All this month's news from The Keep Archive Centre
April 2024
 SxMs13-3-A-1-N-14 Nolan
Collections of letters in archives can be frustrating to researchers as they are so often one-sided.
Very few people keep copies of their own letters, so when we receive someone’s collection it's usually just the letters sent to them, not those they send.
It was therefore extremely exciting when we were offered by her granddaughters - through the amazing efforts of Dr. Anne Byrne, an academic and visitor to our collections for many years - the letters that Leonard Woolf sent to Nancy Nolan from the 1940’s until his death in 1969.
We had already received the letters from Nancy to Leonard, along with Leonard’s other papers, in 1969.
Nancy and Leonard’s wonderful correspondence began in 1943 when Nancy wrote to him asking after a copy of Mrs Dalloway, which she was having problems buying in Ireland.
She was a housewife living in a Dublin suburb, loving books and the works of Woolf, but having no one in her life to talk about them.
Her approach to Leonard, although it started with a ‘fan letter’ about the works of his wife, blossomed into a letter-based friendship, with details of family lives that create a rich picture of Nancy’s life.
Births, marriages, deaths; so much of life is discussed in these letters, accompanied on both sides by photographs of their houses, families, and pets.
Although Leonard and Nancy never met, a suggestion of the importance of their friendship is that during his last illness and after his death, Leonard's friends Virginia Browne-Wilkinson and Trekkie Parsons wrote to Nancy to keep her up to date and then to thank her for the letters, which had brought him a great deal of happiness.
We’re looking forward to seeing what our researchers make of this exciting resource, held in our Leonard Woolf Papers.
 AMS7479
We’ve recently catalogued the archive of Seaford Ladies College.
The collection - with its wealth of illustrations, photographs, registers, magazines, pupils' work and even inspection reports - gives a picture of the daily life of the school.
The early college magazines are handwritten and full of sketches, essays and anecdotes. The illustrations below come from an 1893 edition.
The school was established in 1893 by Miss Hannah Comfort and her assistants, Miss Annie Paine and Miss S A Comfort.
Before moving to The Grange in Eastbourne Road, Seaford in about 1900 the college, then known as Church House School, was based in Beckley.
Hannah Comfort died in 1921 and was replaced as headteacher by Annie Paine. Pupils coined the following epigram as a mark of affection for the two women, 'Miss Comfort pains us, Miss Paine comforts us' and a memorial to them at the school was unveiled on 22 October 1938.
The archive can be ordered and viewed at The Keep.
 AMS 7579/1/2
 R-L-39-2-19
East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office have been undertaking a project to start the process of managing and conserving our digital files.
This digital preservation project involves us taking stock of our digital collections, checking the files are still correctly named, re-organising them if necessary, and uploading them to our digital preservation software.
This process is a lengthy one but will ensure that the digital files we care for are as well looked after as their paper counterparts and predecessors.
Digital files need to be actively preserved to ensure their survival – just leaving them on a hard-drive or uploading them to cloud storage is not enough. They need to be checked for damage, backed up in different locations, and monitored for the future viability of their format.
Over 5,000 are files now available for free online viewing. This is the start of the digital preservation process for ESBHRO and the new online viewing portal, Universal Access, now allows our customers to browse some of our most popular digital files.
 Photographs from the Jeremy Hutchinson QC archive
East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office have been undertaking a project to start the process of managing and conserving our digital files.
This digital preservation project involves us taking stock of our digital collections, checking the files are still correctly named, re-organising them if necessary, and uploading them to our digital preservation software.
This process is a lengthy one but will ensure that the digital files we care for are as well looked after as their paper counterparts and predecessors.
Digital files need to be actively preserved to ensure their survival – just leaving them on a hard-drive or uploading them to cloud storage is not enough. They need to be checked for damage, backed up in different locations, and monitored for the future viability of their format.
Over 5,000 are files now available for free online viewing. This is the start of the digital preservation process for ESBHRO and the new online viewing portal, Universal Access, now allows our customers to browse some of our most popular digital files.
Explore highlights from the Jeremy Hutchinson QC archive at The Keep on Wednesday 17 April.
From correspondence to photographs and ephemera, the archive offers a fascinating glimpse into legal history and the Hutchinson family's association with modernist artists and writers, including Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Duncan Grant, Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington, Henry Tonks and many more.
Dr. Wendy Hitchmough from the University of Sussex, who has extensively utilised the archive for her research, will discuss her findings and the significance of the materials within the collection.
Project Archivist Alexander Taylor will provide an introductory talk, offering valuable insights into the archive's contents and its broader significance. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the displayed materials.
The free event is at The Keep on Wednesday 17 April at 2.30 pm.
Book on Eventbrite.
 AMS 7476 1 1
Two diaries written by Nicolas Oxley, the eldest son of farmer Thomas Oxley at Great Bucksteep near Warbleton during the years 1814-1823 are now held at at The Keep.
Sussex Family History Group approached us late last year to see if we’d be interested in receiving them. The diaries have been treated to some bespoke packaging by our conservation team and are now available to the public.
The diaries cover a thirty-year period, including ‘the year of no summer’ in 1816 when the effects of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia were felt around the world.
Unaware of the volcano, Oxley blamed the inaccuracies of ‘Old Moore’s Almanack’ for the poor weather that blighted the crops.
Other interesting weather phenomena experienced by the family include a rare sighting of the Aurora Borealis. These diaries also give an insight into farming practices on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution.
Our thanks as always to our friends at Sussex Family History Group for helping us preserve the histories of the people of East Sussex.
Find more on the contents of the diaries and the lives of the Oxley family, along with transcripts of the first two years on the Sussex Family History Group website SFHG Nicholas Oxley Diaries.
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Friends of the Keep Archives' new programme of free online talks launches with: 'From Sussex to San Guisto – the last journey of a reluctant Carlist'. The talk by former East Sussex County Archivist Christopher Whittick is on Monday 15 April 2024 at 5.30 pm and will be followed by questions at 6.15pm.
Register on Zoom.
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 March at the Keep started with a zine-making session celebrating International Women’s Day.
Participants learned about feminism rooted in print culture and punk while using Mass Observation material to make their own zine.
The free session was hosted by Bad Taste Collective. East Sussex Record Office put on an accompanying exhibition which featured newsletters from the Brighton Women's Liberation Group and newspaper cuttings from the Women's Liberation Movement, including disruption of the Miss Brighton competition at The Dome in June 1973.
There was also information about suffragette activity in Brighton and an envelope damaged by a corrosive substance put into a letter box by a suffragette in 1913.
March also saw a filming day with the University of Sheffield for a partnership project with Mass Observation and the Historical Association, creating new resources for teaching appeasement studies in schools and colleges.
Eighty Year 9 students from King’s School, Hove, joined us at The Keep for their enrichment day exploring Mass Observation Archive WWII materials.
We have two other students on placement with us from University of Brighton who are supporting us with all our activities.
www.thekeep.info
Woollards Way, Brighton, BN1 9BP
01273 482349
thekeep@eastsussex.gov.uk
Public Visiting Hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 10am-4pm / Thursday & Saturday 10am-1pm
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