Archive Journeys in September

07 Sep 2009

This month visitors to the Museum will have the opportunity to attend a number of Archive Journey sessions.  Following the popular Polar Exploration sessions held in July we are holding 3 more events to coincide with the Museum's North West Passage exhibition.  The sessions take place within the North West Passage Gallery and are a fantastic opportunity to see close up some of the manuscripts and rare books relating to Arctic and Antarctic exploration that are in the Museum's collections. We'll be showing a letter written by Ernest Shackleton and explaining why Thomas James decided to sink his own ship in 1631.  The sessions are being held on 16 September (15.00); 24 September (11.00) and 28 September (15.00) and are free of charge.

If you aren't able to make it to a session at the Museum you can hear me talk about some of the items in a new podcast available here.

After a short break, I'm pleased to announce that our regular programme of Archive Journeys is also starting in September.  There is a different location for these weekly sessions as they take place in the E-Library.  On 17 September I'll be talking about pirates and privateers and showing, amongst other things, an original 16th century document addressed to Sir Francis Drake.  Then on 24 September my colleague Renee will be discussing the women in Admiral Nelson's life and displaying letters written by Nelson, Emma Hamilton and the mysterious 'Mr Thompson'.  Both events start at 14.30 and are free of charge.  There's no need to book and we hope to see you there.

The events in full are:

16 September (15.00) - Polar Exploration
17 September (14.30) - Pirates
24 September (11.00) - Polar Exploration
24 September (14.30) - Nelson's Women
28 September (15.00) - Polar Exploration

Richard (Assistant Archivist)