To celebrate our first anniversary, we thought it would be a good time to look back at some of the highlights of the past twelve months’ editions of the Birmingham Archives & Community Heritage Update. Below is a run through our first year’s editions together with links to them so that if there is anything you missed (or you just want to do all the jigsaws again!), you can revisit!
June 2020 featured a newspaper report of the arrival of Empire Windrush in Tilbury Essex, on 22nd June 1948, and the City’s Archives & Collections service asked you to help document the second city’s lockdown, creating or collecting material of this historic time – you can still contribute! Details of how to are available on our blog.
July 2020 revealed the stories that lie behind the intriguing images of this newsletter’s banner… why do we have a fish in in a kimono?!, and the document of the month showcased The Calendars of Prisoners – records kept from 1880 onwards, detailing names, aliases, occupations, details of offences, and convictions.
August 2020 investigated the amazing life of Mahmood Hashmi, the literary critic and journalist, who became Birmingham’s first south Asian teacher in 1956, and went on to be founding editor of Britain’s first Urdu language weekly newspaper ‘Mashriq.’ This edition also featured ‘A Short History of Birmingham Markets,’ which have been on record since 1166.
September 2020 Did you know that a garden designed specifically for the blind and visually impaired was opened in Queens Park, Harborne in 1953? You can read the original Birmingham Gazette report here. Birmingham Heritage week was between the 10th and 20th of September, and you can read about the fantastic range of walks, talks, and events that were taking place.
October 2020 celebrated Black History Month, and we had an article about the wonderful online resource that is Connecting Histories; a collaboration between Birmingham Archives, the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick, and the Black Pasts, Birmingham Futures, group. For those who enjoy things that go bump in the night, the October edition also has a handwritten Halloween ghost story from 1785.
November 2020 saw the launch of the ‘From City of Empire to City of Diversity: A Visual Journey,’ a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in which Sampad and The Library of Birmingham will create two major photographic exhibitions and an extensive city-wide engagement programme to coincide with the Commonwealth Games in 2022. In addition, Bookstart Birmingham has contact information for anyone who has a child, or looks after a child between 0-5 years old, who may have missed out on their Baby Pack or Treasure Pack.
December 2020 featured an article on Vanley Burke, a photographer who came to England from Jamaica in 1965 and recorded the lives and experiences of the wider African Caribbean Community with his camera. There’s a link to the Connecting Histories website and Vanley’s ongoing work from here. There’s also a selection of fantastic photographs of Birmingham’s historic markets, taken at the turn of the 20th Century.
January 2021 had a fascinating piece on The Birmingham Temperance Society, founded in 1830, to coincide with our New Year resolutions! We also had a dramatic first-hand account by the Reverend Kelly of the bombing of St Mary’s Church in Acock’s Green in 1940!
February 2021 celebrated Chinese New Year, and there’s a diary entry from The Helen Caddick Collection, describing her experience of the New Year celebrations whilst travelling through China in 1909. February also marked LGBT+ History month highlighting some of the collections held in the Archives at the Library of Birmingham, not to mention further features on the meticulous renovation of the Jewellery Quarter’s Chamberlin Clock, and an hilarious article on the popular Comedy Valentines of the early 1800’s. These grotesque caricatures were generally sent by men to their single friends, lampooning their chosen profession and ridiculing them for not having found a love match!
March 2021 recognised Women’s History Month with photographs of an historic petition, sent to Benjamin Disraeli, and signed by many prominent female activists, including Florence Nightingale asking for the ‘Electoral Disabilities of Women’ to be removed. In addition, there’s a very informative piece on George Dixon, who became known through his tireless work in Parliament as ‘The Father of Free Education.’
April 2021 featured the wonderful collection behind the National Lottery Heritage funded partnership project (From City of Empire to City of Diversity: A Visual Journey) – The Dyche Collection! One of the most important photographic collections within the Archives and acquired by Birmingham Central Library in 1990, it has through its portraiture played a part in documenting post-1945 migration and the huge contribution made by those who settled in the city from the Commonwealth). Also featured is the Jewellery Quarter Poppy Project in which some 150 members of the public have stitched poppies that will be put together into a tapestry by artist Tina Francis! Did you know that as well as red, there are also white, black and purple poppies?
May 2021 highlighted International Nurses day – which has been celebrated since 1965, so is in its 56th year! To mark the day and all the wonderful work nurses do and have particularly done over the last year, we took you on a pictorial journey of nurses in the photographs held in the Archives, and, introduced you to some of the wonderful health-related collections we have in the Library of Birmingham.
All of the featured articles highlighted above, and many many more, are still available to read online. Just follow the links!
So, here’s to another year of our collaborative newsletter! Please do share with friends and family, it’s free to sign-up!
Richard Gallon, Keyworker (Library Services at Home)
The Iron Room 