AGH Archives

Background to the project

Between 2016 and 2023 I was employed by Newcastle University to catalogue and promote use of the Trevelyan family Archives.

The Trevelyan family have their roots in the South West of England, but the generations associated with the collections at Newcastle were based at the National Trust property Wallington, near Morpeth in Northumberland. The collections at Newcastle are made up of four distinct archives, associated with specific members of the family (and 2 further collections from lines of the family with less association with Wallington).

The earlier years the covered by the material demonstrates the wealth of the family was evident, recent recipients of payouts following the abolition of slavery, combined with the profits from the Northumberland estate allowed the family to travel, explore varied scientific and humanistic interests, act as patrons of the arts, and invest in emerging infrastructure such as railways and bridges.

Some members played key roles in the 19th Century British Empire, both in India and Ireland, and have been both celebrated and reviled for their actions. Others were key figures in 20th Century politics, campaigning for socialist causes and international peace. In 1938 Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, announced his intention to donate the estate to the newly formed National Trust.

The archives are a mix of professional and domestic, and reveal insights into the lives of an unconventional landed family, living through a period when their status and financial position dramatically shifted.

Evaluation and cataloguing

Much of the material had been catalogued following the original donation in the 1960s, and scans of the original typescript were available to researchers online. They feature person and subject indexes, and file level descriptions. My role was to update these listings into a digital format, ensure they included currently uncatalogued material, and reflect the comprehensive range of subjects.

Some scoping was also undertaken beyond the University, to identify where related collections were held, both publicly and privately.

Digitisation and publication

The collections at Newcastle were then re-catalogued, re-packaged, and are now available for browsing on Newcastle University’s online catalogue.

One of the later acquisitions, a series of family photograph albums, were also to be targets of a digitization project, with accompanying metadata to allow keyword searching. These were initially made available via the proprietary platform Turning the Pages, and was later shifted to being hosted on the Digital Asset Management System ContentDM which generated IIIF manifests which were then rendered in a web based viewer.

Outreach and engagement

A range of activities took place during and after the project, both within and beyond the University, demonstrating the value of revisiting historic collections.

• “Gifted to a Grateful Nation” event in 2018, celebrating the donation of Wallington to the National Trust
• Provided basis for physical and digital exhibitions, including “People from the Pages”, an exploration of 19th Century India
• Supporting teaching on modules in the School of History
• Contributed to exhibition and programme planning at National Trust Wallington
• Education sessions for schools, including inspiration for STEM projects
• Article published in Royal Oak Foundation magazine
• A talk at the Family Histories Discussion Forum, bringing together genealogists and academics
• Talks to local history groups and lunch clubs

If you’re interested in a talk about the Trevelyan archives for your group, please get in touch.