Our intern writes…

I have been a volunteer at Brent Archives since September 2008, where I have been working towards my ambition of becoming an archivist. In 2010 I started an archive course and for one assignment I needed to produce, to a professional standard, an on-line catalogue of a collection, enabling the catalogue, through the Brent Museum and Archives web site, to be searched by the public.

The collection I was working on is of the General Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company, founded in 1919, and based originally in Church Road in Willesden before moving to a new factory in Harrow Road in Sudbury in around 1930. It was kindly donated to the archives by the daughter of the company’s founder, Mrs Patricia Loyn.

The core of the collection features accounts, minutes, sales and marketing material, and business correspondence. Other documents throw light on various aspects of manufacturing, the economic conditions of the 1920s and 1930s, and events such as the bomb damage suffered by the Sudbury factory in World War Two.

One such document (above), taken from folder GCP/1/2/6, illustrates the adverse financial impact of economic conditions on the trading conditions of the day and the drastic steps needed for survival: a situation faced by many companies and employees today. Another document from the collection, from GCP/1/9/1/2, will be used as the basis of the new ‘Take One’ learning resource currently being developed by the Museum and Archives’ Learning Officer, which will be available soon. Keep an eye on the blog for more information.

I found this assignment enjoyable and it shows what archives are about: presenting collections in an accessible way for the public to understand how past generations have gone about their private and business lives. I am very much looking forward to working on more collections!

Posted by David