B U S I N E S S
A R C H I V E S
C O U N C I L
Number 156Winter 2009
New SeriesISSN 0309-4200
N Ne ew w
s sl le et t
t te er r
Chairman’s address to Business ArchivesCouncil AGM, 24 November 2009Review of year 2008-9
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Some of the BAC Executive at a meeting in September 2009Left to right: Peter Scott, Roy Edwards, Moira Lovegrove, Terry Gourvish, Edwin Green, JudyFaraday, Katey Logan and Richard Wiltshire.
Let me begin by setting out the changes to ourExecutive Committee. Since we last met, SaraKinsey has resigned from the Executive. Sara
joined the Executive in 2003 and became a deputychair in 2005. She was not only a highly effectivedeputy, but inspired and led the initiative whichresulted in the creation of the multi-institutionalproject to formulate a strategy for business archives.The many and varied commitments she currentlyhas, not least at HSBC, where she is manager ofgroup history projects, prompted her decision. Wewill certainly miss her, but I am pleased to announcethat the Executive has been able to appoint JudyFaraday in her place as a deputy chair, and I will beseeking your endorsement to this decision in duecourse. Serena Kelly is also stepping down, havingdecided not to seek election this year. She was forsome years an archivist at The Baring Archive, andlatterly has worked for both the Victoria & AlbertMuseum and the British Library. Her currentcommitments with Williams Lea leave her little timeto attend meetings and she has therefore decided notto stand again. After 15 years on the Executive shecertainly merits our sincere thanks for her sterlingservice to the Council, not least in the areas oftraining and publications. I should now like tointroduce the newcomers to the Executive. KateyLogan, as I am sure you all know, served on theExecutive some years ago, and was the consultantwhose drive and determination took forward thebusiness archives strategy. She is a highly effectiveadvocate of business archives and we are delighted tohave her back on board. Our second newcomer isMariam Yamin, who has generously agreed to act aseditor of Business Archives: Principles andPractice, in succession to Valerie Johnson.Mariam has worked for RBS and is currentlyarchivist of Guardian News and Media. We willbe seeking your endorsement of thesenominations very shortly. Also a big thank youto Valerie Johnson for serving as editor ofPrinciples and Practice; we are delighted she isstaying on the Executive.
The Credit CrunchThe onset of the ‘credit crunch’ provided someresonance with the circumstances which led tothe formation of the Council in the 1930s.Then, as now, an economic downturn broughtwith it risks to the business archives world,either through receivership or mergers andacquisitions. Given the country’s currentfinancial difficulties, it was clearly wise of us todevelop our major initiative, the strategy forbusiness archives. This has been much talkedabout in previous meetings, and in the yearunder review we produced a strategy forconsultation, though the formal launch, at theHouse of Lords on 9th July 2009, is to bereported on next year. But at this stage I shouldstate that I feel we can make a difference, andthat the strategy provides not only anopportunity, but also a challenge, for us torespond with positive actions and activities.
Your Council’s core activities continue to thrive:
Publications: Journal, Newsletter, WebBusiness Archives Number 95 (Principles andPractice), edited by Valerie Johnson,contained important contributions fromNigel Hardman, Maria Sienkiewicz andJeannette Strickland on a ‘model archivist’;Janet Inglis and Caroline Venamore on themeasurement and control of risk in recordsmanagement; Vicky Parkinson, Adrian Steeland Jeannette Strickland on business archivesand the MLA designation scheme; and MariaSienkiewicz on the value of an archive tocorporate reputation. There was also a tributeto Len McDonald (1933-2007), a pioneer ofrecords management and an important figurein the Council’s history. Number 96 (Sourcesand History), edited by Mike Anson,contained articles from Roy Edwards on therecords of the Railway Clearing House; Drew
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Keeling, our bursary winner of the previous year, on thevoyage abstracts of the Cunard Line; Kate Murphy on thepioneering women of the BBC; Kevin Tennent on the useof the dissolved companies files in the National Archives ofScotland; and Lesley Whitworth on the Design Archive asa resource for business historians. Bibliographiccontributions to our journal were generously provided byEmma Stagg, Richard Hawkins and Mike Anson. AlanGall’s four Newsletters continued to be an importantmedium of dissemination. The Council’s websitecontinues to develop as a major resource, with furtherenhancements, thanks to Claire Twinn’s work and theassiduous oversight of Moira Lovegrove. Again, I recordmy sincere thanks on your behalf to everyone concerned inthis work.
Conference 2008On 12 November 2008 we held our annual conference,generously hosted by Christopher Hilton and theWellcome Trust. The theme was ‘Out of the Ordinary’,intended to tease out the varied ways in which archives arepromoted by their parent body. The speakers were: in themorning, Sam Twining, former president of the Council,who reflected on the progress of business archives since thecouncil’s formation in 1934; John Quail, who advocated alegislative approach to the protection of businesscollections; Richard Wiltshire, from LMA, who spoke onpublic repository collections; Louise Ray, the ArchiveLottery Adviser, who advocated the development of apartnership approach to secure lottery funding forbusiness collections; and Ellen Collins, from MLA London,who advanced the idea of using case studies to highlight acollaborative, public-private sector approach to theexploitation of business collections. In the afternoon, JoanHeggie from the British Steel Collection, TeresaWilmshurst from the Waterways Trust and Richard Taylorfrom the National Railway Museum set out the differentways in which they approached the promotion of theircollections. Finally, Katey Logan updated colleagues on theprogress of the strategy and the consultation process. Theconference was once again conceived and organised byJudy Faraday, for which many thanks.
Wadsworth Prize 2008The Wadsworth Prize reception was held immediately afterthe conference at Unilever, where our most generous hostwas Jeannette Strickland, Head of Art, Archives and RecordManagement. Once again a big thank you to Judy Faradayand Karen Sampson for organising the event. The prize,awarded to a book published in 2007, was won byProfessor Peter Scott from the Henley Business School ofthe University of Reading, for his book The Triumph of theSouth: a Regional Economic History of Early TwentiethCentury Britain, published by Ashgate.
Peter was the 30th winner, and to mark this milestone wepublished a special number of Business Archives, Number97, entitled Reflections and Speculations. This marked theanniversary and the retirement of Sam Twining as Presidentof the BAC. It allowed us to take stock of the state ofbusiness history, and its relationship with archives. Formerprizewinners were invited to contribute to a collection ofessays edited by Mike Anson, and the response wasextremely positive. We received essays from Roy Church,Leslie Hannah, Geoffrey Jones, Christine MacLeod, RobinPearson and Geoffrey Tweedale. This formidable teamdiscussed issues ranging from the problem of survivor biasin business history to the use of archives by businesshistorians, and the challenge of litigation archives.
Bursary 2008The winner in 2008 was Felipe Fernandes, from the LondonSchool of Economics. Felipe’s area of study was ‘Telegraphsand Shipping: Shrinking Economic Distances, 1850-1914’,and he conducted research at the telegraph archive inPorthcurno. A short article based on the research will beappearing in Business Archives.
On your behalf I should like to thank Roy Edwards fororganising the Wadsworth judging, and Peter Scott fororganising the bursary judging.
Other ActivitiesYour Executive was active in contributing to trainingactivities. We organised a training day for archives studentson 27 January, and played a leading role in anothersuccessful ‘Meet the Archivists’ session for graduate studentsheld at Rothschild’s on 15 January.
Karen Sampson and Richard Wiltshire manned the BAC’sstall and promoted business archive collections at the MLA’s‘Meet student teachers in London’ event on 17 March. Theaim was to inspire student teachers to develop learningopportunities using resources beyond the classroom. Ishould like to thank all those who took part in these events.
This year the Council also provided help and advice onrecord-keeping to the Royal Warrant Holders’ Associationand to the Institute of Financial Services.
I am also pleased to report that work is in progress on anentirely new bibliography of business history. This project isbeing undertaken by the Council’s stalwart supporters, JohnOrbell and Richard Storey, and I look forward to reportingon their progress next year.
Finally, I must finish by thanking The National Archives fortheir generosity in hosting our AGM.
Terry GourvishChairman24 November 2009
The Brewery History SocietyMike Brown.
The Society was founded in 1972 and at present there areabout 500 members comprising individuals, corporatemembers and small brewers. There is a wide range of
interests, from collecting breweriana through to the impact of thetemperance movement. The society publishes a quarterly journal,
which provides in-depth analysis of the industry’s history,and a newsletter, which details current developments,provides links and updates and includes a correspondencesection for answering queries. Articles submitted to thejournal can be peer-reviewed on request. The BHS publishes
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John Youil, Hen and Chickens Brewery, Manchester. ‘Alebrewer to his late majesty William the 4th’ (dated 1846)
Trade Mark registered 1926Trade Mark registered 1889
Government Policy on Archives
Dr Melinda Haunton, Archives Sector Development, The National Archives.
The National Archives and the Museums Librariesand Archives Council (MLA) are delighted toannounce that the new government policy on
archives has been published. This note is to brief you onwhat’s happened, and also to ask you for your help inturning this policy into action.
The National Archives and MLA welcome the newgovernment policy on archives – Archives for the 21stCentury – which was laid before Parliament on 24November 2009. Archives for the 21st Century is a strategicvision for the archives sector, and is the first such policy forten years. In challenging times, the policy re-asserts thevital importance of archives as the gateway to the nation’scommon heritage, while reflecting the extraordinary
advances in technology that offer both challenges andunprecedented opportunities. Archives for the 21st Centuryrecognises the role archives have to play in linking peoplewith their communities, their heritage and theirresponsibility to future generations, and places archives in apresent-day political and professional context, ensuringthey remain relevant in a digital age. Designed to supportarchive services around the country – particularly publiclyfunded services – Archives for the 21st Century outlines thechallenges currently facing the archives sector andhighlights the important contributions that archives canmake to local communities. This policy does not offer asingle blueprint for the way forward, but suggests a range ofoptions that can be applied to short and long term planning
its own books and is gradually building a county-by-countycoverage of the UK. One key publication is Century ofBritish Brewers, which aims to provide brief details of all theUK’s commercial and pub breweries since 1890. These andother brewery related publications are available from ourbookshop. Further details on the Society can be found atwww.breweryhistory.com
The Society's archive collection is held at BirminghamCentral Library. This is located in the centre ofBirmingham and is perhaps best travelled to by rail, beingonly 10 minutes walk from the station. The library is openfrom Monday to Saturday, although the archive servingarea is closed on Mondays and you may need to give somewarning of your visit. The Archives and Heritage Service islocated on the sixth floor of the building. You will needsome proof of identity to access material – see the BCLwebsite for more details. As a point of interest, there is anexcellent set of trade directories covering much of thecountry in this section.
The library has a catalogue of our material and is workingtowards electronic access. In addition, we are looking toinclude a version within our own website. Bearing in mindthat the catalogue runs to over 300 pages, you can imaginehow much material we have managed to collect. Many ofthe original records came from the Brewers Society andinclude some rare historical items.
We have 250+ books, including brewery histories, generaltexts on the industry and pubs and some technicalpublications. We also have several bound sets of Journals
and Directories, such as: The Brewers Journal from 1880,Brewing Trade Review from 1908, Manual of Brewers from1899, Brewers Almanac from 1915. Magazines and papersinclude The Brewer, What's Brewing, and a nearly full set ofBHS Journals and Newsletters from the beginning. Othersocieties, such as the Labologists and Beermat Collectors,are also well represented and we now receive current copies.The collection also contains many local CAMRA branchnewsletters, which often contain articles of research interest.
As well as our collection, the library also holds the papersfor the firms of Ansells, Davenports and Showells - howeverthese have yet to be catalogued. Some of these papers camefrom the Allied Breweries Archives at Burton, which weredisposed of by Punch Retail. Dr Ray Anderson, currentlypresident of the BHS, organised the dispersal of the Alliedmaterial, which now resides in 70 or more Record Offices.At present, Birmingham Library is in the process ofplanning a new archive and this means that they cannot, forthe time being, accept any major deposits unless there is aclear threat to the survival of the material.
For further information, please contact the BHS Archivistby emailing [email protected]
Catalogue overview: MS1865 Acc94/134 BREWERYHISTORY SOCIETY COLLECTION at BCL
The editor of this newsletter is Alan Gall. The next issue will appear in Spring 2010. Prospective copy should be sent to Alan Gall, Tel: 0161 745 7029 (daytime) 01706 344429 (evening) Fax: 0161 745 9649 email: [email protected]: c/o SDA Electronics Ltd, Unit 30, Willan Industrial Estate, Eccles New Road, Salford M50 2GR.
The Hon Secretary of the BAC is Karen Sampson, Head of Archives (London), Lloyds Banking Group Archives, 5th Floor,Princess House, 1 Suffolk Lane, London EC4R 0AX (Tel: +44 (0) 207 489 3945); [email protected].© 2009 Business Archives Council
Government Policy on Archives continued
Springboard
The 13th annual Records Management SocietyConference will take place at the ManchesterCentral Convention Complex from Sunday 21 to
Tuesday 23 March 2010. In keeping with the overall themeof utilising the latest technologies, and a multi-disciplinaryapproach, the Conference title is ‘Springboard’. Keynotespeakers will represent both private and public sectors.
For further information please visit www.rms-gb.org.uk/conference
in archives, according to local need and priorities.
This publication follows an extensive consultation exercisethat took place in summer 2009, generating over 600responses from individuals, organisations and institutionsacross the country. The finished policy incorporates manyof these contributors’ valuable suggestions. Our next stepis to create an action plan and, over the coming months,The National Archives and MLA will discuss and agree adetailed action plan with key stakeholders from all parts ofthe archives sector. The action plan we develop will carryforward the recommendations of the policy that requireGovernment action and is scheduled for publication by theend of January 2010.
With such widespread support received for the policy, wenow want to encourage professional bodies, individualinstitutions and other key stakeholders to get involved in
this process – to help us shape and deliver the workstreams proposed in the action plan. We also hope that thiswill be an opportunity for you to review your own plans,both individually and collectively, against the principles ofArchives for the 21st Century and identify actions you cantake to bring about the policy objectives it identifies,bringing major benefits to the whole sector.
To see the final policy document please visit our website onwww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/policy/Aft21C, and if youhave any questions please don’t hesitate to contact eitherTNA or MLA.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk [email protected] 020 8392 5330
Three Business History Collections DesignatedMoira Lovegrove, The Baring Archive.
Three business archive collection have recently been awarded Designated Status by the Museums, Libraries andArchives Council (MLA). Designated Status recognises the pre-eminent collections held in England’s non-national museums, libraries and archives.
The three collections are:
• The Baring Archive (www.baringarchive.org.uk), whichcontains the business papers of Baring Brothers & Co andhistorical portraits of key figures in the firm’s history. TheArchive contains material of international significance andis a vital resource for economic history and business history.
• Porthcurno Telegraph Museum’s(http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/) core collection ofsubmarine telegraphy objects and the historic archivecollections of key international telegraph cable companies.The collection tells the story of the development ofinternational communication that changed the world.
• Unilever’s archive collections(http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/ourhistory/unilever_archives.aspx), which reflect the global significance of thecompany and its predecessor companies in world trade. Telegram delivery girls in the1940s (Porthcurno collection)
BAC Milestones: 75 and 100
We would like to mark the 75th anniversary of theBAC, in what coincidently will be the 100thissue of Business Archives, by drawing together a
collection of reminiscences. If members would like toshare their memories of the Council (good or bad!) thenplease get in touch with Mike Anson who will be drawingthem together in an article.([email protected])
