Guest Blogs

Student Volunteering in the University of Exeter’s Special Collections

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As this week is Student Volunteering Week, we are celebrating our amazing student volunteers: Charlie, Ted, Esme and Mitch!

Volunteers make an invaluable contribution towards Special Collections, enabling us to extend the work that can be done by our team, and making our collections more accessible for people to use and enjoy. Volunteering is unpaid, but can offer a wide range of benefits to those who generously volunteer their time with us, including the opportunity to get hands-on with unique collections, to develop new skills and knowledge, and to gain valuable experience which can improve employability.

For the academic year 2024-2025, Special Collections has been delighted to welcome four student volunteers to our team: two Exhibitions Volunteers and two Collections Care Volunteers. The Exhibitions Volunteers have been working with a member of Special Collections staff to plan and co-curate an exhibition of Special Collections materials. The Collections Care Volunteers have been working with a member of Special Collections staff to repackage archive materials into new housing suitable for long-term preservation.

Charlie, Ted, Esme and Mitch have kindly agreed to share some of their experiences of volunteering with Special Collections below. The Special Collections team would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their fantastic work, enthusiasm and dedication.

Charlie (Exhibitions Volunteer)

Malleus Maleficarum (Baring-Gould Library 0495)

Since October, I have been fortunate enough to work as an Exhibitions Volunteer with the University’s Special Collections. The role involved many happy afternoons sifting through archival materials in the Ronald Duncan Reading Room, selecting several to display and discuss in an upcoming exhibition on magic and law in the Forum Library. The Special Collections house a number of extraordinarily significant items relating to the history of magic, including a personal favourite; a 1588 copy of the Malleus Maleficarum (Baring-Gould Library 0495), a foundational text for the witch-hunt craze in Europe and North America. Copied 102 years after its initial publication, the worn binding bears witness to the respect afforded to the text – and, therefore, is a sharp reminder of the devastating consequences of its contents. Indeed, engaging with the material aspects of manuscripts and learning what this communicates about the owner, the environment, or the cultural significance of the object and others like it has been my favourite experience. It makes history tangible, so learning how to handle archival material has been invaluable. It has also been exciting to use one manuscript to learn about another, connecting the dots between the available items to create a complete historical picture to present. The Malleus, for example, can somehow be mentioned alongside a pamphlet concerning the Bideford witch trials, almost 400 years its junior! In short, creating an exhibition for the Special Collections has been great fun and a massive privilege, and I’m excited to present my findings.  

Ted (Exhibitions Volunteer):

Items from the Jack Clemo literary and personal papers (EUL MS 68)

As a Special Collections Exhibitions Volunteer, I am currently creating an exhibition regarding the life of Jack Clemo (1916-1994), utilising the archives’ considerable collection of: letters and diaries, as well as deeply sentimental objects such as love letters and dog fluff. A religious poet, Clemo remains highly praised for visionary writing on mysticism that was noted for its visceral realism. Set within the backdrop of Cornwall’s clay mining pits, Clemo invoked a “clear, fiery vision” and was referred to by A.L. Rowse as the “progeny… of Thomas Hardy”. This realism and clarity of vision are even more remarkable when considering that Clemo was completely deaf and blind for the vast majority of his adult life; although he was quick to point out that he became blind after the release of his early works. Exploring the Clemo archive within Special Collections offers a remarkable insight into the life of a firebrand poet with a fierce spiritual vision, who was able to write with grounded realism even after his senses had been lost.

Esme (Collections Care Volunteer):

I have loved my experience working as a Collections Care volunteer at the university’s Special Collections. This role has given me a great opportunity to see behind-the-scenes of how an archive operates and the intricacies of managing rare and unique materials. One project I have particularly enjoyed was cleaning and repackaging Alfred William Clapham’s postcard collection, which contained over 2300 postcards of notable landmarks and buildings across Britain. In the process of repackaging, I was also able to read correspondence from as early as 1903, and I enjoyed the detective work of finding the locations of landmarks that Clapham hadn’t been able to locate pre-internet. I was also able to help with the catalogue information for this collection, improving accuracy through counting the postcards and noting dates where they were available. My most recent project has been listing items that were recently collected from the St Luke’s Library, and it has been fascinating to read student periodicals from the 1970s-1990s and gauge their opinions on student life. These items will join the University Archive.

Working in the archives has also allowed me to explore other materials for my own interests, such as Francis James Child’s collection of English and Scottish Ballads, which I enjoyed writing a blog post about. I have also been able to make use of archive resources for my degree, and viewing primary sources in the Special Collections has been invaluable to extending my understanding of material and print cultures and the importance of archives. I would thoroughly recommend volunteering in the Special Collections to anyone interested in these materials, as you get to work with a lovely group of people and gain knowledge about so many different aspects of the work that goes into maintaining these resources.

Mitch (Collections Care Volunteer):

It’s not often that you can approach the curtain of your university programme and peek behind the fabric of journals, articles, and academic excess. The production of knowledge can seem so glossy that you might forget that it must come from somewhere, with brilliant people working tirelessly to categorise, organise, and research the raw materials required for its shine. The University of Exeter’s Special Collections team gave me just that opportunity, and I doubt I’ll ever look at my set-readings in quite the same way.  

I applied for the volunteering position because I wanted experience. What experience, exactly? Well, I didn’t quite mind. When studying in the Humanities, job prospects are always in doubt, and so hands get grabby when it comes to opportunities. Of course, I expected the volunteering would give me some experience in archiving, but I hardly knew what that meant. An archive recalls arcane, moss-covered temples with devout robe-wearing scholars meticulously sorting a mine of knowledge, and I’ve largely found that despite a notable lack of moss and robes, that’s not altogether false! 

My time with Special Collections has been spent growing familiar with the archive’s wealth of facilities, resources, and rituals. Under the supervision of James, I have developed the skills to handle a range of manuscripts and rare books, repackaging them, and marking them up for storage. My time with James has involved working on the Middle East Collections, becoming not only familiar with the processes of handling and repackaging, but the collection itself. Every step of the way, James talked me through the contexts of manuscripts, and the lives of their predecessors, working to break the sterility of work through an engagement with the cultural artefacts as they passed through my hands.  

The Jean Trevor archive has been one of particular interest for me. The opportunity to understand her documents through the context of her life and legacy, and all the while gaining access to her research on rural Nigerian populations and their lived experiences, has been intellectually enriching. Her connection to the University of Exeter was especially attractive, inviting the sense that I was engaging in a localised academic community, albeit in a small way. It has been a pleasure to repackage and sort her notes and research.  

Finally, I would recommend the volunteering programme to anyone looking to enrich their engagement with the academy and knowledge studies. The Special Collections archive offers their volunteers the opportunity to see knowledge-production in action, while gaining valuable skills in handling and repackaging fascinating material. Not only that, but I believe the work has clarified potential career choices for me and birthed a wealth of new perspectives on the Culture and Heritage sector. Thank you to both Annie and James for your ongoing support. 

Special Collections runs a small volunteering programme, which currently accepts up to four volunteers for time-limited projects (usually three to six months). The volunteering programme is open to university students and staff, as well as members of the public. New volunteering opportunities in Special Collections are advertised at the beginning of the Autumn Term (see University term dates), with any additional spaces being advertised as they become available. Find out more on our Volunteering webpage.

Guest Blog Post: Exploring Connections Between Sabine Baring-Gould and F.J. Child

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By Esme Thompsett, Collections Care Volunteer

This week marks the birthdays of two traditional song scholars with names familiar to anyone interested in folk music, Sabine Baring-Gould and Francis James Child. While volunteering in the University of Exeter’s Special Collections, I was delighted to discover that we had Baring-Gould’s own copies of Child’s The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, and so for this occasion it only seemed right to highlight the correspondence and collaboration between the two.  

Child’s 10-volume series is regarded as one of the most important works in traditional song and ballad scholarship, and in the course of exploring the 305 ‘Child Ballads’ he details many song variants, found in both printed forms such as broadsides, and in those from the oral tradition that have been shared with him by song collectors. Baring-Gould was an avid collector himself across Devon and Cornwall, and his work Songs and Ballads of the West was published between 1889-91. Around this time, there is evidence of correspondence between the two, with Baring-Gould offering Child South West variants and additions to songs he included in earlier volumes. In the preface to the seventh volume, Child writes that “The Rev. S. Baring-Gould has done me the great favour of furnishing me with copies of traditional ballads and songs taken down by him in the West of England,” and he similarly offers Baring-Gould “very cordial thanks” in his eighth volume, which is where the majority of Baring-Gould’s contributions feature.  

Perhaps his most significant contribution is that of the ballad “Henry Martyn,” which Baring-Gould, in a letter from the 6th June 1890, remarks “is doubtless Andrew Barton,” Child ballad number 167. While Child remarks that “Henry Martyn” “must have sprung from the ashes of Andrew Barton” (393) he nonetheless includes it in his collection, where it is Child number 250. Baring-Gould’s version becomes Child’s ‘A’ variant of the text, and Child makes use of two versions which Baring-Gould collected, from Matthew Baker of Lew Down, Devon, and Roger Luxton of Halwell, North Devon.  

As well as the addition of a new ballad, Child also includes a section of “Additions and Corrections” at the end of this eighth volume, and many of Baring-Gould’s contributions can be found here, drawing directly from traditional singers of the South West. For Child number 78, “The Unquiet Grave,” Baring-Gould writes to Child in 1892 with a version he collected featuring “two stanzas in it new to me,” and Child illustrates these variants, writing, “The Rev. S. Baring-Gould has recovered several copies of ‘The Unquiet Grave’ in the West Country. It will be observed that the variations in this ballad do not take a wide range. The verses are not always sung in the same order; there is not story enough to keep them in place” (474).  

 As well as including variants of songs collected from traditional singers, Baring-Gould also shares other folk customs with Child. For “The Elfin Knight,” Child adds a note in his “Additions and Corrections” to include Baring-Gould’s description of a practice “from the North of Cornwall, near Camelford … now quite discontinued,” where the song is used “as a sort of game in farm-houses” (439). These examples demonstrate the impact that Baring-Gould’s work had on Child’s scholarship, allowing traditional singers of the South West to contribute to this seminal work.  

If you are interested in exploring these items further, the full 10 volumes of the Child Ballads are held by the University of Exeter’s Special Collections, and you can find details on the library catalogue here.

The correspondence between Baring-Gould and Child has been digitised and is available for all to view on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.

And, most importantly, happy 191st birthday to Sabine Baring-Gould, and happy 200th birthday to Francis James Child! 

Student Newspapers, Section 28, and LGBTQ+ Life at Exeter – guest blog by Chloë Edwards

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This year, in collaboration with the Section 28 and Its Afterlives project, Special Collections was pleased to welcome Chloë Edwards on an internship to explore student publications in the University Archive to find out what they can tell us about LGBTQ+ lives and the impact of Section 28 at the University. Below, Chloë shares her findings.

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The Background of the Project

I was delighted to be offered an archival internship with the Section 28 and Its Afterlives project team and the University Library’s Special Collections. Section 28 of the Local Government Act, in place from 1988 until 2000 in Scotland, and until 2003 in England and Wales, prohibited local authorities from “promoting homosexuality” as a “pretended family relationship”. This National Lottery Heritage funded project explores the impact of Section 28 and its consequences on local lives in the South West.

My role involved searching for articles and discussions pertaining to Section 28 in Exeter’s student publications, a task which had struck a chord with me for several reasons. Firstly, owing to its proximity to my ongoing PhD research for my thesis entitled Listen Without Prejudice: Queer Masculinities in the Popular Music Cultures of Thatcher’s Britain. Secondly, as a woman from Cardiff, I am always supportive of projects unearthing LGBTQ+ histories and experiences beyond the largest urban spaces across the nation. Lastly, I happened to write and edit articles for Exeter’s current student publication, Exeposé, for two years as an undergraduate. Collectively, as a result, I was eager to begin poring over back issues of Exeposé and its predecessors, as valued records of the lives and concerns of local undergraduates who have progressed through the university.

After discussion with the Section 28 and Its Afterlives team and Special Collections archivist Annie Price, I began my research into Exeter’s student newspapers. We had decided to begin my research at the point at which the Sexual Offences Act 1967 partially decriminalised sex between men over the age of 21 in England and Wales. This origin point meant that I could begin my research with a thorough overview of the documentation of attitudes and legislative changes to gay and queer lives in the UK leading up to the enactment of Section 28 in 1988.

The Early Thatcher Years & Gay Lives on Campus

The South Westerner was the chief campus paper at the time of the Sexual Offences Act’s passing in 1967. Running up until 1979, the year in which Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister, several articles and excerpts reflect the atmosphere and attitudes of Exeter’s students to LGBTQ+ lives and rights in the years following the legislative change. Initially, letters and articles covered the tearing down of GaySoc posters around campus; gradually, there appears to be an ongoing shift in willingness to discuss and support gay students in Exeter. GaySoc, an ancestor to the current University of Exeter LGBTQ+ Society, was increasingly active in these years, organising events around the university and city in a move towards community building, seen in an advert for a former club near the Quay that hosted a bespoke disco night (fig. 1).

Figure 1: Routes Advert, The South Westerner, 22 February 1979, p. 3, Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/SOU, South Westerner 1978-1980 (accessed 21st February 2024).

Figure 2: Mark Hubbard, ‘Gay Pride in ‘85’, Signature, Summer 1985, p. 6, Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/SIG, Signature 1983-85 (accessed 27th February 2024).’

A few years after the last issue of The South Westerner was published, its successor Signature debuted on campus in 1983. As the Thatcher years progress, the paper includes more features with members of GaySoc, as well as features around London Pride in 1985 (fig. 2), and growing awareness surrounding the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, including a cover feature from December 1986, which, notably, preceded the government’s own public information campaign in 1987.

Section 28 and Exeposé

Following the passing of Section 28 in 1988, the early issues of the university’s current student publication, Exeposé, reveal a pivotal decade in which LGBTQ+ visibility grows even as it is being legislated against. GaySoc evolves into Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Society, and the Guild comes to include both the elected position of Lesbian and Gay Rights Officer and an annual Lesbian and Gay Rights Week. For 1990’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Week, Exeposé listed the events planned by the Lesbian and Gay Officer as a cover feature. Alongside film screenings, the Week included a talk on Section 28 and education, highlighting the concern of students about the law and their university teaching (figs. 3 and 4). Notably, in figure 4, the placement of the week’s events also advertises a demonstration against the proposed Poll Tax of 1990, indicating the socio-political issues on the minds of Exeter’s students at this point.

Unknown, ‘Cover – It’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Week, Exeposé, 15th October 1990, p. 1, Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/EXEPOSE, Exeposé, 1990-1993 (accessed 19th March 2024).

Figure 4: Unknown, ‘Listings – Lesbian and Gay Rights Week’, Exeposé, 15th October 1990, p. 1, Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/EXEPOSE, Exeposé, 1990-1993 (accessed 19th March 2024).

The following year’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Awareness Week was covered in Exeposé with an article outlining its significance in the context of the restrictions of Section 28 and its impact (fig. 5). Throughout the 1990s, several recurring names within articles ensured that the frustration and inequality brought about by Section 28 was not forgotten. In 1993, lesbian, gay and bisexual students lobbied Parliament in a protest that made front-page news on the subsequent issue of Exeposé (fig. 6) and joined a candle-lit vigil in London urging the government to reduce the age of consent for gay men. A specific weekly Nightline evening for queer students also sought to provide a local helpline for Exeter’s students. By this point, too, it appears that the Safe Sex Ball was an event held on 1st December, World AIDS Day, with proceeds going to local charities such as the Devon HIV Association (fig. 7).

In the wider Exeter area, the 1997 General Election indicated a significant shift in attitudes evident in the articles published in student newspapers just a few decades prior. The election of the current Exeter Labour MP, Ben Bradshaw, was recorded as a victory over “bigotry”, and, as seen in figure 8, an Exeposé interview with Bradshaw offered a moment of reflection on the landscape of LGBTQ+ rights towards the end of the twentieth century.

Figure 5: Daron Oram, ‘Lesbian and Gay Awareness Week’, Exeposé, March 1991, n. pag., Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/EXEPOSE, Exeposé, 1990-1993 (accessed 20th March 2024).

Figure 6: Rob Dicken, ‘Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Students Lobby Parliament’, Exeposé, 1st March 1993, p. 1, Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/EXEPOSE, Exeposé, 1990-1993 (accessed 20th March 2024).

Figure 7: Unknown, ‘Sex, Drugs, and HIV’, Exeposé, 28th November 1994, p. 1, Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/EXEPOSE, Exeposé 1994-1996 (accessed 25th March 2024).

Figure 8: Susie West, ‘A triumph for reason over bigotry’, Exeposé,12th May – 25th May 1997, p. 3, Exeter University Special Collections, Exeter University/EXEPOSE, Exeposé 1996-1998 (accessed 26th March 2024).

Only in 2003 was Section 28 fully repealed, with its ripples palpable long after its scrapping. The student publications held in the Special Collections on campus offer a vivid, important record of the effects of the changing landscape of LGBTQ+ lives and rights in the local area, and those at the university who were campaigning for equality, acceptance, and action within some of the darkest moments of recent national queer history. The papers allow us to see changes within the community as well, as GaySoc grew into the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Society by the 1990s, and ultimately into the LGBTQ+ Society that is with us today.

By Chloë Edwards (pronouns: she/her/hers)
Doctoral Researcher (Art History & Visual Culture)
Postgraduate Teaching Associate
Research Culture Assistant, HASS PGR Gender & Sexuality Research Network
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of Exeter

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The Section 28 and its afterlives project is co-led by Helen Birkett, Chris Sandal-Wilson, and Hannah Young in the Department of Archaeology and History at the University of Exeter. As well as supporting archival research into the South West’s LGBTQ+ history, the project team are conducting oral histories with LGBTQ+ people in the South West across 2024 with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. You can find out more about the project, including how to share your own stories of Section 28, here.

If you are interested in exploring LGBTQ+ history, you can find out more about resources in the University of Exeter’s Heritage Collections in the  LGBTQ+ Research Resources guide.

‘It was an amazing experience to handle books that have been used for centuries before me!’; Reflections on volunteering with Special Collections by Viktor Speredelozzi

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Example of mirror writing in ‘Processionale’ [EUL MS 262/1, f. 128v]

Over the past year, student Viktor Speredelozzi has been volunteering with Special Collections. Viktor used his knowledge of Latin and the medieval period to analyse medieval manuscripts in the Syon Abbey Collection and identify details – such as historiated initials and marginalia – to add to the notes section of the already existing catalogue descriptions for each manuscript. Below Viktor shares some of his impressions and reflections on the experience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Viktor for his excellent work and wish him every success for the future.

For the 2022-2023 school year I was privileged enough for the opportunity to volunteer at the University of Exeter’s special collections. My duty was cataloguing Syon Abbey’s mediaeval manuscripts. Syon Abbey belonged to the Bridgettine Order. It was the only Bridgettine house for women in England. It was really fascinating to work with these manuscripts, piece together how they were made, and how they might have been used by the nuns.

Historiated initial showing the Virgin Mary in ‘Horae’ [EUL MS 262/2, f. 69v]

I’ve been able to look at a lot of mediaeval manuscripts during my studies at Exeter. I’ve looked at manuscripts online and in person at the Exeter Cathedral, Oxford, Stockholm, and Munich. Manuscripts commonly have red rubrication to mark paragraphs. However, Syon Abbey is unique in its use of yellow ink for rubrication. This collection is also special in its use of charming little human profiles on some of the letters. It’s always a treat to find one!

EUL MS 262/1 is one of the manuscripts I catalogued. It is a processional and contains an example of mirror writing on folio 128v. No other catalogues mentioned that was in the manuscript, so it was really cool to find something that others had missed.

EUL MS 262/2 is small, but the art is still incredibly detailed. It contains many historiated initials of the Virgin Mary and an unidentified woman (possibly Mary Magdalen?), calling attention to the fact this manuscript was made for and used by nuns. The Virgin Mary and the other woman both wear beautiful clothes with gold embroidery. The colours are still incredibly vibrant despite being made centuries ago.

Obit of Sister Alice Langton in ‘Horae’ [EUL MS 262/2, f 3r]

The archives welcome classes of students to come see the manuscripts. During one class, Professor Catherine Rider pointed out Sister Alice’s obituary to me. On folio 3r, of EUL MS 262/2 the calendar documents Sister Alice Langton (one of the nuns) died in 1491. This is just one example of how the nuns used the manuscripts. Perhaps Sister Alice’s fellow nuns added her name in this manuscript because it was one of her favourites as a way to celebrate her life.

I really enjoyed cataloguing seven of Syon Abbey’s manuscripts this school year. It was an amazing experience to handle books that have been used for centuries before me!

 

‘It was almost like time-travelling…’: Reflections on a week of work experience in Special Collections

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We were delighted to be joined last week by Year 12 student Jack for a week of work experience in Special Collections. Below Jack shares some of his impressions and reflections on the experience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Jack for his excellent work and wish him every success for the future.

I began my work experience week in Special Collections with a tour of the Old Library, which is in some ways quite maze-like, but I found that around every corner there was something interesting to look at or read. I was pleasantly surprised at how huge some of the strongrooms were and the sheer amount of literature that was in each one. I also met some members of the Special Collections team who were all very welcoming and kind. In the afternoon I helped to set up a literary visit for the Exeter U3A (University of the Third Age) and then supervised the event with one of the Archivists, my Supervisor, Annie and one of the Special Collections Team Leaders, Sarah-Jayne. At first I found the event quite daunting as I did not know much about the source material they were showcasing. However, it was inspiring, in a way, to see so many people so enthusiastic about South-West writers and I found it easier to talk with the visitors about some aspects of the literature on display. 

Theatre Royal (Exeter) playbills collection (EUL MS 202)

On Tuesday, my day began with a tour of the Digital Humanities Lab who work closely with Special Collections. I was able to choose a model to be 3D Printed and even helped take some high quality photos of old Exeter Theatre Royal Playbills. It was interesting seeing the digital side of archiving, which is becoming more extensive as time goes on. In the afternoon I began my cataloguing task (which was introduced to me during my tour of the Old Library on Monday) in which I was typing up the index of Rowland Glave-Saunders’ ‘Book of Reminiscences’. As I went through the index and read some of the sections of his book, I gained quite an understanding of the type of person he was and his views on some subjects. He wrote of Exeter’s experience of the Blitz, evacuees and much more, reading it was almost like time-travelling. I took a break from the cataloguing task to take a look around the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, which is in the same building as Special Collections. 

Books in the Syon Abbey Library

I was not able to go to work experience on Wednesday, but on Thursday, the day began with myself and Annie stocktaking in the strongroom. We were taking stock of the Syon Abbey Library, one of several collections on loan. This too was interesting as I noticed how the books changed overtime. In the afternoon I was given an introduction to managing the Reading Room and resumed my cataloguing task, which I was able to finish. I then talked with Annie (as I was able to with various members of the team throughout the entire week) about her role at Special Collections. 

On Friday morning, I talked to the other Special Collections Team Leader, Angela, about her role at Special Collections. She introduced me to box listing, which is a way that archivists break down what is in an archive they may receive. I was also able to look through various photos and letters connected to John Lloyd who was a Lecturer and Librarian at the University of Exeter and learnt about himself and some of his relatives through reading the university’s old registers. In the afternoon, I began a second cataloguing task involving letters by the writer Flora Thompson. There were nine letters and it was my task to type short descriptions of them as well as record their date. Even reading the short nine letters, I gained a small insight into the sort of person Flora Thompson was and some of the hardships she experienced. I took a break from this task to learn about the DAME project which stands for the Digital Archive of the Middle East. This involved digitising the Middle East archives held in Special Collections, which consist mostly of 20th Century works including diaries, letters and photos. It was interesting seeing a more modern side to the archives as oppose to the much older Syon Abbey library I had been stocktaking on Thursday. I ended the day by finishing cataloguing Flora Thompson’s letters. 

Collage of images from the University of Exeter Special Collections

This work experience has been extremely helpful and insightful. I was given tours and introductions to practically every side of Special Collections as well as the parts of the University that work with them. It has also been amazing knowing that the work I have been doing will actually be contributed towards various projects and archives. During the week, the Special Collections Team have also been extremely welcoming and ready to provide any help, either with the various tasks I have been doing or just finding my way around. The experience has definitely opened up a career which I previously knew very little about and made it one which I may want to pursue. 

Reflections on a week of work experience in Special Collections

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We were delighted to be joined last week by Year 10 student Rosalia for a week of work experience in Special Collections. Below Rosalia shares some of her impressions and reflections on her experience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Rosalia for her excellent work and wish her every success for the future.

Over this last week, I have been doing my work experience in Special Collections which I have found fascinating as it allowed me to learn more about rare books and manuscripts, as well as helping me broaden my experience and widen my knowledge of history, a subject I love.

Map of Devon from an atlas of the counties of England and Wales [Atlas of the counties of England and Wales]

On the first day, I arrived at 9:30 and was given a tour of Special Collections by Annie, where I saw the strong rooms and the office. Afterwards, I had the handling training, when I looked at several old books and manuscripts, including a a 1579 hand-painted Atlas of the counties of England and an medieval manuscript with beautiful illuminated letters and illustrations. Later the same day, I attended a presentation from the archivist for Middle Eastern studies, which was fascinating. Afterwards, I stayed in the reading room, where I learnt how the room operated and looked at an old manuscript from Syon Abbey, which detailed the history of the Abbey and the duties of the nuns. I had to transcribe the headings of the different sections in order to improve the cataloguing of the manuscript which was very enjoyable and the contents of the manuscript were a fascinating record of the abbey and the life of the nuns who lived there. I also had a talk with Caroline, the Head of Heritage Collections, about the role of Special Collections within the university and the wider community and the collections and archives held here.

On the second day, I was given the task of searching through the library catalogue to find books relevant to Crediton, as some of the Special Collections team are going to Crediton Local History Day to do a presentation. Within the collections is the Crediton Parish Library, which contains many old books and a wide range of 17th century pamphlets. When I had found all the books and pamphlets I was interested in on the catalogue, I filled out request slips for each of them (59 in total) and then the next day Annie and I retrieved them from the strongroom.

Crediton Parish Library

On the third day, I looked through the pamphlets and books and photographed any that would be relevant or interesting for Crediton Local History day. This took most of the day, although I also spent about an hour watching a display being put up in the Forum Library.

On the fourth day, I spent the morning in Digital Humanities with Hollie and Lisa from Special Collections, where we had a tour of the labs and a talk about what Digital Humanities do. We also had the chance to 3D print a Lewis chess piece each, which was very exciting and interesting. In the afternoon, I finished cataloguing the Syon Abbey manuscript and got some more of the books and pamphlets from the strong rooms. At the end of the afternoon, I had a talk with Jamie, the Middle East archivist, about his role in digitising and preserving manuscripts and books and also with Jon, the Digitisation Assistant, about how digitising the images and documents for the DAME project works.

On the final day, I photographed the remaining few pamphlets and books and had a look round the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum for about forty minutes, which is a fascinating insight into the history of cinema and film.

Overall, the week was very enjoyable and fascinating, and I learnt a lot about rare books and manuscripts and the general running of the Special Collections department.

Collage of images from the University of Exeter Special Collections

Library Champion Project Demystifying Archives and Manuscripts: A Journey Through the Special Collections

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Written by Chloe Cicely Chandler (MA English Literature)

 

In March of 2019 I somehow found myself within the British Library’s Manuscripts Reading Room with my eyes delighting over the sprawling handwriting within Coleridge’s notebooks. Ever an inspirer of wonder in me, it was magical to see his mind come alive; the thoughts seeming to burst onto the page with frantic imagination. I was especially fixated by Coleridge’s sketches of the Lake District that recorded the walks he had adventured on with his fellow Romantic visionaries: William and Dorothy Wordsworth. I often reflect on the fact that I touched the paper upon which Coleridge had scribed over 200 years ago. Now, it seems as if it were a distant, hazy dream. This was the first ever encounter I had with physical archival research, and one I would never forget. The research was undertaken during my English undergraduate degree for my third-year dissertation on altered states of consciousness in Romantic literature. In addition to Coleridge, I also focused on the writings of Sir Humphry Davy and Thomas De Quincey. This led me to take a separate journey where I also travelled to the Morrab Library in Penzance to learn more about Davy’s poetical and chemical experimentations from the archives in his Cornish hometown.

Both of these experiences were incredibly rewarding and put into perspective what I most enjoyed about studying English literature: that ability to peer into history through the words that individuals have left behind; as if the gap in time between the past and the present has been momentarily suspended. Such opportunities for research were the highlight of my entire degree – they made me feel more connected to the research I was conducting, and encouraged me throughout the difficult process of writing and editing my dissertation – providing my work with a greater sense of purpose.

Out of these explorations, I became very interested in the ways in which I could make the most of being an English MA student at a research-focused university and partake in opportunities to delve into the archives. This academic year, I joined as one of the Library Champions for English. As part of this role, I act as a liaison between library staff and students, passing along feedback, suggestions, and making book requests on behalf of students within my subject area. I had the opportunity to develop a project of my choosing relating to library services. Consequently, I decided it would be valuable to concentrate my project on the Special Collections based at the University of Exeter. Specifically, I wanted to consider the ways in which students could be made more aware of the unique primary resources available to them in order to increase their engagement with the archives during their degree.

 

Surveying Student Feedback

It was important for me to first gather insight from my fellow peers, so I put together a survey that was open to students from across the disciplines. This survey aimed to get a sense of general student knowledge of the archival services that the university offers, whilst also offering a space to make suggestions for how the Special Collections could be more integrated into the student experience. Although the responses ended up being mainly from Humanities students – with a majority from English undergraduates – their experiential highlights and suggestions were immensely helpful in terms of evaluating the current dialogue between students and the Special Collections.

Of those who had used the archives, their memories were very positive. One student relayed their enthusiasm as such: “I have only accessed the archives as part of a workshop on accessing them and it was really interesting! [The] Staff [were] great and very informative, I will definitely be in touch if there is something I need to access.” Speaking of the online catalogue, a student mentioned how valuable it was for their research: “I loved it, I accessed it almost daily to complete my assignments.” Others recall their use of the archives as: “[an] Intriguing and … exciting experience”; additionally: “I found the archivist very helpful and friendly and enjoyed the experience.”

The main areas that could improve student engagement with the Special Collections, as suggested by those surveyed, related to the following:

– Accessibility: student responses highlighted how the process can appear daunting, whilst other students were less aware of where to begin researching.

– Visibility: students highlighted a need to increase overall awareness of the collections through visual displays and marketing throughout the university. As a fellow student expressed: “I’d love for more people to handle and see these manuscripts.”

Following this initial feedback collection from my student cohort, I wanted to get a more informed perspective of the process behind performing archival research: this required me to find archival works of interest from the catalogue and then arrange a viewing of them.

 

The Process

As a starting place, the Collection Highlights page is especially helpful as it presents intriguing items within the university’s collection which you can then search for on the Archives catalogue, or use as a springboard for other research ideas. My personal interests for my MA dissertation relate to Romantic and Gothic literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I am also interested in kindred areas such as the supernatural and folkloric. From our discussions, the Special Collections team gave me some fantastic suggestions to consider based on these research topics.

Of particular interest to me was the Theo Brown Collection that comes with its own helpful collection guide. Brown was a renowned folklore researcher and Research Fellow within the Philosophy and History Departments at the University of Exeter. Her immense research collection has been in the university’s archive since her death in 1993. Brown had a particular focus on folklore rooted in the South West of England, and, as an individual born and raised here, this sparked my interest. From within the vast collection, I needed to specify particular items, each of which is given a name relating to the overarching topics they contain. I finally decided upon the boxes that covered ‘Fringe Lore and UFOs’, ‘Guising and Hobby Horse’, and ‘Devon and West Country witches and witchcraft’. In addition, there was a fascinating object under the Rare books and maps section that I felt compelled to see as a Gothic researcher: a 1st issue, 1st edition of Bram Stoker’s legendary Gothic novel Dracula from 1897 housed within the Lloyd Collection. This edition is renowned for its strikingly coloured cover. As one of my favourite literary works, I was delighted to hear that the university had such an item available for viewing.

When I went about making my request via the Visiting Heritage Collections webpage, I first had to find the necessary codes for the Collections, which you can search for on the archive database: archival works have a title and MS number; books have a title and call number; journals have a title and volume/issue number. After making my request, I received an email promptly confirming my reading room booking. Before attending my booking, I read up on the handling procedures laid out in the Special Collections handling guide which provided some really useful information about how different types of materials are to be treated. This was practically helpful when I was searching through Brown’s archive as it included an array of different materials, including many pictures, for which I needed gloves. One interesting piece of information which often surprises people is that, in most cases, when handling rare books, it is preferable for you to not wear gloves as this decreases your physical sensitivity to the material itself, making it more likely that you might damage it.

When I arrived at the Old Library on the day, I went over to the Special Collections desk to inform of my arrival. My selected items had already been prepared behind the desk for viewing and were promptly brought out. The items displayed within the Ronald Duncan Reading Room itself were instantly engaging. To one side was a writing desk that had belonged to the much-beloved author Daphne Du Maurier, which came as a wonderful surprise as I was able to sit near it whilst I researched. I had seen one of her writing desks only once before at the Jamaica Inn’s Smugglers Museum on Bodmin Moor. I was also particularly fond of the artworks on the back wall by the artist Leonard Baskin which depicted various birds, including a variety of crows – a favourite Gothic symbol of mine!

I first went about exploring Brown’s items: from memory, a news story she had collected that was immensely intriguing was about a so-called ‘witch bottle’ that had been discovered in a basement. The bottle, under examination, turned out to be filled with a concoction of items that suggested its use in a baneful, magical working, containing nails, human urine, and thorns, amongst other items. Although I had only engaged with a small part of the entire Theo Brown collection, I was amazed by how much was contained within each box and managed to spend the entire afternoon slot searching through an amalgam of pictures, newspaper clippings, and letters – how the time flew by! In light of this, I would suggest to potential Special Collection users to allow themselves ample time to view resources and not try to cram too much into one visit. Rather, take the time to enjoy researching and making notes. And, if needed, return for another visit.

Following this, I handled the 1st edition of Dracula, for which I was given a book snake weight and cushion to use, so that the spine and fragile pages would be supported. I was instantly amazed by the vivid yellow cover that adorned the book. The cover was made even more pronounced by the red lettering that spelt out the book’s title, as if written in blood; very befitting given the contents. There was something strangely modern about the book’s palette of colours that made it feel out of place for the time period in which it was written. The aesthetic choices made about the design seemed to highlight the very alluring nature of the work, presenting the book itself as a kind of fantastical object. I feel incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to handle these items from the Special Collection and shall remember the experience fondly.

 

Call For Archival Research

In recent years, I have found that research of both primary and secondary sources for assignments tends to be confined to online databases. And, although this is undeniably helpful in terms of providing greater access to works from other institutions and aiding in the search for specific terms, I find there is something inherently missing from this experience of research. When you are there in person, there is a certain magic and fascination that can be kindled, which is more difficult to attain through a digitised source. It puts you back in touch with the physical history of these sources – the feel and sensation of them – such things are often lost when searching purely within digitised collections. Whilst at university, we have the unique chance to use these resources which might otherwise be unavailable or more difficult to access were we not students.

I highly recommend my fellow students give the archives a go! You may not have a particular text or subject in mind for your research, which is completely fine; using the archives is actually a fantastic way to discover an area you might be interested in. It also incentivises you to produce more distinctly original research to present to your subject area. The archivists, with their expertise in the collection items, are also on hand to provide helpful suggestions, as they did in my case.

 

Future Prospects

In response to student feedback, the Special Collections team have been putting these suggestions into practice, such as, updating the website pages to make them more accessible and user-friendly. We are also planning some further collaborative projects to improve accessibility and visibility over the next academic year – so make sure to watch this space!

I would be delighted to hear from my peers: if you have any feedback or suggestions you would like to make with regards to the library services, including the Special Collections or book requests for English, please feel free to contact me at cc725@exeter.ac.uk. For more Library Champion information visit: Find your Library Champion – Library Champions – LibGuides at University of Exeter

 

Helpful Special Collection links

Main website: Special Collections | Special Collections | University of Exeter

Special Collection Highlights: Highlights | Special Collections | University of Exeter

LibGuides: Home – Archives and Special Collections – LibGuides at University of Exeter

Special Collections catalogue: Home Page (ex.ac.uk)

Handling Guide: Handling Materials – Archives and Special Collections – LibGuides at University of Exeter

Bill Douglas Cinema Museum: http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/

Digital Collections: http://specialcollectionsarchive.exeter.ac.uk/collections/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UoEHeritageColl

 

‘This direct contact with history was unlike anything I had ever experienced before…’: Reflections on work experience in Special Collections by Alice Dunn

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We were delighted to be joined last week by Year 12 student Alice Dunn for a week of work experience in Special Collections. Below Alice shares some of her impressions and reflections on her experience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Alice for her excellent work and wish her every success for the future.

My name is Alice Dunn, and I have spent a week in a work experience placement with the special collections and archives department of the University of Exeter. I am a year 12 student at King Edward VI Community College in Totnes, and very luckily for me the special collections team have been kind enough to facilitate my fascination with literature and history, and by extension with the vast collections kept here! 

Map of Devon from an atlas of the counties of England and Wales [Rare books B 1590/SAX/XX]

My placement began on Monday with an introduction to the collections and the work done regarding them, including their preservation and conservation. I measured the temperature and humidity in each of the rooms archives were stored in, and recorded these daily observations to ensure these conditions were optimum; extremes of either temperature or humidity can damage the items. What was particularly exciting was learning to handle the materials – there were a number of different items with which I was able to practice, including a 1579 hand-coloured Atlas of the counties of England, produced by Christopher Saxton! I learned that the best way to handle these materials is not, in fact, with gloves (with the exception of photographs), as their role in reducing dexterity increases the risk of tearing pages, but instead with clean hands. This direct contact with history was unlike anything I had ever experienced before; while I have learned about these time periods in history, or read new editions of texts, to handle materials which are hundreds of years old brings a sense of connection with the past that I do not think I could have otherwise felt. Down to the very knowledge that the ink on that page was handwritten by someone who experienced the things I have learned about from books, or to read the annotation of readers, like me, who annotated books they read, but in the 16th century (not like me!), my experience with archival materials has allowed a cohesion of my knowledge, ensuring enrichment in my future learning. While looking around the collections, I was also fortunate enough to be shown materials such as a sheet from a 1478 Caxton print of Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’, and Golding’s handwritten manuscript of the first draft of The Lord of the Flies, (though, due to its fragility, handling is avoided), both of which resulted in vast amounts of excitement on my part!  

Bills relating to elections in Devon, 1835, and to a concert in Exeter, 1858 [EUL MS 269]

Over the next few days, I was given a few projects to work on. On Tuesday, I sorted through letters to, from, and regarding, Agatha Christie, (some of which were handwritten by Christie herself!), selecting those that were relating to Poirot for an exhibition to go alongside a talk on him. After this experience I feel I am justified in stopping anyone from criticising my handwriting again, or else admitting that Christie, despite her literary genius, may not have been popular among teachers or A-Level examiners! I also looked at a collection of political bills from 1835 and researched the context behind these to aid the writing of a social media post about them, and the information I learned from this seems since to appear in my day-to-day life with astonishing frequency (namely in Middlemarch, which is active in its discussion of 19th century politics!). Throughout the week, I also accompanied team members in receiving and unpacking new materials that had arrived in the post, learning about the process of ‘accession’ before cataloging, and how to write titles and descriptions for these so that they can be best found by researchers. As part of this, I studied a recently received item which has not yet been cataloged, creating resources like a map on which all the places mentioned are flagged, as well as using university records to find out more about the individuals mentioned. This will ensure the item is better understood, so that when it comes to cataloging it can be organised in the collection more easily, and so that its description will be as accurate as possible, making it more accessible to researchers.  

Archives in the strongroom

In aiding retrievals to accommodate researchers’ requests, and reshelving after the resources have been used, I also came to learn about the organisation of the archives themselves. The breadth of the collections means the system in place is integral to ensuring they can be fully utilised by others, and thus learning about the system of cataloging here, and the differing one in the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum where I was fortunate enough to be able to get a tour and speak to staff, has given me a much deeper understanding of the day-to-day process of keeping archives.

On Thursday, the staff at special collections had arranged for me to visit the closely interlinked Digital Humanities Lab at the University. I was given a tour of the building, and was fascinated to learn the role technology can have in the study of humanities, both in relation to archival materials and not. Due to the fragility of many of the items, including wax figurines and skulls, many objects will have 3D printed copies made to enable hands-on interaction. The intersection between archives and photography was something I had never thought about, but constitutes much of the work done by the Digital Humanities Lab – they have two purpose-built photographic studios, enabling photos to be taken in such high-quality, flakes of paint can be seen on the surfaces of pages. The Exeter Book (a book of Old English riddles from the 10th century, some of the oldest surviving pieces of English literature today) is owned by Exeter Cathedral, and while it is not linked to the university nor their collections, it was recently photographed and digitised by staff at the Digital Humanities Lab using their specialist photographic equipment. Having attended seminars and lectures with universities on the poems and riddles in this book, the accessibility created by technology is of importance to me, and thus it was fascinating to discover the work that is done to aid this.  

While I was initially most attracted to this work experience placement from more of a researcher perspective – I’m always fascinated by materials which can tell me more about my areas of interest – it has resulted in a better understanding of what it means to be an archivist, and, as a consequence, an interest in the role for its own sake; whether or not the collections I have looked at in my placement have been relevant to what I want to study in the future, they are intriguing in themselves, and not because they relate to what I already have knowledge of. I have had the most enjoyable week learning new skills and information – I don’t think I could’ve found another placement that so well supported my interests, while expanding my knowledge of everything! A big thank you to the Special Collections and Archives team for being so accommodating! 

Collage of images from the University of Exeter Special Collections

Behind the Scenes at Special Collections: A Week of Work Experience

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The new display outside the Ronald Duncan Reading Room

We were delighted to recently welcome Rosie and Scarlett, two Year 12 students from Colyton Grammar School, for a week of work experience at Special Collections. Their task for the week was to create a new display focusing on the Syon Abbey Collection, which involved handling, researching, digitising and curating a selection of rare books and archival items.

The new display is open to everyone and can be found by entering the Old Library on Streatham Campus via the main entrance, turning right at the barriers and walking down the corridor towards Seminar Room A/B. The display is located on the right outside the Ronald Duncan Reading Room.

Scarlett and Rosie have kindly sent us their thoughts and impressions of their week of work experience in Special Collections, which you can read below. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Rosie and Scarlett for their excellent work and wish them every success for the future.

Scarlett’s impressions:

Rosie and Scarlett handling books from the Syon Abbey Library

When I first started work experience at Special Collections, the only time I had seen books older than two hundred years was behind a glass case but by the end of my time I had handled plenty of rare, old books safely.

During my time there I had the opportunity to research extensively and explore their Syon Abbey collection and helped develop a display on it with the other work experience member.

To start with, we began to research Syon Abbey and looked into the vast history of the abbey, its community and the nuns there. As one of the oldest English Catholic communities to continue meeting throughout the Reformation there was much to cover and explore and our research was well aided by the vast collection of such treasured books that brought to life the history of Syon Abbey in our hands.

We also learned how to handle old and delicate books and spent time making sure we would treat them correctly whilst researching. Well accompanied by our book snakes and cushions – tools that help support particularly old books – we began our research.

Installing the new display

To find a starting point, we searched for inscriptions made by the nuns in their books and made note of them. At times handwriting was indecipherable but that difficulty was rewarded with the satisfaction of seeing one nun’s distinctive handwriting or name in multiple books. Their inscriptions ranged from jokes regarding piety, descriptions of nieces getting married or just their own names.

Next, we decided on four nuns to focus on, each of us researching two in great detail for the display. This gave us a wide scope of the abbey as the nuns were from different times and fulfilled different roles for their community. We both created biographies for our nuns which gave a broad overview of what their day to day life would have been like and what they did in the abbey.

Finally, we began putting the last touches together for the display which entailed photographing documents, mounting them on boards and arranging our text and images to create an engaging display.

Rosie’s impressions:

Reshelving books!

I spent the last week with the Department of Special Collections at Exeter University for my Year Twelve work experience, and it was amazing. I was a bit nervous when on the first day, and took a lot of comfort in the fact that one of my friends from school, Scarlett, had the same work experience, but I really shouldn’t have worried. My supervisor for the week was Annie, who was absolutely lovely and so helpful, and while I didn’t speak to the other members of the department as much as they were working on their own projects, I still felt so much like part of the team.

Special Collections works with significant historical documents and manuscripts, especially from people who were connected to the South West. For example, there is an extensive William Golding archive – author of Lord of the Flies – , which contains artefacts such as correspondences between Golding and publishers and his friends, as well as the original manuscripts of some of his works, like the Lord of the Flies manuscript.

Scarlett and I, however, were working on the Syon Abbey collection, which involves a great majority of the extensive library of the nuns of Syon Abbey. They had a fascinating history originating in England, traveling around Europe due to external pressures, significantly to Lisbon, and finally returning to England, mainly based in Chudleigh and South Brent, which is where the link to Devon comes in. During our stay, we got to look at and handle books from as far back as the seventeenth century, which was an amazing opportunity. I almost couldn’t believe it! Before we were allowed to handle these precious artefacts, we were trained in the correct way to take the books out of shelves and read them without damaging the spines or the pages. There were a load of things that I had never considered, like what we called book snakes, which are soft weights to hold the pages flat while you read, while not putting oils into the pages like holding it with your fingers would.

Planning the new display

Our task for the week was to create a display about Syon Abbey, so we took quite a few old books and manuscripts out of the library to help us. We went through each book to see which nun had owned each book, and if they had written anything particularly interesting. The majority of them only had a name at the most, but the few that had more were intriguing and occasionally hilarious. My personal favourites of each were, respectively, an account of Napoleon invading Portugal and the subsequent consequences, and one joke about not being able to trick God, but by keeping a religious book she could trick her peers. We narrowed down our options of nuns to research, and chose two nuns each to focus on for the display. I chose Sister Constancia Sorrell – who recorded Napoleon invading – and Lay Sister Mary Gomes – who joked about not being able to trick God.  I think that one of the best parts of the week was constructing the actual display, and seeing the outcome of all our hard work, which I, at least, am very proud of. It felt a bit like being an interior designer, as we wanted the display to be eye-catching and visually appealing while still conveying the interesting things that we learnt in the week, and hopefully getting other people interested in the subject and the monastery. We had to establish a title for the display, and while I’m disappointed that my various nun puns were vetoed, – I was particularly fond of “Nun so Faithful”- I thought that “Her Book” was equally effective, with the reference to how they wrote their names in their books, for example, “Mary Gomes her Book” and also with the extra reference to the “Book” as the Bible.

In the end, the week was so fun and interesting, while also feeling productive and like we achieved something, and I have definitely gained a new respect both for the nuns of Syon Abbey, and for the archivists at Special Collections who work with so many precious artefacts and make them accessible to people like you and me.

I would like to thank everyone who works at Special Collections for being so helpful and welcoming, and especially Annie who made our week there so memorable.

I hope that this has encouraged anyone reading this to think about visiting or researching either Special Collections or the amazing history of the nuns of Syon Abbey.

You can find out more about the Syon Abbey Collection in our blog posts and online guide

 

Transcribing the Letters of John Jarmain: reflections on a remote internship project

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Earlier this year, Special Collections launched its first remote internship for University of Exeter students. Unable to run our usual in-person work experience programme, and knowing that another lockdown at the start of 2021 was highly likely, we were pleased to offer an opportunity for students to gain valuable archive experience whilst working from home.

The collection we chose for this remote internship was the Letters of John Jarmain (EUL MS 413). William John Fletcher Jarmain (1911-1944) was a novelist and poet. He served throughout the Second World War as a gunnery officer with the 51st Highland Division during their campaigns in North Africa and Sicily. He took part in the D-Day landing and was killed in action on 26 June 1944. The collection comprises 120 manuscript letters that he sent home to his wife Beryl between June 1942 and November 1943. 

EUL MS 413/1/66 – Aerogram dated 10 March 1943

Digitised images of all of the letters are available to view online through our Digital Collections website, making them ideal for our interns to access and transcribe from home. Once proofread, the transcripts produced by the interns on this project will be uploaded to the website to sit alongside the digitised letters, enabling letters of interest to be more easily identified, accessed and understood.

We would like to take this moment to thank our interns, Beth Howell and Ruby, for their hard work, diligence and enthusiasm for this project. Through a combined effort, they recently completed the transcription of all 120 letters – an amazing achievement! Below you can read their reflections on the project.

Reflections by Beth Howell

Transcribing the letters of a person is always a very involved experience, and working on John Jarmain’s war-time correspondence has proven to be no exception. However, perhaps because Jarmain was so engaged with the process of writing, (often demonstrating himself to be an almost obsessive editor of his own poetry), he always seems to write with a real sense of how his words might be read and interpreted in the future, making his letters a real privilege to read. Though most of his correspondence is addressed to his wife, Beryl, he often appears to imagine a reader beyond her, documenting the world around him with a real sense of capturing the present moment. His letters are therefore not only interesting because of what they reveal about his poetic practice, but also the landscapes he found himself in, the relationships he fostered, and his hopes and anxieties for a future after the war.

My favourite element of Jarmain’s writing, though, was probably the way in which he balanced larger concerns with little details. His ability to find joy in the spaces around him, even though the vision of those landscapes necessarily meant his separation from home (and, of course, were imbued with the ever-present anxieties of potential battles), is really heartening and beautiful to read. He loved birds, and many of his letters are preoccupied with identifying species from a little bird book he bought and carried around with him. (Though I have to say that deciphering rare specimens from his sometimes quite hastily-scribbled writing presented a few challenges- I had certainly never heard of a rufous warbler before!)

EUL MS 413/1/85 – Letter dated 30 April 1943, in which Jarmain writes about birds, including the rufous warbler (highlighted)

I also admired his confidence in informing his wife that he had fallen in (platonic) love with various women during his time in service- including Yone May, the subject of one of his poems. Jarmain presents a tangible picture of contemporary technologies (or quite the opposite), which affect his writing in a very material way- he finds himself scribbling in pencil, writing by candlelight in the wee hours, hastily penning an aerogram when he knows the post is leaving soon. He laments his ability to construct suitable diagrams of views and barracks, continues to marvel at unexpectedly quick postal deliveries, and to agonise when the opposite proves to be the case. His letters are a fascinating and absorbing insight into his life away- checked only by the knowledge that his observations would be tragically cut short. Jarmain died, killed by a fragment of mortar shell, on Saturday 26th June, 1944.

EUL MS 413/1/19 Letter dated 11 October 1942, next to transcript by Beth Howell

Reflections by Ruby

It hardly seems right to call this internship “work”. Work refers to something laborious, something that has to be done, but I found transcribing John Jarmain’s letters delightful. It saddens me that the World War II poets don’t receive the same attention as the World War I poets. Jarmain, though brilliant and sensitive, is far from a household name and does not even have a poetry collection currently in print. This is what makes me so genuinely honoured to have been involved in this project, typing up his letters, so that we can start to make Jarmain’s literature more accessible for more people. I hope that, going forward, people will read these letters and be touched in the same way that I was. 

This internship has shown me that there is a big difference between reading for pleasure and reading to transcribe. Transcribing Jarmain’s letters has forced me to read them carefully, sensitively and attentively. I have had to pay attention to punctuation, names and form which I might not otherwise have paid much attention to. When I’ve read letters from authors in the past, I don’t tend to focus on people who are off-handedly mentioned (cousins, distant friends, colleagues etc.), and only really focus on those they are closest to. However, when writing up these letters I had to pay attention to every name — zooming in to make sure that I got every surname right — and, in doing so, I noticed certain people who popped up time and time again (his friend, Harry, for example). Jarmain’s handwriting also means that it’s easy to mistake a semicolon for an exclamation point. At first glance, his semicolons can look like exclamation points, but when you look more closely, they’re usually not. If I were reading these letters at a glance, I would think that he was just heavy-handed with exclamation points, but this project showed me that he is not, and that he actually uses exclamation points quite sparingly. Over the course of the internship, I became more familiar with Jarmain’s writing style and more attentive to quirks in his handwriting. For example, when writing “a”, he tends to attach it to the word in front (i.e. if he says “a ship”, he will write “aship”). This led to some tenuous guessing at the start of the project; however, I was familiar with this by the end, and found transcribing his letters much easier. 

EUL MS 413/1/14 – Aerogram dated 28 September 1942, mentioning his friend Harry (highlighted)

The internship showed me how important it is to read letters attentively and slowly — to savour them and their images and their kindnesses. This is what Jarmain’s wife, Beryl, would have done, and so we perhaps get closer to the experience of these letters when we read in this way. Having to read Jarmain slowly was probably my favourite part about and, as a consequence of having done this, I feel like I know him better than I otherwise would have done. 

One particularly striking part of Jarmain’s letters is just how little he refers to the actual events of war. He hardly talks about what his troops are doing, and any danger they might be in. Rather, he documents domestic experiences — for example, how he spent his time on leave, or how he goes swimming in the morning before starting work, or a joke told by one of the men. Jarmain separates himself from his identity as the “soldier” and presents himself as a real man, the same husband to whom Beryl waved goodbye. Though this is humbling to see, it also points to the separation between war and home which he documents in his poem ‘El Alemein’. The separation between Jarmain as husband and soldier in these letters makes the dramatic irony of his death all the more upsetting. Reading the letters, I knew that he would never come home and safely settle back into domestic life. In one of his last aerograms (EUL MS 413/1/153), he writes of the Christmas presents he plans to give them, clinging to the possibility that the war will end soon and he will be home with Beryl and Janet-Susan. When the letters abruptly stop, there is no warning and, since he was so secretive about his life as a soldier when writing to Beryl, it seems strangely incongruous that he could have been killed in war. 

EUL MS 413/1/33 – Aerogram dated 8 December 1942: draft of poems ‘For Alamein’

Possibly my favourite parts to transcribe were his descriptions of nature — and, in particular, his descriptions of Italy in his final aerogram (EUL MS 413/1/154): “Away to the right, tier upon tier lit in streaks of sun and shade and clotted with white clustering towns, were the hills of Italy across the strait. In England you cannot imagine such beauty, such a scene”. You can feel the wonder in his voice here and the sheer extent of the view he relays. These nature descriptions are occasionally shown in his poems, but only fleetingly, and I enjoyed reading this different writing style from him. It is also so illuminating to see the poems embedded within these letters because the poems will often refer to images he’s already described for Beryl. For example, in letter one (EUL MS 413/1/1), he writes that he “was struck suddenly by willows, English willows, how they stand in rows like thick-handled powder-puffs, grey-green in the evening”. Then, in a poem in letter two (EUL MS 413/1/2), he writes that the train “Passed willows greyly bunching to the moon”. In this, we can see his poems as snapshots of real, personal experience. Indeed, the fact that they are embedded within letters shows just how intimate and personal they are, which can and should encourage us to read them contextually in new ways. 

Ruby has very kindly recorded herself reading John Jarmain’s first letter (EUL MS 413/1/1). Click on the play button below to listen to the recording. 

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