Ruth Ford (admin) | The National Archives blog

Posts by Ruth Ford (admin)

As an online editor at The National Archives, I write and proof content on the website, and am also involved with our social media activities.

I contribute to our Twitter account @UkNatArchives and coordinate content for the blog.

Tue Feb

2013

New blog layout

Posted by Ruth Ford (admin) in Behind the scenes

Lloyd's Weekly News composing room, Fleet Street, London, 1911 (ref COPY 1/555 )

We’ve introduced a new front page for the blog, showing a lot more of our recent posts at first glance and hopefully making it easier to browse through categories. However, if you prefer, you can easily switch back to the old view by clicking on ‘List view’ at the top of the page.

We’ve simplified categories – and you can still find and bookmark particular subjects using tags, for example archives sector, digital preservation or genealogy, or through the search function.

We are always looking for ways to improve your use and enjoyment of the blog – we will continue to act on your feedback and hope you keep telling us what you think.

Look out tomorrow for a special post from our first blogger – Chief Executive and Keeper, Oliver Morley – marking one whole year of The National Archives’ blog.

Fri Dec

2012

Deer in Mo-Ho-Ho-tion

Posted by Ruth Ford (admin) in Behind the scenes

Deer in Motion, 1881, Eadweard Muybridge (COPY 1/54)

The blog will be taking a break over Christmas and New Year (but look out for a special post on Friday 28 December). In the mean time, we’d like to leave you with one of our very favourite records from the archives, this 1881 motion study of a running deer by pioneering Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge (catalogue reference COPY 1/54 f.278).

Please ‘continue reading’ to see the deer run!

Fri Dec

2012

Blog improvements – what do you think?

Posted by Ruth Ford (admin) in Behind the scenes

It’s been a very exciting 2012 for The National Archives’ blog. Since our very first post, back in February, we’ve endeavoured to involve you in the extraordinary range of work we do here, and share the passion and enthusiasm our bloggers have for their work. Through comments, tweets and emails, we’ve had brilliant feedback from you, our readers, and hope to build on this success into 2013.

We’re currently posting about four blog posts a week (sometimes more, rarely less), and try to make sure that these cover a variety of subjects. The classic blog ‘list view’ (showing in date order) does mean, however, that posts are quickly pushed quite far down the ‘front page’ of the blog.

Blog front page 2013

So, in time for our first birthday in February 2013, we want to launch a new front page for the blog, one that lets us keep a lot more posts visible on your screen, without you having to work to get to them. You will still be able to switch to the current list style by clicking on ‘List view’ at the top of the page (click on the image on the right to enlarge it).

Wed Dec

2012

Princess Beatrice of Battenberg

Posted by Bruno Derrick in Records and research

With royal succession in the news, I find myself reminded of the life of Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria’s youngest child. Princess Beatrice was born in the middle of the 19th century, commonly regarded as the Victorian Age because of the towering presence of Queen Victoria who reigned for nearly 64 years, from 1837 to 1901.

Most heads of the surviving royal families of Europe are descended from Victoria and her husband Albert whom she married in 1840. This was a deliberate policy, supported and encouraged by the Queen; she thought, falsely as it turned out, that a Europe linked by royal households related to one another would be a Europe less likely to go to war. As a consequence inherited diseases such as haemophilia were passed from cousin to cousin, who from Spain in the west to Russia in the east took to their sick beds or expired. And in 1914 the cousins and the countries they ruled went to war. But this was all in the future when Victoria married Albert. Together they produced nine children before Albert, worn out and plagued by typhoid, died on 14 December 1861.

Their nine children were Victoria (the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany), Edward or Bertie (who became King Edward VII), Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice. I have long been interested in Princess Beatrice, the youngest child, the daughter who was expected to stay alongside her grieving mother in the bleak years after the death of Albert, who was expected to have no life of her own, but who, in the end, did stage a minor rebellion, and married a German prince and established her own dynasty.

Thu Nov

2012

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas

Posted by Bruno Derrick in Records and research

Western tentacles of the Great Western Railway (reference RAIL 936/48)

Edward Thomas (1878-1917), who was killed in action during the First World War, was a poet and essayist chiefly remembered for his poem Adlestrop which recalled the sudden peace and serenity of a village railway station in the days prior to the First World War.

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas

Yes, I remember Adlestrop –

the name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop – only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.
And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

But was the train due to stop at Adlestrop anyway? Continue reading »

Thu Oct

2012

Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash 1952

Posted by Bruno Derrick in Records and research

During October 2012, the 60th anniversary of the train disaster at Harrow and Wealdstone in October 1952 has been commemorated. This was a truly horrific accident; a total of 112 people lost their lives, and 88 required hospital treatment.

At 08.19 on 8 October 1952 three trains collided with one another at Harrow and Wealdstone Train Station, some 11 miles to the north of Euston Station in London. One of the trains was a local passenger service taking early morning commuters from Tring to Euston, and the other was a passenger service from Perth to Euston. A third train, the 08.00 express travelling from Euston to Liverpool and Manchester ploughed into the wreckage created by the initial collision of the trains travelling from Perth and Tring.

Photograph of the crash site in MEPO 11/95

A combination of poor weather (patchy fog), misread signals and inadequate equipment led to a disaster that was only exceeded in scale by the disaster at Gretna Green in 1915, when 227 persons, mostly soldiers heading to the Front, were killed. The carnage of Harrow and Wealdstone can be comprehended if one considers the effects of a crowded passenger train (the Liverpool express) steaming into the shattered remnants of trains already wrecked and with their passengers and their effects strewn across lines. One disaster fed into another disaster. The casualty figures, high enough, would have been higher still were it not for the swift attention of passing detachments of the United States Air Force, who rushed to the scene of the disaster and applied life-saving field techniques learnt in wartime.

Fri Sep

2012

Beyond paper: The digital trail – updated

Posted by Ruth Ford (admin) in Records and research, Technology and innovation

On Thursday 30 August, we hosted a Twitter chat @UkNatArchives to talk about issues around digital archives. You can read more about the background to the #digtaltrail in our previous post Beyond paper: The digital trail, as well as listen to or download the June discussion on the paper trail and the national collective memory that prompted our Twitter event.

For almost two hours, experts from The National Archives, including Head of Digital Preservation Tim Gollins and Research and Policy Manager Valerie Johnson, engaged with colleagues, peers and members of the public using the hashtag #digitaltrail. The discussion ranged from DNA data storage, through serendipity and marginalia, to the role of the archivist in the digital age.

You can search for all related tweets using the hashtag, or check out our Storify summary.

Storify of Beyond paper: The digital trail

Tue Aug

2012

Beyond paper: The digital trail

Posted by Ruth Ford (admin) in Records and research, Technology and innovation

In June, we hosted a discussion between Professor Lisa Jardine CBE and Professor the Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield sub-titled ‘openness and the national collective memory’. The distinguished historians explored the value of our archival heritage and considered why ‘sustaining the collective memory of the nation is a first-order requirement’.

The event was live-tweeted with the hashtag #sptrail and, while lots of digital topics were touched on, we want to re-visit and expand on some of the key themes that were raised. On Thursday 30 August, between 13:00 and 14:00 BST, we will host a live Twitter debate on the #digitaltrail @UkNatArchives featuring contributions from our Director of Technology David Thomas, Head of Digital Preservation Tim Gollins and Research and Policy Manager Valerie Johnson.

Listen to the podcast of the original debate and please do join us on Twitter on Thursday, using the hashtag #digitaltrail, for an undoubtedly fascinating review of our digital past and future.

Topics that we’re keen to discuss include:

Quantity – will there simply be too much information?

Thu May

2012

Very fine swans indeed

Posted by Ruth Ford (admin) in Behind the scenes

Wed May

2012

Meet the Keeper on 24 May

Posted by Ruth Ford (admin) in Behind the scenes

This Thursday, between 14:00 and 15:30, Oliver Morley, Chief Executive and Keeper, The National Archives, will be welcoming questions on Twitter, as well as answering questions in person at Kew. This is your opportunity to raise any views or questions you may have about the management and future direction of The National Archives.

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