Last year, the Museum’s Archives Revealed project to catalogue the founding records of St John Ambulance began, and this year, the Archives Revealed team have continued to work incredibly hard to sort, inventory, and begin cataloguing the records. We’ve been challenged, learned new things, had eureka ‘I’ve found it’ moments, been very cold working in the Archive Centre during very chilly months, and consumed vast quantities of coffee (and biscuits!) Here’s a wrap-up of the project over the last year to keep you all up to date on our exciting progress.

The Archive, while small in comparison to county and national archives, holds a surprising amount, and it took longer than we’d originally planned to progress through the initial sorting and inventory phase. We’re not seeing this as a negative by any stretch, because the thorough basic inventory completed of the entire Archive that we have completed has given us a solid understanding of what we have and where it is, and enables us to prepare and plan for future cataloguing projects, digitisation projects, conservation needs, engagement, and the general future-proofing of the Archive.

A personnel update

In August, our original Project Cataloguer, Annie Lord, moved on to a new job. Annie did a fantastic job in starting the project and getting it on its feet, navigating the confusing organisational structures of the past, and creating some fantastic content for our social media. Annie was a fantastic colleague and friend, and we wish her well in her new role. In November, Josie Sommer joined the team as Project Cataloguer for the remainder of the project, and we’re delighted to have her on board as we move into the last 9 months of the project.

A cataloguing update

There are different levels within our archive catalogue (fonds > sub-fonds > series > sub-series > sub-sub-series > file >item), with ‘fonds’ being the highest and biggest grouping, and ‘item’ being the lowest and most granular level. While these terms may not be familiar to you, they work to section out the Archive’s holdings to make it easier to navigate.

The cataloguing part of our project requires us to catalogue to file level, which essentially means that we will not be cataloguing every single in-scope record individually (although we have made the decision to catalogue a small number of records to the granular item level). File level groups records into relevant and identifiable groups to help anyone identify what we have in the Archive that might be of interest.

To date, this is how many catalogue entries we have at the different levels.

• Fonds = 1
• Sub-Fonds = 4
• Series = 21
• Sub-series – 32
• Sub-Sub Series = 107
• File = 172
• Item = 47 

The publicly accessible catalogue of the records we are cataloguing as part of this project will be available in late summer of next year, so keep your eyes open for more information in the coming year.

And now, over to the Archives Revealed team, who have some words to share on their work and experience of the project so far.

Joyce Guillaume (Project Volunteer)

The past year of volunteering with the Archive team has flown by. A significant part of the enjoyment and satisfaction of this time has been the encouragement from fellow volunteer Pat, and the professional Archive team; Sophie, Annie, and Josie. Let’s get the challenge of working with the Archive ‘out there’ first – it’s cold, and just when you think it cannot get any colder guess what it does! Honestly, it’s the only negative thing I can think to say.

Until August we were listing the contents of ‘in-scope’ boxes of archive materials. In scope for this project are documents dating between about 1870 and 1939, considered to be the founding years of the modern St John Ambulance. These boxes were found in different areas of the Archive and museum building. The storage areas are very varied from the rather grand Prior’s Dining Room (not an actual dining room) to the not so grand Chancery basement. More recently I have been cataloguing annual return records for London-based Nursing Divisions. Some of these Divisions were founded as far back as the 1890s. What is particularly fascinating for me with this stage of the project is the cataloguing process making more accessible information which helps tell the story of women, who worked so hard to maintain their volunteer nursing roles together with their many other responsibilities.

Josie Sommer (Project Cataloguer)

It’s my fifth week working on the Archives Revealed project here at the Museum of the Order of St John. So far, I’ve had a thoroughly joyful whirlwind introduction to the wonderful Museum team, fabulous buildings and, of course, the Archive of the modern St John Ambulance. I’m kicking off my archiving journey by cataloguing financial records. That might seem an odd choice (why not go for something more fun, I hear you shout!), but these records are helping me quickly get to grips with the evolving iterations of the organisation as well as how the Order, the Association and the Brigade are linked. And, of course, you can always learn a lot by following the money! I’m really looking forward to continuing to explore next year.

Pat Halpin (Project Volunteer)

At the beginning of this year, I started volunteering in the Museum’s Archive with fellow volunteer Joyce Guillaume. Without wishing to embarrass anyone, it was one of the best inductions I have had in many years both within St John Ambulance and vocationally. We are fortunate as an organisation to have the Museum team to look after our heritage and particular thanks must go to Sophie, Annie and Josie. To be fair, we’ve had our moments; the cold is as cold as working inside a fridge and we’ve had the heat where we have melted.

Our work is quite specific as Joyce mentions, we are looking at the formation of St John Ambulance; however, for me the experience is being privileged to handle documents throughout the years; the oldest I have handled was from 1877. We are now in the stage where we are documenting the Divisions (Units) that exist and existed – there is so much history untold; holding the Annual Returns (BF1/2) for the No. 1 (and other) Division was a unique glimpse into the past.

I describe my Tuesday as the best day of the week; it is fun, rewarding, enlightening and empowering, I am honoured to be entrusted with handling the organisation’s history and trying to make it more visible in future.

Sophie Denman (Archivist)

This is the biggest project I have managed in my archival career so far, and it has been both a challenge and a joy. I am so proud of the team: Pat, Joyce, Annie, and Josie. They have all been great fun to work with, and all the hard work really is down to them. It is great to see the work come together; to see our searchable inventory of the Archive and the green labelled boxes of catalogued records on the shelves, to read the blog posts written by the team, and contribute to the catalogue that will become publicly accessible at the end of the project by cataloguing the in-scope international records.

I won’t lie, I’m really looking forward to having two weeks off over the festive period, but I can’t wait to come back in January with the team and have so much more to share with you. In the meantime, check out the gallery below to see some of the project photographs from this year.