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Looking forward to Christmas

We have been counting down to Christmas on our Twitter page, searching our collections for some festive Christmas items. We've already come across some great Christmas cards: There's also been this letter from Florence Nightingale (D2546/ZZ/16), describing the children's ward at St Thomas Hospital in 1877: “The whole ward was dressed up at Christmas: & …

Daniel Dakeyne: Genealogy 18th century style

As not all of us who are currently working from home can carry on with our ‘normal’ job (repairing documents requires access to the conservation studio), I have found myself copying old typed lists into spreadsheets, so they can be imported into our online catalogue. The archive of the Dakeyne family of Darley Dale (D9) …

Free talk: Derbyshire Diaries

Join our Local Studies Librarian on Tuesday 3 March at 2pm here at the Record Office in Matlock for a free talk in which you'll delve into Derbyshire’s past by eavesdropping on some of the personal diaries written by its residents and visitors. There will be readings from some of the published diaries held in …

Shrovetide Football in 1925

If you're planning to go to the annual Shrovetide Football game in Ashbourne today, but you're worried it might get a bit wet - this is what the game was like in 1925! Did you know we're now on Twitter? Follow us on @FranklinArchive 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A treat from our Franklin collection: the Valentine poem Eleanor Porden wrote in 1823 for her fiancé, John Franklin. We’re very lucky to have two versions – here’s the original draft: And here is the letter she sent him on 14 February 1823, with her handwriting 'disguised': The symbols on the letter (presumably purporting to …

Repairing the Richardson letters

In our Franklin collection is an album containing about a hundred letters, mainly written by Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) to his good friend and fellow arctic explorer, Sir John Richardson (1787-1865). The letters had been stuck into the album with a shiny, translucent tape, which had also been used to carry out repairs. In order …

Flowers of remembrance

We've just archivally packaged a very touching group of items: dried flowers collected from the grave of Eleonar Gell (Sir John Franklin's daughter) in Tredunnoc, Monmouthshire. They were mounted on black-edged card by her husband John Philip Gell for their seven children - Eleanor, Franklin, Philip, Mary, Henry, Alice and Lucy - and stored together …

The Strange Case of the Wandering Spoon

Fantastic detective work from our colleagues at Buxton Museum!

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

I am working on a project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation that is overseeing the re-homing of the objects from the School library Loans Service in Derby. This collection consists of paintings, studio pottery, archaeological, ethnographic and social history items. Sadly, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery can only keep a small percentage of this wonderful and eclectic mix of items. Through detective work that involves sifting through old records, myself and my colleague have been gathering information on where the items came from over the fifty years the service was collecting. We are contacting museums and community groups in the areas that these objects originate from to see if they would like the items so that they can have a new lease of life.

The Roman spoon at Buxton museum and Art Gallery

One of these items is a Roman silver spoon, elegant in its shape and practical in…

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The stilly night

For National Poetry Day, an excerpt from a poem by Thomas Moore, as copied out by William Howitt (1792-1879), from Heanor: Oft in the stilly night When slumber’s chain has bound me, Fond mem'ry brings the light Of other days around me; The smiles, the tears Of childhoods years, The words of love then spoken; The …