Outside The Box is our podcast series. We explore the wide variety of archives and the wonders they contain.
Explore Your Archive podcast talks to the people who work in and with archives. The podcast is presented by Deborah Mason and produced by Lily Colgan.
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 9
Bethlem museum of the mind
Bethlem Museum of the Mind records the lives and experience and celebrates the achievements of people with mental health problems. It seeks to explore and discuss issues around mental health, both in the past and the present day, using its collection of art, objects, and archives.
Please note this podcast contains upsetting material concerning racism and mental health.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 8
Oral History at Perth and Kinross archive
The sound collection at the Perth and Kinross archive has since the 1970s gathered voices of regional residents relating to all aspects of the history of Perth & Kinross.
Hannah Mackay shares with us her work on the sound collection, early oral history techniques and technologies, questions of ethics and consent, some tips for getting started with recording, and a favourite recording from the archive.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 7
Scottish political history in 20th and 21st centuries
Learning about the Scottish Political Archives (SPA) housed at the University of Stirling with the following guests:
- Archivist at the University of Stirling – Rosie Al-Mulla
- Lecturer and Editor of the Scots Independent Newspaper – Grant Thoms
- Volunteer on the Scots Independent Archive project – Bria Bednarick
- Student at the University of Stirling – Francis Bell
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 6
Voices Through Time, the story of care
Voices Through Time: The Story of Care is the ambitious project lead by archivist Beck Price.
The aim is to digitise the earliest part of Coram’s historic archive, going all the way back to 1739 when it was established as the Foundling Hospital. It was the country’s first home for children whose mothers could not take care of them.
As well as aiming to preserve this fascinating historical record online for future generations, it directly involves young people in care or who have been in care, giving them opportunities to both engage with the archive and tell their own stories.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 5
Glass artist Kirsty Brooks inspired by archives
Kirsty Brooks is an artist who works with glass. She creates site-specific artworks that respond to the history or functioning of its surroundings.
Her creative design process more or less always starts by rummaging in an archive. Kristy shares with us her processes, her favourite pieces found and conversations had, as well as her own creative archival project.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 4
Forgotten women of Wakefield
Sarah Cobham, CEO of Dream Time Creative, a place-based creative organisation set up with the aim to help other women feel empowered, enabled and emboldened in their creative and cultural voices.
Their project ‘Forgotten Women of Wakefield’ won the 2023 Community Archive and Heritage Award. It aimed to redressed the imbalance in blue plaques in the town.
‘No women of note’ is what they were told, tune in to hear just how wrong they were.
Please note there is mention of pregnancy loss in this episode.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 3
Archiving cucumbers? Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
Ally McConnel principal archivist at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre talk about bringing gardening and archives together.
The wondrous, tiny tangible moments that can be found within archives, how they can be heart and soul of a community in the most unassuming ways.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 2
Patents, Designs & Inventions at the National Archives
Stories from the National Archives lesser-known Visual Collections, including some Victorian creative problem-solving to odour.
Some of the visual material that TNA hold, why they have them, and how you can explore them.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 2, Episode 1
Bringing Archives to Life – Suffolk Archives & Orchestra Live
Kicking off with a double episode, this is a wonderful story of collaboration, community engagement and creative responses to archives.
It includes discussion on two brilliant projects inspired by items from the archive which bring Suffolk history to life through music and dance.
Plus, there are talks with Coram, Perth and Kinross Sound Collection, Scottish Political Archives, Bethlem Museum of the Mind, The UK National Archives, Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, and Dreamtime Creative.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 1
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 11
Black Cultural Archives – Melba Wilson Papers
Melba Wilson’s career spans over 40 years in national and regional mental health programmes, policy units and services. She worked in grassroot and community activism alongside formal policy work and leadership.
Rhoda Boateng from the Black Cultural Archives in London takes us through the paper collection of Melba Wilson.
Please note this podcast contains upsetting material concerning racism and mental health.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 10
What’s in the Box? – Riverside Studios
The history of the Riverside Studios from TV and film with iconic programmes like Dr Who to stand out theatre performances, from stars in the making.
Archivist Hope Fulton has just begun to explore and catalogue over 300 boxes of archive material at the Studios. She takes us through.
Further information
Outside the box – Series 1, Episode 9
The Circus and the Fair are coming to town – The National Fairground and Circus Archive
The fairground industry furthered education of the 19th century poor and promoted female boxing as a sport. It also showcased and played a role in developing technological innovations.
Arantza Barrutia manager at the National Fairground and Circus Archive Collections takes us through.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 8
Below stairs at Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is one of the grandest stately home of England but the history of those who have worked at the palace and on the estate is lesser known.
Alexa Frost, archivist at Blenheim Palace talks us through the long term staff database project. Much of the archive at Blenheim is private but the staff database will eventually be a searchable resource for anyone with an interest in ‘below stairs’ social history.
Further information
- Get in touch with Blenheim Palace archives. You have a family connection, want to find out more, have old photos or documents to share.
- Bleinheim Palace
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 7
Friendship and social campaigning – 19th Century students at Edge Hill University
These wonderful records are from a time when the University was an all-women non-denominational teacher training college. They give a fascinating insight into the lives of the students and Jack’s research goes further to trace what happened to them next.
From Edge Hill University Dan Copley (Archivist), Jack Bennett (Archive Intern) and Grace Marks (PhD Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant) explore the student records and friendship books from the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th Century.
Further information
- The friendship books all have been digitised (rabbit-hole warning! They are fascinating and will suck you in!)
- The Animals of Edge Hill University’s Friendship Books
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 6
Not just Dennis the Menace – DC Thomson
David Powell, Archive Manager, talks iconic comics. He also gives a rounder view of this long-established Dundee media company world famous for publishing the Beano and The People’s Friend.
It is on the other hand less known for its range of local newspapers, magazines portfolio, and the teen read of a certain age of women: Jackie. David talks about how the archives serves the business and some of the exhibition projects with which he has been involved.
Further information
- Send enquiries the archive is not open to the public but researchers can write in.
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 5
Breaking into the corridors of power – Parliamentary Archives
Discover highlights from the stories of suffragettes and suffragists, find out why Jeremy Corbyn was tiptoeing through parliament with an electric drill and how you get a banner through a metal grill.
Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist at the Parliamentary Archives talks us through.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 4
The inspiring history of the Disability Arts movement – The National Disability Art Collection and Archive
The stories of the inspirational people involved in the disability arts movement over the years.
Project Archivist Alex Cowan shows us how the archive tells their stories.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 3
Live streaming before the internet – BT and Electrophone
The history of the Electrophone, the first UK based theatre (and church service) streaming device dates back to the late 19th century and is kept in the BT Group Archives.
Natasha Kitcher and Anne Archer (Head of BT Group Archives) tell the story of the Electrophone and some other early tech.
If you thought that live streaming theatre performances came in with the internet then you are in for a surprise.
Further information
- BT Archives open for research visits by appointment
- The History of BT
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 2
Putting yourself into the archive – Workie Ticket Theatre
JoJo Kirtley, founder and co-artistic director of Workie Ticket Theatre tells the story of how, over the course of several lockdowns she worked with the communities of North Tyneside to ensure that their voices and their stories of the COVID-19 pandemic would be part of the future history of our times. Listen in to find out how she did it and why Workie Ticket Theatre won the Community Archives and Heritage Group overall award for 2022.
Further information
Outside the Box – Series 1, Episode 1
Seven hundred years of history restored to the Irish nation – Beyond 2022- The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland
Zoe Reid, Keeper of the National Archives in Ireland, tells the story of how the Public Record Office was destroyed in 1922 and how in 2022 the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has recreated a significant part of the lost records – some through conservation, some through obtaining digital copies of records held by other organisations around the world.
Further information
(rabbit hole warning – browse to your hearts content in this virtual reality reading room but it may take over your life!)