Posted on January 16, 2025 by Fay Whitfield.

Exploring the Empire: My Work Placement at the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection

By Justine Aleria, University of Bristol Department of Anthropology and Archaeology work placement (2024) As an Anthropology and Archaeology student at the University of Bristol, an interest in histories of empire and colonialism comes with the t…

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Fay Whitfield.

Researching Art, Sculpture, Design and Print using the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection

By Ellie Pridgeon, BECC Senior Archivist I have learnt much about British Empire & Commonwealth Collection (BECC) and its diverse and fascinating contents since joining as Senior Archivist in September 2023. Having a background History of Art mean…

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Fay Whitfield.

Jessica Ashman- “Those that do not smile will kill me”: Decolonising Jamaican Flora

Artist Jessica Ashman discusses her new commission with museum curators Rhian Rowson (Natural History) and Julia Carver (Art). Julia Carver: Can you tell us about the University of the Arts Decolonising Arts Institute’s 20/20 programme? Jessica Ashm…

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Fay Whitfield.

Keeping connected with the BECC online catalogue

By Frances Davies, Documentation Assistant, British Empire & Commonwealth Collection Back in 2021 we launched a new British Empire & Commonwealth Collection (BECC) online catalogue – it acts as the gateway and first-port-of-call to find out wha…

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Fay Curtis.

A daring expedition over Everest

By Eve Andreski, BECC Documentation Assistant A new accession to the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection (BECC) recalls a ground-breaking feat! 90 years ago today, on 3 April 1933, the first flight expedition over Everest prepared to embark. Two …

Posted on March 21, 2023 by Fay Curtis.

“I was lucky enough to escape”: the WW1 diary of Dr Gordon Covell

By Eve Andreski, BECC Documentation Assistant The British Empire and Commonwealth Collection (BECC) cares for many diaries and letters. These reveal the inner thoughts of people who lived through momentous events. One such person, Dr Gordon Covell, s…

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Alice Bush.

Spotlight on: Jonathan Adagogo Green

Spotlight compiled by Eve Andreski, Documentation Assistant. To coincide with Black History Month, the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection (BECC) team wanted to focus on an important series of images within the archive. The Jones collectio…

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Fay Curtis.

“The eager amateur photographers amongst the crew”: HMS Dauntless in the 1930s

By Pat Ellingham, British Empire and Commonwealth Collection volunteer I’ve just completed a virtual voyage round the coastline of the Americas, popping into the East and West Indies and navigating the Panama Canal twice. All this is thanks to Able S…

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Fay Curtis.

Film digitisation project: Re-discovering archive footage

by Jayne Pucknell, archivist with the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection We’re pleased to say we have now completed our film digitisation project! We have been working with our partners at Nulight Studios, to scan and digitally preserve some k…

Posted on May 24, 2022 by Alice Bush.

Cataloguing the archives of the Royal British Legion Kenya Branch

by Matthew Hallows, MA Curating student at the University of the West of England Matt spent his placement with the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection. He helped to catalogue an extensive collection of documents from the Royal British Legion in …

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