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St John Archive, St John Youth, St John People, Volunteering

The Museum launches an Introduction to the Archive Film!

Posted Sunday 7th December
Sophie Denman Archivist

It’s Explore Your Archive week and today’s theme is #YourArchives – what better way to celebrate our archive than to launch our new archive film!

Our film is the culmination of our exciting two-year project to catalogue the founding records of St John Ambulance from c.1870s – 1939, funded through an Archives Revealed cataloguing grant. The cataloguing project has enabled us to better understand and care for the Archive’s collections, and to increase access to the founding records of St John Ambulance through the launch of the Archive’s catalogue on Collections Online.

But, not content with *just* doing the cataloguing project, we promised ourselves that we would make a film at the end of the project to introduce the Archive to you all, and we have done just that.

A view of a woman being filmed while she undertakes some research. In the foreground is a large wooden table, Seated at the table on the left is a woman with long dark hair, glasses, and a white jumper. She is making notes while looking at an iPad. On the right is a man with dark hair and a dark jumper. He is holding a videocamera which he is pointing at the woman.
Filming behind the scenes with Ameeta

After putting in so much work for the Archives Revealed project, we wanted to create an accessible visual introduction to the St John Archive, to let people know what it is, where it is, and how it can be accessed.

A view of a woman being interviewed on film. The woman is facing the image viewer and she has brown hair, is wearing a light blue-green dress, and is sitting down in the middle of a large wood-panelled hall. In front of her, facing her, are two men with their backs to the image viewer. They are both handling photographic and film-making equipment which is aimed at the woman. Surrounding the two men are a big light and a microphone.
Filming behind the scenes with Sally

We spent a day filming at the Museum, capturing Archive staff and volunteers at work, interviews with staff and volunteers, and some of our archive work with Cadets, working with an excellent filming company to produce the film.

A view of a woman being filmed in her workplace. The woman has her back to the image viewer; she is sitting down at a desk working on a laptop. She has short dark hair and she is wearing a floral dress. To her left are two men; one standing, one seated. The man who is standing has short dark hair and is holding a videocamera which is pointed at the woman. The man who is seated is wearing light trousers, a dark jumper, and wearing a cap on his head. He is making notes.
Filming behind the scenes with Joyce

We then spent some time working with the filming company to edit, review, and prepare the film, and the result of this work is a short 4-minute introduction to the Archive.

A view of a woman being filmed doing her work. In the centre is a woman with blonde hair in a knee-length light floral dress. She is rummaging through a green box which is sitting on top of a grey table. Behind here can be seen shelves filled with boxes. In the foreground are two men with their backs to the image viewer. They are both wearing dark jumpers and are holding cameras and microphones which they are pointing at the woman.
Filming behind the scenes with Sophie

I am now delighted to introduce the St John Archive to you through the medium of our film, which you can access on the Museum’s YouTube channel here.

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Thank you to everyone who has helped us succeed in our Archives Revealed project and to make this film a success:

Archives Revealed, funded by The National Archives, the Pilgrim Trust, and The Wolfson Foundation.

The Priory of England and the Islands of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem

St John Ambulance

St John Fellowship

St John Historical Society

Abi Cornick, Adrian Ailes, Ameeta Lodhia, Anna Mason, Annie Lord, Arthur Rollison, Brian Hays, Brian Porter, Irene Lafferty, Josie Sommer, Joyce Guillaume, Josephine Moloney, Kal Parkash, Mariam del Carmen Ibrahim, Marleen Vincenten, Ni’mah Monir, Pádraig Allen, Pat Halpin, Princess Coffi, Rosemary Cresswell, Sally Frampton, Sam Sidi, Sophie Denman, Stephen Noble, and Todd Skilton.

And of course, our thanks to everyone at Chocolate Films who helped us make this wonderful film.

This film was made possible through the generous financial support of Charles Mack, Georgio Cuneo, and Walter Fonseca.

Explore Your Archive is a celebration of archives of all kinds across the nation, organised by the Archives & Records Association for UK & Ireland.

 

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