A fascinating public exhibition from the National Railway Museum archives

As part of our ongoing series about work placements and public history, second-year HCC student Jack Leather reflects on one of his favourite memories of his time with the National Railway Museum.

During my time on placement at the National Railway Museum there was one exhibit on display that continually caught my attention and has made me interested about the First World War from a different angle I had not considered before. This exhibit was about hospital trains and their usage throughout the First World War in transporting soldiers all across Britain when they had to come home for treatment. 

I found the exhibit fascinating. Firstly, in the respect of what I was able to learn about ambulance trains. Secondly, now with the knowledge of how much work goes into maintaining archives, I have been able to gain such a level of respect for the industry in how the museum was able to put together such a thought-provoking exhibit. 

The exhibit itself consisted of a train carriage which had been re-purposed by the team at the museum to look and show to visitors what an ambulance train during the First World War was like, this ultimately made the exhibit immersive and full credit has to go to the team at the museum for creating such an authentic carriage. Also, on the walls surrounding the carriage was a range of statistics, diary entries, letters, etc. These all helped to explain the importance of ambulance trains during the First World War, not just on a scale in numbers, but also at a personal level with diary entries showing how greatly some soldiers appreciated the treatment they received whilst aboard these trains. 

Whilst my placement was solely focused on working in the archives at the museum, I still got a chance to take in everything the museum does and to appreciate how much work goes into each and everyone of their displays. Without the work of archives and museums I don’t believe that I would have been able to find out about such interesting parts of history that I would never have considered before. Personally, I have always been interested in the First World War but this sort of exhibit has allowed me to be able to learn more about the impact of the war at home and on a personal level through the soldiers and their experiences. 

What interests me even more is knowing that there are so many more parts of history that most people are probably unaware of, such as the ambulance trains, that are just waiting to be uncovered. This thought is something that ultimately drives me in why I enjoy history so much, the thought of finding out something completely unseen before and being the first person to do so. In my opinion, I fell that is what makes working in history so fascinating. 

Unfortunately, the exhibit was taken down during my last week on placement at the museum but I am sure I will be going back at some point to visit and learn about whichever part of history they choose to uncover next. 

The Archive as a Career: Reflecting on a placement in the National Archives

Molly Coatesworth, a second-year HCC student, writes here about their experiences of working at the National Railway Museum‘s extensive and fascinating archive.

The National Railway Museum, York

Throughout the first semester of the second year, we have been undertaking work placements in areas of public history. I had the opportunity to work in a placement that was provided by York St John University at the National Railway Museum. This provided a great opportunity not only to gain experience working in archives but also to develop and further strengthen skills such as Teamwork and communication. Before undertaking the placement, I had interest in working as an archivist or as a curator and this experience has allowed me to see if this was a career path I would still enjoy to go down and it is more so than before. The placement also opened up a different side of volunteering opportunities within archives available within not only the National Railway Museum, but various other Museums as well. I learnt a lot about myself throughout the placement, as it has given me a new experience and the chance to improve and adapt the skills I have to suit the environment I was working in. 

Throughout my time at the National Railway Museum, I worked alongside three other students on different collections within the museum archives and we also had the opportunity to look around the museum during our lunch breaks. The museum itself already holds many memories for me with my grandparents so been able to have the opportunity to complete the work placement at the National Railway Museum is certainly something that has added to not only to my experience but what I have learnt there and thus influenced me as a person. The placement has also given me an insight into the inner working and some behind the scenes of the museum and archiving and just how many people it takes to maintain the museum. 

Before the placement I did not really know much about archiving or what it necessarily entailed, I had done some research on the career and what it would require but not in-depth. However, throughout the placement I was able to acquire this knowledge and some of the skills needed to be an archivist and was also able to then talk to the other staff about the archives and the different areas and roles it entails and have since completed further research around the career and the necessary qualifications required to become an archivist and has made me think more about the future and potential career options. 

The placement has also opened up a different area of history that I haven’t previously looked at and have also learnt through the placement that there is a lot more to the history surrounding the railways such as the lives of people who worked upon them and their stories and thus the importance of the railway to society within history. 

A Virtual, Practical Placement at the National Railway Museum

2021 offered particular challenges to our wonderful second years on History, Community, and Culture, and to our placement providers – some of the most innovative and renowned across York’s heritage sector. In the first of our annual series, Samuel Huish writes about his experiences of archival work with the National Railway Museum, where he put his historian skills to the test with transcribing letters.

Letter, Robert Stephenson to Henry Kingsford of Canterbury & Whitstable Railway, in pursuance of agreement between the directors of the company and his father, George Stephenson. Letter written 12 June 1830 at Newcastle upon Tyne. This image is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence

This past semester I have been working in a placement provided by the university at the National Railway Museum in York. The main focus of the work there was to develop archival skills through the research and interpretation of a set of sources. My interest in becoming a museum curator in the future, something which has developed since the start of my time at university, has definitely grown as a result of this placement. The skills I have learnt will definitely assist in my understanding of a museum workplace, as will the people I have met.

To get into the specifics of the work done, I shall focus on a single object of the five I studied virtually. A letter from Robert Stephenson, the son of George Stephenson, and equally well renowned for his engineering prowess. The letter contains a discussion on an agreement between Robert and the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. The agreement relates to specific parts to build a stationary engine. There is also a section of the letter on the second page discussing the recent staffing changes that took place. It is an important object to have studied as the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway was the first railway to have regular passenger trains taken by locomotives across its line. The importance also comes from how close this letter was written to the time of the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. The letter was written on the 12th of June 1830, the line had opened the same year. The famous train ‘Invicta’, sister train to the equally famous ‘Rocket’ ran on this line as the main engine for assisting with steep hill climbs.

I am only able to discuss and describe all the above information because of the work I have done during my placement. The letter initially had no transcript when I began work on it. With some basic guidance from the National Railway Museum, I worked to produce one, and this is another skill I believe to have developed. Transcription work has its difficulties, for example remembering not to correct anything you see that appears incorrect. Of course though, this is not always the case. At the beginning of the letter, I occasionally struggled to decipher the almost two century old writing due to the virtual nature of the placement. However, through persistence I was able to gradually familiarise myself with this writing style and the handwriting itself, allowing for a clearer understanding of the item.

Once the transcript was completed I could complete the research, much of the result of which is in the earlier paragraph. It was sometimes difficult to know when to stop the research and to focus on the next item, but this again is something I learnt as I progressed through the objects. An interesting aspect that came from the research was my engagement with another museum on the item. The Whitstable Community Museum & Gallery has a particular interest in this letter due to its

importance to the railway. Having this line of communication is another useful practice to learn for a future in curation. Learning so many skills here, through enacting them in relation to these items, has provided a way for me to learn so much about archival work, and prepared me for my future

Read All About It: True Crime comes to the NRM!

In this post, second year history student Thomas Mann writes about his placement at the National Railway Museum in York. As part of our employability module History, Community and Culture, Thomas conducted a project placement at the museum, which entailed setting up an exhibition on historical crime and crime fighting.

Picture the scene: York Railway station c. 1890.

A young man is running along the platform edge, through the mist and smog of the steam engines. Not to catch a train like the other commuters but instead to escape the two police constables chasing after him brandishing their lightweight but effective batons. Their darkened helmet badges had done their jobs well- allowing them to wait in the shadows for an opportunistic criminal to lift a suitcase from a luggage rack and attempt to scarper. They apprehend him by knocking him to the floor with the well decorated weapons, removing a bit of paintwork from the intricately designed gold crown in the process. Justice had prevailed once again.

This scene was played out every hour of every day across Victorian railway stations, inspiring the formation of both the British Transport Police and a new type of crime genre: railway crime. From Agatha Christies’ Murder on the Orient Express to The Girl on the Train which hit cinemas last year our imaginations have been sparked by what could happen between A and B. So much so, that the National Railway Museum have set up an exhibit on real life crime and crime fighting. And it was here that I completed my placement for the History, Community and Culture module.

One thing that sets the exhibit apart from any other is the fact the museum encourages its visitors to handle and use the artefacts within its collection, instead of them being seen behind a glass cabinet. You can handle the policeman’s truncheon and inspect the signs of damage and left to wonder as to who ‘Inspector S’ was (turns out he wasn’t anyone, the S stands for ‘Southern Division’). Or instead try on a pair of handcuffs if your wrists fit (be careful though, as no one is quite sure where the key is). Finally, you can use these objects to channel your inner Miss Marple and write your own crime report on a genuine 1920s era Remmington Typewriter, which are a lot more fun than they might seem. All this was a definite highlight of my time at the museum and I can’t wait to carry on for the rest of the season.