Being amongst the first to investigate the contents of an archive collection is a rare treat and one that second year student, Alisha Oliver, has found fascinating. Here, she shares some highlights from the experience of investigating almost 100 years of records from the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
Archives are often an under-appreciated and overlooked part of society. Few people outside of the history sector may actually be aware of how much archives can hold, cover, and preserve. The delicate creases of paper tinted with age, tears from years of handling; reading the scrawled handwriting, deciphering in the information that was once part of someone’s life. History often feels so far away, but archives are physical evidence of human existence that came before us. The past provokes our curiosity, although for a while it may seem like words on a page, or an event told on a television screen. Archives can allow history to exist in a state of realism, offering a different kind of nostalgia bathed in poignancy.
The archives are bigger than we are, and that’s something I have certainly learned in recent months. As a part of the second-year module History, Community and Culture, I was one of six lucky students to be selected for a placement at the Borthwick Institute for Archives. This was a very exciting and unique opportunity, since they had just acquired a brand-new collection of archives from the local Joseph Rowntree Theatre. Potentially hundreds of documents and files sat untouched, waiting to be rediscovered. It was our task to box-list the archives and explore what had been left to collect dust for perhaps decades for the very first time. For me personally, as it was a placement that intertwined two of my interests – history and theatre – closely together, I was very intrigued by a lot of the content.
Modernity came hand in hand with history as the archive allowed me to develop my spreadsheet skills to detail and comprise information on each of the boxes we were given, while condensing the vast contents of boxes I was looking through. We were taught how to carefully and appropriately handle the archives, and it was honestly a lot more of an intricate job than I had initially imagined, right down to the ideal temperature for archives being around 15 degrees Celsius. My appreciation for archival work has been widened significantly by this experience, and I have definitely learned a lot that I will value after my time at the Borthwick.
The archives included colourful, sometimes beautifully designed programmes for shows, from plays to musicals, to concerts, to dance recitals. There were famous productions like Shakespeare, Peter Pan, Sweeney Todd and My Fair Lady, just to name a few popular examples. Even a musical of Anne of Green Gables, something I was particularly enthralled by. There were also smaller, more independent productions, or compilations that pulled songs from various musicals. Something I also noted was a play about famous Tudor figure Thomas More: ‘A Man For All Seasons’.
The Rowntree Theatre had links with certain local organisations that perpetuated through many years, including York St John’s own Musical Theatre Production society, which appeared in documents from the 1990s. Carpet samples, whole scripts or snippets from them, lighting manuals and instructions, negotiation letters and diaries… the variety that the archives hold is immense. Every week, there was a thrill of being excitedly uncertain of what you’d be looking at. I was able to gain an insight into the typical office and admin work for the theatre, but also instructions given to costuming departments and maintenance. It allowed me to really think and appreciate how a business like that is run for nearly a century. So much history and so many productions put on at the theatre – it’s a little difficult to comprehend. And of course, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre is still standing strong today, so to say I am a part of its archive is a special thing.
There was one document from that very first week that really caught my eye – I found within the archives a programme for ‘A Blackpool Night Out’, presented by York Hammond Organ Society. The programme is signed by the stars of the show, Ernest Broadbent, Barbara Simpson, and Ernest Clough; as well as a postcard inside also signed by Simpson. Detailed inside the programme, Broadbent was an extremely talented musician with credits for orchestration, scoring, harmonising and arranging; Simpson and Clough, “at the height of their careers”, were well-renowned singers. Celebrity culture and autographs have always been a big part of society, and there was something about this document that felt quite special. I felt a physical connection to these people through a simple piece of card. Perhaps it was the effortlessly drawn section of music by Broadbent, it was just fascinating to see and hold in person.
Overall, I have learned and developed many skills that will be beneficial to my future moving on from the placement project. But, what may be the significant part of my learning journey, is definitely my understanding of archives and their prevalent importance in both past and present, nostalgia and legacy. The Rowntree Theatre’s archives are extensive and crucial in materialising its history, and the same can be applied across all archival matters.
YSJU: History, War Studies and American Studies 