To conclude Women's History Month, this week we get to know Anne-Marie Purcell, Archivist & Special Collections Curator at Royal Holloway. Read on to find out more about Anne-Marie, her role, and which women from history that Anne-Marie would most like to meet.
1.) Please tell me more about yourself and your role
My role involves all things relating to the access and care of the institutional historical archive of Royal Holloway, and an interesting series of special collections and rare books. I look after access to the archives for colleagues, students, and external researchers which includes answering enquiries, offering research appointments, and delivering group workshops relating to our collections. Another part of my role is to encouraging research engagement with our collections, and generally promote the interesting materials that we hold to increase the awareness and usage, as well as consider potential new acquisitions. We also have a keen team of student volunteers who I manage. It’s an interesting and varied role where, excuse the cliché, no two days are ever the same!
2.) Recently, your team created the exhibition ‘College Archives Uncovered’. Could you tell me more about how the team created this exhibition, and why you decided to produce it?
In summer 2022 the culture team hosted several short-term student placements which explored the Royal Holoway archive collections looking for hidden stories to showcase that connected to student experience, past and present. As a result, the ‘College Collections Uncovered’ exhibition was co-curated with the culture team using the work of the placement students and exhibiting fascinating items from both the archive and art collections. The exhibition was an opportunity to delve into the collections and display rarely seen material from both the Royal Holloway and Bedford College archives on topics such as early student life, celebratory events, reform and protest, and coeducation (the introduction of male students) in 1965. The involvement of the placement students enabled us to create an exhibition with students at the heart of the design and which celebrated key areas in our history from the students’ perspective.
3.) What is your favourite object from the archives and why?
My favourite part of the archive is a series of photo albums from the Royal Holloway College collection which contain photographs taken by Miss Catherine Frost, a Senior Staff Lecturer in Mathematics at Royal Holloway College, was one of the original resident female staff, having joined in 1887 and later retiring in 1907. Miss Frost took numerous photos of students, staff and Founders building, including the beautiful surroundings. There are images of various amateur dramatic society productions with the stunning Founders backdrop, as well as a series of images of student and staff sitting rooms, some showing students and staff gathering to enjoy afternoon tea. The photo albums are my favourite because they offer a glimpse of College life back in the early years.
4.) If you could travel back in time, which woman from history would you like to meet?
There are many women of the past I’d love to travel back to meet but I think I’d most like to meet Marie Curie. I am inspired by Marie Curie’s humble beginnings and desire to learn, devoting her life to finding answers that gave the world treatments for serious illnesses, including winning the Nobel peace prize twice for her work. The founders of Royal Holloway opened opportunities to women for higher education, something Marie Curie also benefitted from, but not without a struggle. I am also inspired by the many women who were involved in the early twentieth century campaign for Women to be able to vote, including Emily Wilding Davison, whom our library building is dedicated to.
5.) The theme for Women’s History Month is ‘Women Who Advocate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ – how can this theme be found within the history of Royal Holloway?
I think we should look no further than the founder of Bedford College, Elizabeth Jesser Reid. Reid was active in social reform in the mid nineteenth century, she was an activist for Women’s rights and supported anti-slavery campaigns in America. Creating a higher education college for women was an important ambition for Jesser Reid, and in 1849 she founded Bedford College, the first women’s higher education college in Britain. In 1859 Sarah Parker Remond, the first black woman to undertake a round Britain lecture tour about the slavery question, enrolled to study at Bedford College, and boarded nearby at the home of Jesser Reid. The origins and early struggles of Bedford College show that Jesser Reid’s principles chime with that of equity, diversity and inclusion, and evidence can be found throughout the Bedford College archive. In particular the collection includes a series of letters written to Reid by contacts within the global intellectual, philanthropic and political networks she was involved in, a number of which have been digitised.
6.) How can students and colleagues access the archives?
All students, colleagues and external researchers are welcome to access the Royal Holloway L archives and special collections. The archive reading room is located on the lower ground floor of the Emily Wilding Davison Building on our Egham campus. We are open for pre booked appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays, please email archives@rhul.ac.uk to enquire about our collections and to make an appointment. General information about our collections and a link to the online catalogue please go to our webpage