Museum Archives



I am currently putting together a display to commemorate VJ day in August. Whilst on furlough, I have been reading various autobiographies and regimental histories to give me some background. More recently, I have been writing panels for the display to give it some context.

One of the panels shows the link between the Regiment with the Castle. Carlisle Castle was the depot of the Border Regiment until 1959 and as this display will be put together outside the Museum building, it is important to make the connection with why we are putting on this commemorative display at the Castle. I returned to the Castle exhibition that was displayed at the Museum a few years ago. This showed a range of photos and resources that provided source material for this exhibition and I wanted to use some of it for this exhibition.

Imagine the excitement when I saw the scan of this document, a 1950s pamphlet for an open day at the Castle. What it highlighted was the various uses of the buildings within the Castle complex. Interesting to see that there were cells, a hospital and a library. Alma Block, where the Museum is currently based, was a Regimental Institute which hosted a dining room and the NAAFI. The document highlights how well used the various buildings were within the Castle.

The Museum houses various archives within its collections which show the wide and varied history of the Regiment. We are lucky that we have some documents to provide a bit of context to the various exhibitions and displays that we develop. These exhibitions and displays give us the opportunity to share these archives and our photographs with a wider audience. We are keen to showcase the wide variety of stuff we hold. The VJ exhibition will be the next opportunity which will allow us to do that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Socially Distanced Alternative?

Image
Matchlock Musket or Brown Bess?  As debate rages whether the Prime Minister will reduce social distancing from 2m to 1m tomorrow, I think we may have the answer for our visitors. Like many other businesses, we at the Museum have a range of posters and floor stickers in production, hazard tape at the ready and a socially 2m safe layout in the pipeline. Or  perhaps we should consider alterna tives to ensure people don't get too close... Let me introduce you to the Brown Bess, o r 'British (Long) Land Pattern Musket' to give it  it's proper name,  used between 1722  and 1838. There are plenty of variations to this flintlock weapon, but at a metre and a half long, it is well on its way to being a useful tool in social distancing. Although the len gth of the Brown Bess did decrease during its long and illustrious history. The Brown Bess was the standard musket of the British military, used in battles such as Culloden and Waterloo. It was the first mass-produced weapon for th
Read more

Once a Guide, Always a Guide...

Image
T onight is another night out in the garden camping. Tonight we are having a Ranger Guide campout with all the girls either camping in their garden or inside their house. We have arranged a call at 7pm and may even burst into song with a virtual campfire. We have all arranged to photograph the evidence of our group sleep out and post it in our WhatsApp group. Luckily the weather is good and it is set to be a warm night so we shouldn't have many mishaps. We were due to go camping as a unit in July but this is unlikely to happen. It is good to encourage the girls to enjoy the great outdoors and camping is an excellent way to introduce them to this primitive way of living outside. I have camped since I was a Guide enjoying weekends, weeks and even longer camps all across the Country from Cornwall to Scotland, Yorkshire to Norfolk. Obviously the weather is a factor in making camp a wonderful experience but it is good to teach the girls that you can still have a great time in the wind a
Read more

Anti-Bacterial wipes for the Medieval Castle?

Image
As part of preparations for opening the Museum staff volunteered to go round the Castle to check out preparations for opening tomorrow.  Not everywhere on the site can be open (medieval castles are not known for social distancing) but one area that could prove interesting will be the dungeons in the Keep. These rooms are all the more fascinating as they are home to the infamous 'licking stones.' I was once asked by a friend to help with her infant class on a visit to the Castle. Obviously, they got all the spiel spiced with kiddie-friendly humour and when we entered to dungeons, I built up the tension and relayed the Jacobite 'licking stone' story. 'Errr' many of the kids commented when I shared the licking stone story 'that's horrible!' which why it was more surprising when one of the wee kids said to me 'Miss, miss. I've just licked the stones!' Joy, oh joy. Not sure that was on any risk assessment. Now I am not actively encouraging vis
Read more