“Anthem for doomed youth”?: exploring conflict and resolution through archives

Join us on Tuesday, March 25th 2014, for our annual 'Friends of Newsam Library & Archives’ (FNLA) Study Day. This year’s event, “Anthem for doomed youth”?: exploring conflict and resolution through archives, considers the concepts of war, conflict and peace through the lense of learning and education.

Document Reference: BDN/64

The day’s programme:

9.45-10.00	Welcome and Introductions (Sean Curran)
10.00-10.30	Activities in the Library and Archives (Sarah Aitchison)
10.30-11.30	Professor Stuart Foster Centenary First World War Battlefields Project
11.30-12.30	Dr Barry Blades, Teachers and the Great War, 1914-1919
12.30-13.30	Lunch (please bring your own). Tea and coffee will be provided.
13.30- 14.30	Walter Lewis, Educating Service Children in the 20th Century
14.30-15.30	Alix Hall, Thinking Outside the Box: Using Archives to Teach Perspectives on Wartime
15.30-16.00	Archive showcase of relevant collections from the Library Special Collections and Archives

Where: Newsam Library & Archives, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London

When: Tuesday, 25 March 2014 from 09:30 to 16:00

Register for free tickets here.

Find out more about the Friends of Newsam Library & Archives, including how to become a member, here.

"Challenging histories" at Sutton House

On Thursday 13th, we celebrated LGBT History Month at Sutton House, Hackney, in an event to support the 'Master-Mistress' exhibition, which runs until 7th March. The event was called 'Challenging Histories: what place do LGBTQ identities have in museums and historic houses' and was so well attended that people had to sit on the window-sills in the beautiful Great Chamber.

The discussion raised many interesting ideas and questions, and we could have run for longer than we did- but hopefully we have peaked people's interests for future events.

 Below is the podcast of the evening, I'm hoping to put it on iTunes at some point- but it's beyond my technical capabilities, so this will have to suffice for now.

I'd also like to thank again the four speakers for the event; Jan, Claire, Naomi and Oliver, and of course to the team at Sutton House for being such great hosts!
 

I hope this is a conversation that will continue amongst everyone who attended, and amongst other National Trust properties.

Rainbow Jews exhibition

Just a very quick post today as I'm putting the last minute touches on the questions for tonight's Challenging Histories: what place do LGBTQ identities have in museums and historic houses? event. (DO COME!)







































I've mentioned the Rainbow Jews project on this blog before, and the project leader Surat Knan was one of the voice contributors for the 'Master-Mistress' exhibition, and finally all of the hard work has paid off and the exhibition is up and running at LSE until 28th February. I braved the 80mph winds yesterday to pay it a visit.

Rainbow Jews is a unique oral history and archive project, exploring the intersection of Jewish and LGBT identities. The exhibition includes snippets (both audio and text based) from some of the interviews, videos and objects that celebrate LGBT Jewish identities. I highly recommend a visit, it's a truly historic move to capture these narratives where so many before have been lost and unrecorded.

You can find out more here.

There's an article about the launch event here.

Coverage of 'Master-Mistress'

Just thought I'd share some of the coverage we've had for 'Master-Mistress'.

I've been delighted in the interest in the exhibition so far, it's appeared on various listing sites, but I'll highlight a few:

Elle UK have listed the exhibition as one of their 'Alternative Valentine's Day' recommendations here.

We were featured on the homepage of Destination Hackney for a few days, though I can't find the link to the feature itself anymore!

We're also mentioned on the Hackney Gazette page here. (although they have misquoted me saying the sonnets are "suggestive", which I'm pretty sure I've never said!

I had a short interview with Laura Raphael who wrote these great pieces on East London Lines and Shades of Noir.

We appeared in a feature about LGBT History Month events in the Hackney Today newspaper (on two separate days!) (apologies for the blurry pictures)

and we also had a tweet from Diane Abbott Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (hopefully not all of her 62.3K followers will visit at once)

Shakespeare's Fair Youth Sonnets being read at Sutton House for LGBT History Month #lgbtsmallsteps http://t.co/whewIKq4PF
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) February 6, 2014

It's really promising that the exhibition, and LGBT History Month more broadly is stirring up interest, hopefully the coverage will help persuade people to come to the panel event at Sutton House tomorrow 'Challenging Histories: what place do LGBTQ identities have in historic houses?' you can find more information here.

Don't forget to check out the LGBT History Month calendar for other great events.