The purpose of the conference is to explore issues surrounding railway archives.
One thing I hope will be touched on is the inescapable fact that the average age of the
railway enthusiast is rising and many are, sadly, passing on. Yet, the majority
of these departing enthusiasts have, across a lifetime of dedication to the
railways, collected large collections of archival material from the railways of
the past. So, the conference is hoping to address the issue of what happens to
these archives when these people pass on. Is there a framework that can be put
into place? How do we avoid document collections being thrown in the bin by
enthusiasts’ families who, through no fault of their own, have no knowledge of
their value to railway and business historians? Additionally, how do we promote
amongst the general public the idea that railway documents can be found homes
and there are archives willing to take them?
Secondly, we will be discussing individuals’ personal
document collections in the context of these archives. For example, how would the
family of a deceased individual approach an archive to have the material
stored? Would the archive even want the material? Indeed, when railway
collections are accessioned into stock, how is this made known to historians?
Therefore, the conference is not just bringing together railway enthusiasts and
academics; it is also being attended by archive and museum professionals to get
their input.
Ultimately, there is a lot of work to be done today and
tomorrow, and I look forward to tackling some of these challenges. We don’t
know what the product of the conference will be, but I am very sure that it
will be the start of something big. Throughout the next two days I will be
tweeting interesting points from the conference using the hashtag #AAAA2012. Please
use it and hopefully what comes out of the conference will stimulate discussion
and debate. Additionally, on Sunday I will post a full conference report from my perspective. So, get on board…
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