by Samuel Bates, Audio Digitisation Engineer Sometimes, the problem you expect is not the problem you end up with. On the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project, we are preserving thousands of at-risk audio items. We have cassettes and open-reel tapes,…
As you may know by now, we have closed all of our museums to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In the meantime, we are doing all we can to make Bristol’s museum collections available online for our audiences at home and around the world. We’ll b…
By Graham Tratt, Archivist The records of Arnos Vale Cemetery are now available for research at Bristol Archives. The collection documents how this Victorian cemetery developed and records the generations of Bristol people laid to rest in its groun…
by Nicky Sugar, Archivist Throughout 2019, staff from the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives worked on a project to open up access to some of our oldest photographic collections. This was generously funded by the Paul Me…
by Jayne Pucknell, Archivist The digitising of some of our most important or unusual films from the British Empire and Commonwealth film collection started in July 2019, and will run to autumn 2020. We have around 2,000 films in the British Empire and C…
by Mike Hatcher, Unlocking Our Sound Heritage volunteer Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) volunteer Mike Hatcher hears about life in an idyllic spot on the edge of Lake Tanganyika – and the father and son who documented it in a local newsp…
by Hugh Manistre, Unlocking Our Sound Heritage volunteer Ludwig Koch’s Memoirs of a Birdman describe how he made the first ever audio recordings of birdsong. When he was eight, Koch was given a phonograph by his father and began making wax cy…
by Pat Ellingham, Archives volunteer I’ve been travelling to India for over 20 years and love the culture and landscape of this astonishing country. It’s one of the reasons why my role as a volunteer on the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection at…
The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project will save and make available to the public almost half a million rare and unique recordings at risk of being lost.