Blog

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

Caring for our collections during lockdown

by Fran Coles, Conservation and Documentation Manager Although we’re currently closed, our museum collections still need looking after. Maintenance of our buildings is essential work and a skeleton crew of staff are carrying out a variety of essent…

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

How can 200 year old paintings get us talking about climate change?

by Jenny Gaschke, curator of Fine Art The coronavirus pandemic has triggered an unexpected improvement in UK air quality as daily carbon emissions have fallen. We can feel the difference in Bristol too. A month before the UK lockdown began, climate …

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

Penelope Chetwode and ‘the perfect ADC’ (personal assistant)

by Pat Ellingham, Archives volunteer Our volunteer, Pat Ellingham, found this story of the young Penelope Chetwode (later Lady Betjeman) in the photograph albums of Geoffrey Kellie, part of the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection. There’s a defin…

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

The Bristol Blitz: Using Bristol’s oral history collection in the classroom

by Lucy Fulton, engagement officer in the formal learning team Before the lockdown started, strange words were heard in some Bristol classrooms. These included incendiary bombs, barrage balloons and the anti-aircraft gun, ‘Big Bertha’. These words all c…

Posted on May 21, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

A House Through Time: Bristol’s archives take starring role in BBC series

by Jo Vietze, former Senior Archivist The third series of the BBC’s A House Through Time begins next week. Following examination of houses in Newcastle and Liverpool, this year David Olusoga and his team trace the history of a house in Bristol &#821…

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

Unlocking Our Sound Heritage: Evacuees in St Levan

by Cara Powell, Unlocking Our Sound Heritage volunteer Cara Powell is completing her BA in History at the University of the West of England. The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage team were lucky enough to have her as a volunteer in 2019-20. Cara worked on a nu…

Posted on May 16, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

Birds and words: How to make an origami crane

by Ailsa Richardson, engagement officer for older people Although we are unable to run Creative Cafés at the museum right now, we have sent out some birds and words for participants to hang in their windows. These are individual gifts for residents l…

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

Dying Matters: A grief trail

by Lisa Graves, curator of world cultures This week is Dying Matters awareness week – a national campaign to encourage people to talk about death, dying or grief. Everything has changed. Our daily lives are transformed, possibly forever. We are al…

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

Listen to 40 years of art & artists from the Arnolfini archive

by David, Sam and Philippa, from the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project The first collection held by Bristol Archives that Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) digitised was from Arnolfini, Bristol’s contemporary arts centre. 40 years of artists’ ta…

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Lauren MacCarthy.

Bristol’s VE Day celebrations brought to life

On Friday 8 May, we mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day – the end of the Second World War in Europe. On Tuesday 8 May 1945, celebrations took place across the country and Bristol was no exception. Two different audio-visual archives from Brist…

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