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Hat museum archives, Stockport, UK
Jul. 3rd, 2012 01:36 pmI've posted before about the hat museum in Stockport, UK, from the perspective of a museum visitor (Reader's Digest version: well worth the trip for anyone who loves hats), but this year, i returned as a scholar.
The museum has an archive of hat resources and a study room, which you may peruse by appointment. I did exactly that last week, and had a fantastic experience poring over old documents, reference books, catalogues and the like.
The archive is not huge--25 archival boxes, a row of hanging files, and a full cabinet of books and periodicals--and largely pertains to the historical hatting industry in the UK, with minor sections on other European countries. The information mostly pertains to mens hat production as opposed to ladies millinery, and it was extensive enough to keep me busy for a full 7-hour day (the museum was open from 10am-5pm).
I spent the majority of my time sifting through loose documents stored in archival boxes--these are sorted generally by subject but not taxonomized. For example, a box might be described as "industrial equipment and tools" and all the papers and catalogues inside pertain to that topic. So, from a researcher's perspective, if you have specific areas of interest, it's easy to determine which boxes might contain items of relevance to your research.
Once you open a box, the documents inside are not yet catalogued or databased. One of the curatorial assistants said they had plans to do so, but as with all institutions time and money were short. I didn't mind this though--there's something more like a treasure hunt about sifting through such things, and the nature of serendipity can provide the opportunity to chance upon something randomly fantastic that you might not have otherwise found, had you just gone directly to the document you needed.
( Read more... )
The museum has an archive of hat resources and a study room, which you may peruse by appointment. I did exactly that last week, and had a fantastic experience poring over old documents, reference books, catalogues and the like.
The archive is not huge--25 archival boxes, a row of hanging files, and a full cabinet of books and periodicals--and largely pertains to the historical hatting industry in the UK, with minor sections on other European countries. The information mostly pertains to mens hat production as opposed to ladies millinery, and it was extensive enough to keep me busy for a full 7-hour day (the museum was open from 10am-5pm).
I spent the majority of my time sifting through loose documents stored in archival boxes--these are sorted generally by subject but not taxonomized. For example, a box might be described as "industrial equipment and tools" and all the papers and catalogues inside pertain to that topic. So, from a researcher's perspective, if you have specific areas of interest, it's easy to determine which boxes might contain items of relevance to your research.
Once you open a box, the documents inside are not yet catalogued or databased. One of the curatorial assistants said they had plans to do so, but as with all institutions time and money were short. I didn't mind this though--there's something more like a treasure hunt about sifting through such things, and the nature of serendipity can provide the opportunity to chance upon something randomly fantastic that you might not have otherwise found, had you just gone directly to the document you needed.
( Read more... )
