Academy Archives Latest

The Glasgow Academy Archive began in earnest during the summer holidays of 2019. Three rooms in the school’s main building were allocated to archives (alongside the school library) – one to use as a ‘searchroom’ and the other two as archive stores. In October 2019, the school appointed its first professional Archivist, Lorraine Murray. Two and a half years later, the Archives team has gone from strength to strength with three new additions – Mags, Emily, and Carl – all of whom have overseen many exciting new finds to add to our growing collection. Over the coming months we look forward to bringing you a monthly update on all the latest goings on within The Academy Archive.

To kick us off, let me introduce myself in a bit more detail. As mentioned above, my name is Lorraine Murray and I work part-time in the Academy Archive and part-time as the Archivist at The Watt Institution in Greenock. Having the same job in two places often proves useful as you’d be surprised how often different institutions collaborate. With my other job being in more of a museum setting, it means I am quite comfortable working with objects in the school collection, which perhaps doesn’t usually come under the remit of an Archivist. In years gone by, I have also worked with the National Trust for Scotland, during which I studied at Glasgow University where I achieved my postgraduate degree in Information Management, Digital Preservation and Archives.

Looking after The Academy Archive is a rather varied job. The collection consists of historic material from not only The Glasgow Academy, but also Westbourne, Dairsie House School, Atholl Prep School, and the Academicals Club. In the collection, we have school registers, magazines, books, photographs, plans, administrative documents, accounting books, uniforms, film reels, analogue and digital media, sports memorabilia, plaques, and everything in-between. Admittedly, it’s not easy caring for such a delicate collection, From conserving and storing uniforms, documenting, condition checking, cleaning plaques, framing objects and items located all over the campus and at our sports facility at New Anniesland, it’s fair to say no two days are ever quite the same.

It’s funny to think that some people might dread clearing out an old cupboard somewhere, but finding a forgotten cupboard packed full of old documents and objects, is what we call an exciting day here at the archive. Once found, items are taken to the searchroom for processing, where they will be listed, carefully packed, catalogued, and safely stored in one of our two storerooms. Once an item is accessioned by the archive, it will remain in the collection in perpetuity.

I often deal with a lot of enquiries from both within the school and members of the public, usually from academic researchers or people interested in their family history. Looking out material for someone to view is always interesting, it gives me an opportunity to analyse the collection more closely, it’s also nice to see firsthand how much something in the collection might mean to someone.
Next month, we’ll look to give you all a more in-depth look at some of our most exciting finds.

Thanks for reading!