Disabled Living

Tag: Archive

4 Reasons Why We Love Discovering Our Heritage

As it’s Heritage Treasures Day, we thought this would be a great opportunity to share the reasons as to why we love our heritage at Disabled Living. As you may already know, Disabled Living has had several name changes over the years and there have been many special memories shared.

Throughout 2017 we shared our wonderful celebrations and projects with you. We’re excited to continue these in 2018. So far we’ve had a 1940’s theme tea dance, lots of fun activities at Kidz to Adultz North, filming, community curation planning, oral history interviews, radio and television coverage, and much more. As our project, Donkeys to Innovators, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund has developed in more ways than we ever imagined, we want to share what discovering our heritage means to us.

There’s an endless amount of history to discover

Just one of many tables we had when organising our archive into categories

A date, a photo, a quote, and other small pieces of information can lead to a greater insight than you think. When we dig deeper into our research, we learn so much more about traditions and the context of a particular era. But the most important of all being that, we have had the chance to see the development of our services and products over 120 years. We have discovered some very talented artists, special achievements and milestones in our charity.

It helps others to learn more about us

Community curation planning workshop

We’ve had staff members, community curators, designers, printers, oral history experts, film makers, archivist, Heather Roberts, and creative cultural consultant, Claire Turner involved in the project. And we’ve also had members of the public, social media tweeters, and new volunteers that have been amazed by the facts we’ve discovered. Through our marketing, events, and word of mouth, we’ve really generated a lot of engagement with our history. And there’s still more to come!

You can see a timeline of our history here.

Debra Evans, Chief Executive of Disabled Living said: I’ve enjoyed meeting new people and hearing their stories. It’s amazing to see how one story leads onto another story. There’s so many fascinating facts I’ve come across throughout this project.

You have more archive to work with than you originally thought

Placing our archive into categories

As a result of a major fire in 2009, Disabled Living lost all its older archived material. However, a totally unexpected phone call a couple of years ago changed all that. We were delighted to hear from the son of an ex employee who had worked for Disabled Living in the 1960’s. Unfortunately, his mother had recently passed away and while he was sorting out her house, he found a number of boxes in the attic of photographs and memorabilia relating to Disabled Living. We are very thankful to Mr Valentine who realised the importance of what he had discovered. Our heritage project wouldn’t have been possible without his mother.

It’s really fun

Kick-start to our celebrations at our 1940’s tea dance

Both the research and the practical side is so enjoyable. It’s always exciting when you discover or learn something new. Throughout our training in different elements of the project, we’ve been able to gain new knowledge whilst learning new skills at the same time. At first we didn’t know where to start, but once we had Claire on board with us, who is managing the project, we were introduced to new contacts and built new relationships along the way.

There’s always something to love about discovering your heritage. What do you love about it? Tweet @HLFNorthWest with #HeritageTreasures and #LoveHeritage. Thank you to everybody who has made #DonkeysToInnovators a huge success.

January 11, 2018
Success at Peacefield Handicrafts

This is a guest blog by Heather Roberts, who you might have seen featured in our other blog posts.

It’s not just in Manchester and Salford that Disabled Living has operated. Way back in the late 1800s The Band of Kindness, as it was known back them, was implementing novel ideas all over the country. As well as organising the delivery of Christmas hampers for 300 children every December, it operated a sort of convalescent home for children who needed time away from the “dirty old town” to recover from illness or injury, or receive other treatment.

This was called “Peacefield” and was situated on Cross Lane in Marple. The bottom of Cross Lane is now called Peacefield.

Peacefield newspaper cutting

An article in Disabled Living’s archive, kept in an absolutely stunning newspaper scrapbook, recognises that it is difficult enough to “struggle along in the slums of the city with health and limb” without having the added difficulty of illness or disability.

An added need was that the Band of Kindness has so much work to do for children that a separate operation was needed to deliver the required help. The Crippled Children’s Help Society was therefore formed and founded Peacefield.

The convalescent home didn’t just treat illness, but taught children skills. An ethos that has run through Disabled Living for over a century is that of opportunity for independent living. Back then, this was manifested in teaching children under its care handicrafts. It’s praised as being “eminently useful”. This isn’t only due to benefits to mental health. But that if, disabled children learned a skill then they could earn some money and live independently.

Women and basket weaving

Initially women would come and teach basket weaving. But mind quickly turned to more effective crafts and expert craftspeople were consulted to:

…extend the teaching of crafts more satisfactory, and to a larger extent more remunerative.

Success stories were quick to come with two young women from Peacefield. They found a place in the Crippled Girls’ Industrial Home in London. Here, they were taught “the art of artificial flower making, and thus be enabled to earn their own living.”

The article ends triumphantly stating that “this beneficent work speaks loudly for itself.”

I love this story of success, attention, care and triumph and can’t wait to share more insights into the archive with Disabled Living’s “Donkeys To Innovators” archive and heritage project.

December 13, 2017
Talking About Our Christmas Crafts for Disability History Month

For Disability History Month this year, the theme is the arts. Disabled Living is proud of its history which is steeped in arts and crafts. This month, we would love to share some of these stories from our #DonkeysToInnovators archive and heritage project with you. Thank you to Heather Roberts for writing this blog post.

Christmas card crafts

Befitting the season is more from our astounding Christmas card collection. Following on from our sneak peek before we wanted to delve in a little deeper.

For this blog, we would like to share with you the first famous designer we know to have illustrated our cards.

1907, Garth Jones

The first Christmas card that we know to have been designed by a recognised artist is the gorgeous 1907 print of Santa. Garth Jones (1872-1955) was a Mancunian illustrator and art teacher, notable for his designs in fairy tale and folklore volumes. He studied at what would become the Royal College of Art in London and later in Paris.

I absolutely love this item! You can definitely see a little fairy tale in the Christmas card. The cheeky little cherubim hauling a wayfarer troubadour Santa along with his wicker basket, reminds me of the English fables book my Nana would have by her chair (with ginger biscuits at the ready of course).

The poem

The lovely little poem is attributed to an M.K. It is highly likely this is Marianne Kirlew, Honorary Secretary for The Band of Kindness and Children’s Help Society (which was Disabled Living back in the day).

Our aches and pains all fly away, when hampers come on Christmas day.

The pretty verse refers to the Christmas hampers which were given out to children either living with disability or otherwise home bound for Christmas due to illness. The Christmas card accompanied the hamper and would have surely brightened any child’s day.

As an archive

One of my favourite things about this card is how archive-y it is. Can you see what looks like a very precise tea stain on the card and some ghostly scribbled up top?

The outline shows where the card has been pressed against another item in the folio. It has remained there for so long that it has sort of protected the natural yellowing of the card. The scribbles are where ink has bleached and protected just that bit of card which it was pressed against. If you look closely, you can see that the writing is backwards, referring to the 1907 Christmas card.

The craft

This beautiful little design shows how the arts, illustration and poetry have been valued by Disabled Living for over a century.

We look forward to sharing more of these stories with you soon!

December 4, 2017
Guidance on Choosing What to Keep in Your Archive

This is the second blog from Heather Roberts (HerArchivist, archive consultant), explaining the process we undertook for appraising our photographs archive.

Appraisal

Appraisal is a term that archivists use a lot. It means “choosing what to keep”. Contrary to some beliefs, we are not “professional hoarders”. Well, most of us aren’t, I have my suspicions about some of us.

An archive is:

An archive is a collection of records (that are either physical or digital) that are the evidence of something or somebody in the past, which you keep so that others can remember it in the future.

(HerArchivist, “Create your own archive” toolkit, p.5)

When presented with loads of “stuff”, you therefore need to think about what fits the definition.

Disabled Living’s Donkeys to Innovators project have hundreds of incredible photographs evidencing activities, staff, premises and so much more. We are not archiving them all. Many are duplicates and we don’t really need more than one of the same thing. We are going to appraise them.

Here’s why…

Duplicates

More than one of something is great. It beats having nothing. However, if you are keeping two or even three or more of something, you have to store it. A few hundred photographs take up enough space as it is. Add to that the special archive packaging and you’ve easily doubled the required space. If you have the space available then fab. Most organisations have to be very careful with storage space. The cost of it needs to be worth what you’re putting in it.

Also, archival packaging isn’t cheap. Photography packaging in particular as it requires special materials to help preserve the photographs. It may not be financially sensible to spend money on more than packaging than you strictly need.

The easiest way to reduce the volume of your archive and therefore space and money is to take out duplicates.

Below are the two main things we have been considering when appraising duplicate photographs on the Donkeys to Innovators project.

Information

Two photographs may be the same. Same image, same angle, same size etc.

If that’s the case, check the back. If one is blank and the other has a date, photographer’s stamp or scribble on the back which reveals some further information about where the photograph was took or who/what is in etc., that is the one you choose to keep.

It’s frustrating when you have a great image but no information about it. Keep the one which has the most added information and you’ll have a richer archive.

If both have the same information, then keep the one in the best condition.

Condition

Photographs are very delicate. They are the materials for which archivists insist on wearing cotton gloves, to protect the chemical surface of the image from the oils on people’s hands. Even freshly washed and thoroughly dried hands can easily damage a photograph.

Photographs are also subject to light damage. This is when prolonged exposure to light has faded the photograph’s image and it is no longer as clear. Light damage is irreversible so if you have any photographs, be mindful of light exposure.

Photographs can be torn, holes poked through where they’ve been pinned up, stained where Sellotape has held them in place and all sorts of similar damage.

Choose the photograph that is in the best condition. Fewer stains, clearer image, least holes and tears etc.

Information vs condition

Some decisions on the Donkeys to Innovators project have gone like this, “Well, this photograph is in the better condition, but this other photograph of the same image has more information on the back. Which do we keep?”

The trick here is to choose the photograph which is in the best condition (and therefore easier to keep and use) and transfer the information from the other photograph onto this one. Either, write on the back of it with a soft pencil (2B or softer will do) or put it in a folder/envelope and write the information on that, again in a soft pencil.

Soft pencils are the archivist’s weapon of choice because you don’t have to press very hard to a surface to write (hence reducing possible damage to the item) and because they are easy to rub out (in case of mistake), they don’t leak ink all over your invaluable archive either.

We are looking forward to revealing some of our fabulous photographs to you on this project. We are certainly having an amazing time working with them.

Heather’s free “Create your own archive” toolkit can be downloaded here.

October 5, 2017
A Rare Find: The Christmas Card Folio

Heather Roberts (HerArchivist, archive consultant), has put together this wonderful blog which discovers the meaning and significance of Disabled Living’s collection of heritage Christmas cards.

The archive

Disabled Living have a fascinating history stretching 120 years. It’s a vital but little-know part of Manchester’s amazing past and present. On the Donkeys to Innovators project, we are hoping to organise the evidence of their history into an archive and share their journey.

Explore the timeline for some of the key points of the history.

There are some gorgeous archive items in their collection. Hundreds of photographs, decades of annual reports, files of letters, ye old property deeds. Nice, core archive material through which you can learn so much.

Disabled Living also has something else. It’s an absolute treat and so unique. Not only does it say so much about the organisation but it’s also aesthetically delightful.

Christmas card folio

It’s the kind of thing that when you look at it, it makes you sigh and wish for childhood and Christmas markets. It’s colourful, full of beautiful vintage designs and interesting stories to tell.

The folio is an old crumbling hardback volume. Within it are pasted the Christmas cards that the society (back then called The Crippled Children’s Help Society) used to send to children at Christmas who were either disabled or otherwise housebound for the season (recovering from illness etc.).

Each card is gorgeously designed and very of its time, charting the way through a good chunk of the first half of the 20^th century. There’s hints of classic Arts and Crafts style borders, flowing into Art Nouveau lines all the way through to the vintage bright bold colours of Santas gone by.

They must have been an absolute treat to receive in the post. Many were accompanied by Christmas hampers for the children as a small gift of added kindness for the season.

How this helps research and understanding

This folio is important not only for its beauty and rarity (much of the original archive was lost in a fire). It is also key in understanding what the society really did.

Much of any organisation’s is written down, in minutes and letters and reports. These are all highly valuable. They chart the progress of an organisation, what it had to think about, how it managed challenges, what was planned etc.

However, this only tells one side of the story. It can tell us on the top-level of the organisation what went on. This is the material that is therefore most likely to be kept. It’s rare that much of the ground-level activity is kept. It’s everyday stuff. It’s not discussed by the Board or debated over at Annual General Meetings.

These simple heritage Christmas cards on the other hand, tell a story about the ground-level kindness and activism of the society. You can see it in front of your face. You can hold it in your hands. It’s a beautiful piece of Manchester’s history and we are so looking forward to sharing it with you.

Take care of the pennies

The adage, “Take care of the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves” might apply here. Important records, top-level records and core activities are usually kept because they shout of inherent value.

The grass-roots, ground-level, every day activities and initiatives are what the organisation actually does, though. So spare a little effort in making sure that this is evidenced, remembered and celebrated.

Heather’s free “Create your own archive” toolkit can be downloaded here.

September 29, 2017