Report from the chair (March 2024)
Welcome to our March newsletter. We finally managed to catalogue the run of Time magazine and we have now catalogued 2,847 copies from 1936 through to 2003. There is some fabulous advertising in these and we plan to do several blog pieces over the coming months to highlight some examples.
A good friend of the archive, Pete Boswell, runs Archive Digital which scans runs of magazines for various publishers. Often, once the scanning is complete, the publisher no longer wants the physical material (usually disbound from volumes and now loose pages) and Pete very generously donates these to the archive. Although these are loose pages they are perfect for us as we can file the adverts by company/product in our product files for quick and easy access by researchers. We have just taken delivery of a run of TV Times and Popular Gardening and are planning our next trip to collect Horse & Hound. Filing these is going to keep the volunteers busy for quite a while.
Sukriti’s internship is now in full swing and we are starting to benefit from her expertise in content management and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rankings. She is going through our website and identifying areas where we can improve our ranking and reach a wider audience and you will notice these changes on our website over the coming months.
Before we had time to look through the Observer magazines mentioned last month we received another run of magazines from the Manchester Metropolitan University library team. This time it is copies of Lancashire magazine from circa 1974 to 2015. With a bit of luck they will be catalogued by next month.
As part of our five-year plan towards self-sufficiency we have set up shop on eBay, selling our duplicate adverts. Although only going for a couple of weeks we have managed to sell nearly £300 worth of adverts. This is a great start but we need to keep up the momentum as we only get duplicates for sale once we have a complete copy of the publication as well as individual adverts in the product files. Do have a look in our shop – you can find us here. You might just find the advert you never knew you wanted, and you will be helping a great cause along the way.
Our March open evening was a great success with thirteen people turning up. We even managed to satisfy two research requests on the night. Pat Jeater is restoring a Rolls-Royce 25/30 once owned by General Koenig of the French army. While rummaging among some copies of France Illustration that had just arrived, Pat found a cover picture of Koenig together with an article inside the magazine. Malcolm Asquith, another regular at our open evenings, wanted to browse through our collection of Scottish Motor Show catalogues. Malcolm has a passion for Crossley Cars which were made locally in Manchester and Stockport and wanted to know whether Crossley exhibited or advertised in these shows. The smile on his face said that he had clearly found items of interest.
As a special treat alongside our normal tea, coffee and cake, Paul Niblett, one of our volunteers, brought along Staffordshire oat cakes which we warmed up and topped with cheese. I for one thoroughly enjoyed the evening as I am sure everyone else did too. A number of our visitors brought along donations for the archive for which we are extremely grateful (though of course everyone is welcome with or without donations).
Until our next open evening and newsletter, have a great time and enjoy life to the full.
Take care and all the best,
Richard Roberts and the team at the Richard Roberts Archive
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Collection Statistics
The Richard Roberts Archive collection statistics
Tuesday 19th March 2024
Collection database
Total items 158,247
- of which Magazines 134,335
Product folders
Total folders 143
- circa number of adverts 18,025
Breweriana
Total folders 337
Beermats 20,049
Transport photograph database
Total items 883
Volunteer hours
Total 70,456
- of which this month 623
