St Helena : St Helena: BRITISH LIBRARY TO PILOT ST HELENA ARCHIVES DIGITISATION
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Public Relations Information Office) 30.06.2012 (Article Archived on 14.07.2012)
The British Library has agreed to fund a pilot digitisation project for the internationally-significant St Helena Archives. This project will audit the collection as a whole, digitise the earliest records (beginning with ‘Goodwins Abstracts’, 1673-1707), provide training for local staff and lay the foundations for a potential major project grant.
BRITISH LIBRARY TO PILOT ST HELENA ARCHIVES DIGITISATION
The British Library has agreed to fund a pilot digitisation project for the internationally-significant St Helena Archives. This project will audit the collection as a whole, digitise the earliest records (beginning with ‘Goodwins Abstracts’, 1673-1707), provide training for local staff and lay the foundations for a potential major project grant.
The Archives, held principally at the Castle, are a relatively small but invaluable collection of historical records, documenting the history, people and daily life of the Island from the late 17th century through to modern times. They also provide an irreplaceable historical record for the Island’s extensive built and archaeological heritage, as well as vital shipping records. Many of the surviving documents have international significance and are absolutely unique to the Island.
But housed as it is, on the ground floor of an historic building with no temperature control, the Archive is at risk from long term deterioration due to humidity, and even from insect infestation and potentially catastrophic loss. The condition of the records is very variable, from good to very poor, and there are no microfilm or digital copies of any materials. This means that all current research is carried out on original documents. The ultimate longer term aim is to provide modern and dedicated storage for these records.
This pilot project will cover various materials up to 1914. This covers all of the key episodes in the Island’s colonial and EIC history, ending with the Boer War and the establishment of the Atlantic telegraph. The pilot will:
Provide digitisation equipment
Audit the Archive material
Prioritise a list for digitisation, based on historic value, stability, amount of use, and level of duplication elsewhere (eg London)
· Begin digitisation as outlined above (including representative documents for quantification purposes)
· Provide training for local staff. Training will include the handling, use and display of documents, photographic and digital processes, cataloguing, archiving and backing up digital data (importantly, this will allow key local input into any subsequent Major EAP Research Grant)
Thus, lay the foundations for a Major EAP Grant (if feasible)
This work will be carried out primarily by Dr Andrew Pearson, who has an affiliation with St Helena, extensive experience of both archaeological and archive-based research on the Island, and very good working relationships with key local archivists. Dr Pearson, who has also published on St Helena’s history, and carried out important research on the slave graves in 2008, will spend about six weeks on-Island from 12 September 2012.
St Helena was first discovered by the Portuguese in 1502. English rule, under the auspices of the East India Company (EIC), was established in 1659. Although best known for its association with Napoleon, the Island has a longer history in terms of colonialism, Empire-building, and the slave trade and its suppression. It was a shipping way-station between Europe, India and the East, and as such was pivotal in the creation of the British Empire.
In the 18th Century hundreds - occasionally thousands - of merchant ships called there every year. From its earliest association with the EIC, St Helena employed coerced labour, but after 1807 became an important base for British slave trade Naval suppression in the Atlantic. The Island’s remoteness has, from time to time, also led to its use as a place of imprisonment - of Napoleon, but also of Boer POWs, Zulu Chiefs and Middle Eastern dissidents.
The Archives holds records from the 1600s, including EIC records through to 1834. These include correspondence with England, internal memos, land grants and legal proceedings. There is also extensive documentation on Napoleon’s exile, including his death certificate. The Archives hold extensive correspondence between the Island’s Governor and the Colonial Office, and local material (which was never transmitted to London) such as accounts, private correspondence, maps, land titles, legal judgements, bill posters, local newspapers and unpublished historical research. Some of the records are undocumented, but historically significant, such as St Helena’s Vice-Admiralty Court records.
SHG
26 June 2012
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