Our Special Collections, Heritage and Archives (SCHA) team host student work placements as part of work placement modules undertaken in History and English Masters programmes every Spring term. Students must complete 80 to 100 hours on a project which is devised and supervised by a SCHA member of staff.
Peter Tinniswood Archive
English Literature MA student Nina Liggett-Sekhon assisted in the arranging, repackaging and some cataloguing of the Peter Tinniswood Archive. Peter Tinniswood (1936 - 2003) was a British scriptwriter, novelist and journalist with a long and varied career spanning the stage, screen, page and radio.
Nina writes about her experience: “It was a no-brainer when I saw the role of Archive Assistant on the list of potential placements, as I had thoroughly enjoyed a class visit to see some of the Barry Hines Papers the previous year at undergraduate level.
When my placement began, most of the Tinniswood archive was in the original plastic boxes it had been donated in, meaning I was lucky enough to observe the archival process from the very beginning and see a collection built from the ground upwards. It gave me a renewed appreciation for the archivist role, as one requiring thoughtfulness and sensitivity, and all the effort that goes into each collection. Working with Archivist Fran Horner, we began repackaging and arranging materials, before embarking upon the process of categorisation, sub-categorisation and alphabetisation. Finally, it was time for cataloguing, a largely independent phase and the stage where I was able to get closest to the texts.
Aside from Tinniswood’s written oeuvre, I was privy to the entire spectrum of his life, working through physical fragments of a stranger’s lineage, childhood, adulthood, experience of a tragic illness and death. The simultaneous proximity and distance you can feel to a person through archiving their records is hard to articulate, but extraordinary to experience. It is definitely something I would love to experience again.”
The Peter Tinniswood Archive is now available to browse on our online catalogue Discover our Archives. Information about how to access our collections can be found on our website
Rosemary Sisson Archive
Rosemary Anne Sisson (1923 - 2017) was a British lecturer, drama critic, scriptwriter and novelist as well as the first female full member of the Dramatists’ Club. History MA student Josie Isle assisted in the arranging, repackaging and cataloguing of some of Sisson's scripts.
Josie writes: “The intention behind the project was to spotlight female writers who have too often been overshadowed in the literary landscape. Sisson’s archive offered the opportunity to begin to deconstruct this tendency to overlook female writers. Working through Sisson’s extensive archive was a reflective process. Her personal notes, drafts, correspondence and scripts told a story of a prolific writer who moved through genres and media with agility. It is striking how Rosemary navigated and succeeded in a male-dominated field. Her career unfolded during a time when women were still being left behind in the literary and television worlds, something that unfortunately remains an issue.
I hope that with the release of her archive, more people can come to appreciate not just Sisson’s achievements, but the larger story of female writers. Stories of overlooked female writers should be studied and celebrated, as they represent the overlooked chapters of a shared cultural history.”
At over 200 boxes, the Rosemary Sisson Archive still needs a lot of work before it is accessible to the public.
An Evaluation of Disability Collections in the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA)
The NFCA planned a project on disability in performance to increase representation, equality and access to its collections. The project consisted of an evaluation of the disability content in the archive, related to both visible and invisible disabilities and bodies and minds that do not conform to socially established cannons.
MA History student Kathryn Lashmar writes about her experience: “The research I carried out provides an overview and analysis of archival material from the NFCA that references or depicts disability in performance. It identifies and contextualises such instances by categorizing types of disabilities, the nature of performances, and the surrounding language and social context.
From the data available it seems that disabled performers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries often relied on their physical differences for income, reflecting their exclusion from mainstream labour markets with some of them (e.g., Tom Thumb, and later Davey Jones) achieved significant wealth and fame.
The archive offers little material on the rise of disability rights activism in the late 20th century, an important milestone in disabled history, however it can be seen in the changes in language and roles that disabled performers take on, hinting at a growing awareness of disability beyond spectacle.
This research provides further data for use in uncovering disabled history, and it appears to fit with previously established patterns in the scholarship, including Bogdan's claim that ‘freak shows’* could provide some people with ‘community, identity, and an important sense of independence and upward social mobility’. However, the area of circus and fairgrounds in relation to disabled bodies remains under explored in wider scholarship and the data extracted through this project can be used to support further research into this area. For example, investigating the lack of representation of non-visible disabilities and the political silence and lack of understanding that that may reflect, as well as historical views on what and who was considered marketable or worth documenting”.
The data collected through this project will guide future projects that incorporate the voices and experiences of disabled performers and recognise and celebrate their achievements and contribution to popular entertainment.
* The term freak is used in its historic context to describe the type of acts that displayed otherness both real and fictitious. The author acknowledges that the use of this term is offensive, and it does not represent her views.
Heritage Collections - discovering early female medical graduates
MA Medieval History student Joseph Newman was tasked with researching some of the early female medical graduates for a new display in the Medical School Heritage Boardroom. The space is a bookable meeting room used by staff, students and some external visitors. It has a display of portraits, framed pictures and prints, and a display case containing artefacts from the NHS collection which is managed by the Sheffield Medical History Group.
The space has been highlighted for redisplay as it lacks representation from an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) approach. Many of the portraits are of men who are important early benefactors of the Sheffield Medical School and although this is crucial towards the developments of the Medical School which celebrates its 200th year anniversary in 2028, there is very limited female and student representation.
Working closely with the Heritage Collections Manager, five female graduates were discovered through the objects donated to the university which belonged to them from their time at the university. Objects from the heritage collection such as bronze medals awarded for completing their year of study along with Gold John Hall medals for completing certain subjects such as Clinical Medicine and Surgery, along with other objects such as photographs and certificates are included and will be displayed in the case in the Medical Heritage Boardroom. These will be placed alongside interpretation and stories about these pioneering women.
Joseph was tasked to research their stories by looking through the archives held by the University and Special Collections. The stories are a crucial part of discovering and highlighting these female students - what they achieved during their time at the university and what they did afterwards.
Joseph stated: “Working on a heritage project for the Medical School has been a rewarding and gratifying experience; archival work is fascinating in itself, and working within the boundaries of the university’s vivid history has strengthened my own connection to Sheffield. Revealing and developing the lives of these pioneering medical women has been a delight, and their individual and collective stories, with all their depth and complexity, have been an ongoing source of inspiration. I hope that by recounting their lives, others can experience this too, and that their history will live on through us all.”
The objects and stories will be displayed in the Medical Heritage Boardroom to highlight the achievements of these five females and provide a wider representation of students and a gender balance which has contributed to the medical school’s history.
