981). He also wrote an unpublished novel titled ‘Qwert’.

The archive comprises: Academic papers, including lecture notes and papers on African history; correspondence, including from his family and wife, D.M.C. Hodgkin; literary papers including unpublished novels; and personal papers.

Catalogue of the archive of Thomas Lionel Hodgkin

The Peter Tatchell archive

20th century, 21st century, Archives and Modern Manuscripts, LGBT+ History Month, Modern, Newly available (2025), Social Sciences, , ,
Peter Tatchell in front of an LGBTQ+ rainbow flag, carrying an A2-sized white sign that says Freedom, Justice, Peace, Equality
Photograph provided by the Peter Tatchell Foundation, © Peter Tatchell

The catalogue of the archive of human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell (b.1952) is now available.

Tatchell is best known for his LGBTQ rights advocacy. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, and emigrated to London in 1972, where he quickly became involved with the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In 1973 he was the GLF’s delegate to the World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin, where he distributed leaflets in support of gay liberation inside the German Democratic Republic. In 1986 Tatchell published a pioneering self-help book, AIDS: A Guide to Survival [find in the SOLO catalogue] and was a founding member of the UK AIDS Vigil Organisation and the UK chapter of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).

In May 1990, Tatchell was one of the founding members of the campaign group OutRage! (founded in reaction to the homophobic murder of actor Michael Boothe). OutRage! became well-known for their non-violent, direct-action protests opposing discrimination against gays and lesbians in the United Kingdom. Activists were frequently arrested and prosecuted for their protests, with Tatchell notably fined under the obscure Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act (1860) for interrupting the Archbishop of Canterbury during his 1997 Easter sermon. Tatchell also made multiple attempts to arrest Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, for human rights violations.

In 2011, OutRage! ceased operations and Tatchell founded The Peter Tatchell Foundation, a non-profit whose work seeks to promote and protect human rights in the UK and internationally.

In addition to his campaign work, Tatchell fought a number of parliamentary campaigns. In 1983 he ran as the Labour Party’s candidate in the Bermondsey constituency by-election, in 2000 he was an independent candidate for the Greater London Assembly, and in 2007 he was the Green Party’s candidate for Oxford East.

The archive mainly comprises Tatchell’s working papers for his protest and political campaigns, including research materials and protest ephemera (including a set of photographs of OutRage! protests by Steve Mayes), as well as papers relating to Tatchell’s journalism and travel writing. The catalogue is a first edition and additional protest ephemera and objects will be added following conservation work.

The catalogue of the archive of Colin Ford relating to his work on Julia Margaret Cameron is now available

20th century, 21st century, Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Humanities, Modern, Newly available (2024), Photography, Women

Colin Ford, born 13 May 1934, is a curator and historian of photography. He was Keeper of Film and Photography at the National Portrait Gallery (1972-1981), the first director of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (1982-1993), and Director of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales (1993-1998).

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was a 19th century photographer, whose portraits include Charles Darwin, Sir John Herschel and Alice Liddell. She took up photography later in life, having been gifted a camera by her children in around 1863. Despite only creating works for 12 years, she produced over 900 photographs and is considered an important portraitist of the 19th century.

The archive comprises papers, correspondence and photographs mostly relating to Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs. The collection includes correspondence relating to Julia Margaret Cameron dating from 1974, and also includes sketchbooks of Herschel Hay Cameron, Adeline Cameron, Harding Hay Cameron, and an 1895 photo album.

Catalogue of the archive of Colin Ford and his work on Julia Margaret Cameron

Highlights and Takeaways from the Association of Internet Researchers Annual Conference (AoIR) 2024

Algorithmic data, Social Media Archives, Web Archives, , ,

At the end of October, I had the opportunity to attend the 2024 Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference, which took place in the lovely city of Sheffield. This was my first time attending an AoIR conference and I was grateful to join such a vibrant meeting of Internet researchers from all over the world. As a Curatorial and Policy Research Officer for the Algorithmic Archive Project, currently exploring the ways in which social media and algorithmic data are being used across disciplines, this was a unique opportunity for me to engage with a diverse range of research on the web and social platforms.

This year’s AoIR conference was hosted by the University of Sheffield, with the Student Union building serving as the main venue. This impressive structure spans five floors and includes a cosy lounge area on the third floor, offering attendees a space to relax and network between sessions in a packed 4-day program. The main theme of this year’s AoIR2024 conference was “industry”, inviting the research community to reflect and discuss the relationship between the internet and industry. With over thirteen parallel sessions scheduled for each time block, choosing just one to attend proved to be rather challenging.

A view of the University of Sheffield, Student Union where some of the AoIR2024 conference sessions took place between 30 October – 2 November 2024. Photo taken by B. Cannelli

One aspect that really stood out to me from the conference was the diverse range of research involving information generated on social media platforms, spanning from creators’ economy dynamics, news polarization, AI applied in the context of online communities and content moderation, online pop culture and disinformation across various platforms. There were several panels discussing platform governance – the set of rules, policies and decision-making processes that shape how content is collected, accessed and used within a platform – shedding light on the power dynamics that influence user experience. From an archival perspective, understanding how platforms regulate access to data and the consumption of content is crucial, with significant implications for how this content can be archived by memory institutions.

Among the many sessions exploring virality phenomena and cultures on social media, it is worth mentioning the one reflecting on “mediated memory”. It examined how social platforms like TikTok serve, for instance, as spaces to remember displaced cultures, and how they facilitate the transmission of cultural aspects to younger generations, helping to perpetuate them through time and space. Additionally, the session titled “Times and Transformations” provided some excellent examples of research conducted with web-archived content from research libraries, along with insightful reflections on the epistemology of web archiving.

Firth Court, a Grade II listed Edwardian building that constitutes part of the Western Bank Campus of the University of Sheffield. Photo taken by B. Cannelli

Overall, the conference highlighted the crucial role social media data play in today’s communication landscape and underscored the value of platforms’ user-generated content as a key resource for researchers across a wide range of disciplines. The interplay of light and shadows explored in various panels on platform governance further emphasised the enormous power platforms hold over this user-generated data, as well as the pressing need for support to enable researchers to access and preserve these data over time. 

I left the AoIR2024 conference with so much food for thought! It has also been a fantastic opportunity for networking, which will be important for the scoping phase of the Algorithmic Archive project.

Additions to the Archive of John le Carré (David Cornwell)

20th century, 21st century, Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Cataloguing, Humanities, Modern, Newly available (2024), , , , , ,

John le Carré at the ‘Zeit Forum Kultur’ in Hamburg, 10 November 2008 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)

The archive of David Cornwell (1931-2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré, has been expanded to include drafts of his later novels (post-2010) and non-fiction work, correspondence and research relating to almost all of his novels, and scripts for both realised and unrealised film and television adaptations. Cornwell was best known for his espionage novels, inspired by his years working in both MI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and 1960s, many following the fictional intelligence officer George Smiley. These include The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (1974) and Smiley’s People (1979). He also used his work to explore wider global issues such as pharmaceutical corruption, in The Constant Gardener (2001), and the War on Terror, in A Most Wanted Man (2008). His 26th novel, Silverview, was published posthumously in 2021, whilst many of his novels have been adapted into successful films and television series.

Over 300 new boxes of material have been added to the existing John le Carré archive, previously comprising only manuscript and typescript novel drafts, offering a much greater insight into Cornwell’s research and writing processes. The newly catalogued material includes hundreds of handwritten novel drafts, notebooks full of character, plot and research notes, correspondence regarding edits, research trips and publicity, and scripts for film, radio and television adaptations. In addition to further demonstrating the meticulous technique that went into the creation of each of his novels, this expanded archive uncovers drafts of unpublished and shelved novels, as well as scripts of an array of both unrealised adaptations and entirely new (non-adaptation) plays and television shows. Readers can explore the countless iterations of Cornwell’s novel drafts, the depth with which he researched the people and places he brought to life, and a wealth of previously unseen stories and characters.

Cataloguing work of Cornwell’s correspondence files, interviews, speeches and personal papers is ongoing, and the archive will be further expanded in 2025.

The updated catalogue can now be viewed online at: Collection: Archive of John le Carré (David Cornwell) | Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts

ARA Conference 2024: A New Professional’s Experience

21st century, Event, Learning and teaching, Social Sciences,

At the end of August, members of the Archives and Records Association gathered in Birmingham for conference, and I was grateful to be among them for a day. I chose to attend the first day, partially for that early-days energy, but mostly because one of the themes was ‘Digital Recordkeeping and the Cloud’. As a trainee in digital archiving, this seemed too on-the-nose to miss.

The venue was as practical as the location, but the sun shone in on a cosy array of sponsor stands and bleary-eyed delegates as we shuffled to find our preferred caffeinated medium. Then took our seats for the keynote. Alistair Brown shared with us his observations on the archive – and wider heritage sector – from the perspective of a funder. He touched on key challenges ahead, particularly climate change and ecosystem concerns which intersect with issues of digitalisation and data use; as well as giving us an overview of the National Lottery’s Heritage 2033 strategy.

The views of Birmingham were quite striking, as can be seen here in this evening view of the Birmingham skyline – featuring a statue of Queen Victoria. Photo taken by E.Morris

Alistair’s keynote foreshadowed the themes of the day: Climate Advocacy and Education, Conservation, Passive and Sustainable Storage, and, of course, Digital Recordkeeping and the Cloud. The last of these proved much more popular than perhaps even the organisers were anticipating and a full lecture room meant that for the first session I instead dipped into a talk focussed on converting existing buildings into suitable archives. A thought-provoking offering from Oberlanders Architects, and an attractive option for those with buildings of note to make use of, potentially the only option for those of limited means, and potentially a greener solution that pleases the local planning committee.

I left lunch early to get a spot in the Digital theme for the afternoon and left the tea-break even earlier so I might get a spot on a chair rather than the floor for the second afternoon session! Across these, six speakers brought their take on topics such as: the carbon footprint of our data, the tension between what to keep and what to delete, encouraging better data storage practise, and of course what methods we might use to achieve these aims.

Anne Grzybowski (Heriot-Watt University) reminded us all of the carbon-footprint incurred by the ROT – the redundant, obsolete, or transitory documents and records we haphazardly accumulate unless management is routine and effective. ROT has always been a challenge for record managers, but are we more tempted to seek ways to simply increase our data budget than sort it out? The digital sphere has the potential to be “out of sight, out of mind” in a way that physical records cannot hope to be, but those charged with managing those records need to have a holistic view of the costs of storage, above and beyond the financial. Laura Peaurt took this further, looking at the options considered by the University of Nottingham for digital storage and how sustainable these were.

Buzzing in my mind as I stretched my legs around Birmingham’s canals between the talks and supper were a couple of thoughts: forefront of these is the trust organisations, particularly archives, must now place in external commercial organisations for the safe-keeping of their records and materials. Very few speakers started from a position other than a subscription to Microsoft 365. We spoke at length about the Cloud – a storage reality that means remote infrastructure, potentially residing in entirely different nations. While the available options are not entirely within our control, it would be naive to think that recordkeeping or archiving will be exempt from issues such as the mass outage Microsoft saw at the end of July. I was surprised that rather than being discussed at all, it seemed taken for granted that we would pin our digital preservation hopes on commerical cloud servers (and such like).

Not far behind this thought was “how will we sort it all out?!” We know that we are creating veritable digi-tonnes of data every day, both as individuals and organisations. Across the speakers I had heard, many attested to the truth we all suspect: many of us are poor at organising our digital lives, wasteful with the space we use, irresponsible with what we keep and what we don’t. So, what will the archivists of the future inherit? As I have discovered in my own work, the best intentions of archivists-past can leave archivists-present scratching their heads (or worse, shaking their fists).

Supper was served in the Banqueting Suite of Birmingham’s Council Chambers. A gorgeous space to reflect and network, or just stare up at the ceiling! Photo taken by E.Morris

If nothing else the ARA conference has inspired me to keep thinking big, and encourage those around me to do so as well. To forge future-oriented solutions, not simply plug the gaps now. With half an eye on what AI might do in this sphere, the time is ripe for us to build systems that just might cause Archivists of the future to say “I’m glad they thought of that”.