Ref No: uncatalogued

Nominated by: Professor Stuart Croft (University Vice-Chancellor)

This map shows different locations around Coventry where Warwick University could have been developed. The original Gibbet Hill campus would take shape at Site 1. Next to Site 13 is the Teacher Training College which is now the University’s Westwood campus. The measure of Warwick’s growth since its foundation is that the current campus covers sites 1, 2, and 13, and all the land in between! When looking at the University Archives, ViceChancellor Croft said, “I LOVE the campus locations map, I had no idea! Fascinating!”

Ref No: MSS.334/3/6/20

Nominated by: Rachel MacGregor (Modern Records Centre Archives Manager)

The image of Tom Mann included in this letter is both striking and slightly humorous - as acknowledged by Tom himself: ‘the painting of which this is a photograph was done by an artist who had not seen me; he took it from photographs […] He’s given me a nose like Tolstoy eh?’

Tom is a bit of a poster boy for the MRC (a local lad and we are watched over him in his bronze bust incarnation in our exhibition space), so it seems fitting to include him in his guise as poster boy for the Soviet Revolution.

Ref Nos: 937/6/1/6 & 937/6/4/6

Nominated by: Professor Sir Richard J. Evans (Cambridge University)

These two items come from the papers of Eric Hobsbawm, one of the most significant historians of the 20th century. They were chosen in consultation with his biographer Professor Sir Richard J. Evans (Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History, 2019). The sketch was made at a Communist Party summer camp in 1939, which Hobsbawm attended having decided against hitchhiking across Nazi Germany to Vienna. Hobsbawm recalls the summer camp in a 1979 letter to Brian Simon, before going on to discuss the impact of the 1956 Hungarian crisis on the Communist movement. Evans notes that in a profile accompanying the sketch, Hobsbawm was portrayed as ‘precociously brilliant’, the profiler remarking that ‘he means to be a Don or a Journalist, and as either he will get into the headlines. You ask him what is his favourite book, and he will say that he hasn’t written it yet’.

Ref No: UWA/SC/DC/1/1

Nominated by: Lizzie Morrison (Archives Assistant, Modern Records Centre)

Not actually a roll but three separate books containing the signatures of all of Warwick’s Honorary Graduates. Volume 1 contains signatures of Yehudi Menuhin, Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench, Iris Murdoch (signature above; see also Object 4), Tom Stoppard, Trevor Nunn and Elizabeth Frink. Volume 3 contains signatures of David Edgar, David Bradley, Rodney Bickerstaffe and Antony Sher.

Ref No: UWA/CVA/6/3

Nominated by: Professor Ingrid de Smet (French Studies, Warwick)

President of the United States, Bill Clinton, visited the University of Warwick on 14 December 2000. He was accompanied by First Lady and Senator-Elect Hilary Clinton, their daughter Chelsea, and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Detailed records of this visit can be found on the Warwick website: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/communications/archive/clinton/

Ref No: MSS.463/EY/J20

Nominated by: Carole Jones (Archives Assistant, Modern Records Centre)

The diaries offer fascinating social insights, political history and plenty of entertainment. Hard to pick just one but there’s much to enjoy in this account of a European tour – including walking out of a Swiss hotel without paying. Alongside the tale of her travels are comments on news from the UK and the start of the General Strike.

Ref No: 1227/1

Nominated by: Carole Jones (Archives Assistant, Modern Records Centre)

The diary, part of the National Cycle Archive, contains the account of three holidays, including cycling tours of south-east England and north Wales. Illustrated with photographs and postcards, the pressed flowers and ferns reflect Amy’s horticultural interests.

Ref No. MSS.18/92/3

Nominated by: Dr David Coates (Theatre & Performance Studies, Warwick)

This item is part of a large collection of flimsy nineteenth century ‘acting edition’ play texts, held in the Hall Collection in the Modern Records Centre. These texts were printed and sold cheaply by a number of London publishers who catered for the growing number of professional and amateur actors in the midnineteenth century. Many of the texts in the Hall Collection have the name Clara St Casse written across their cover and pages. This was the stage name of an actress called Hannah Cass. Together the collection documents her acting career, which began when she was a young child. She experienced fame as a child star for depicting the character of Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin - a play which had a significant effect on attitudes towards slavery on both sides of the Atlantic. This fame was short-lived and the collection therefore represents the career of an ordinary actress, making a career on the fringes of London and regional theatre.

Ref No. 1042/C/1905

Nominated by: James King (Senior Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

This item is one of many we hold from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. This script, submitted to the Guild in 1966, remained unopened until we opened it for the purposes of cataloguing.

Ref No: MSS/11/7/6/18

Nominated by: Andrew Walton (Coventry Local History Society)

During a visit to the MRC, I was drawn to the display of an undated extract of a newspaper. This headlined the Coventry Council’s agreement to permit Sunday games in their parks. What was intriguing was that one Alderman had left the meeting as a protest at its passing. I wondered in which era this had taken place. I referred to the British Newspaper Archive and quickly found the article. It was published on June 10th 1939 in the Coventry Herald. To me, it appeared that Sunday games were a long-established practice, so I decided to carry out some brief research.

The treatment of Sunday as a day to be reserved for religious purposes can be traced back hundreds of years. There are acts to establish its observance dating from 1625, 1627, 1677 and 1780. The observance of Sunday began to come under heavy pressure after the Second World War from a desire to go shopping, play or watch sports, go to the cinema and have day trips to attractions, to name just some. All this reminded me that as a young child, I remember going to motorcycle races where spectators purchased programmes or paid heavily for parking to get around the illegality of charging an entry fee. There were several attempts in Parliament to repeal aspects of Sunday observance. For instance, in 1953, a Bill to legalise Sunday entertainment was heavily defeated. The Statute Law Repeals Act 1969 repealed three of the four Sunday Observance Acts—those of 1625, 1627 and 1677. The Sunday Cinema Act was passed in 1972.

It was not all plain sailing: the Shops Bill was defeated in 1986. However, Sunday trading was ultimately relaxed by the Sunday Trading Act 1994, the twenty-seventh attempt to do so. Opposition to these changes came from the Lord’s Day Observance Society and other groups such as the Keep Sunday Special campaign. The latter was a coalition body which included the shopworkers’ trade union USDAW. Presumably they were more interested in the effect on their workers than the religious aspect. In 2014, a poll commissioned by pressure group ‘Open Sundays’ claimed that 72% of people believe they should be able to shop whenever is convenient to them.

All this made me realise that the free and easy Sunday we now enjoy is much shorter lived than I imagined. Indeed, I believe that the younger generation would be amazed if this was brought to their attention. This newspaper article has unexpectedly given me cause for thought and I believe that it merits being nominated as one of your 50 exhibits.

Ref No: MSS.642/64

Nominated by: Professor Ben Richardson (Politics and International Studies, Warwick)

Leamington is not usually associated with the labour movement, but this meeting was pivotal in the history of trade unionism in the UK. This photo, with TGWU leader Ernest Bevin at the centre, perfectly captured the moment and encouraged me to find out more about the hidden history of the town where I live. Professor Richardson has authored a longer piece on this meeting, which can be found here: https://leamingtonhistory.co.uk/the-foundation-of-the-transport-and-general-workers-union-inleamington/

Ref No: MSS.642/64

Ref No: 1019/3

Objects 13 & 14 nominated by: Jim Sutherland (Former Director of Education & Training, UNISON)

The importance of the work of the MRC is underlined by both of these documents. I was involved in creating the Rodney Bickerstaffe archive. When I got to know Liz Bickerstaffe in the 1980's she was simply “Rodney’s mum” to me until I began to organise his papers. As a young girl of 16/17 she created a contemporary scrap book of the Spanish Civil War. As a trade union activist and single mum she took her son on union demonstrations and later composed this handwritten letter to NUPE’s (National Union of Public Employees) General Secretary asking if there could be a job for her son just finishing college. This lady, identified by the process of creating MRC collections, was central in many ways in the emergence of one of the most important trade union leaders in the second half of the 20th century. Her story underlines that history is not only created by the actions of prominent individuals.

Ref No: MSS.292D/841.46/1

Nominated by: Kirstie Stage (Cambridge University)

Deaf history is often not reflected in mainstream exhibitions. The National Union of the Deaf is a fascinating and important case study within modern British history. MRC sources show the local and national campaigns of Deaf people, with the NUD establishing themselves as a linguistic and cultural minority group

Ref No: MSS.147/3/3/1/1

Nominated by: Beckie Rutherford (History, Warwick University)

A document advising DIG members on how to approach TV and radio interviews. As far as I recall, this document is undated, but I would guess it was produced in the early 1970s. It offers fascinating insight into the creative and clever strategies with which disabled people sought to debunk common stereotypes about how they would come across in conversations/interviews. It reveals not only the prevalence of discrimination and derogatory assumptions about disabled people at this time, but equally the ingenuity and determination fostered within politicised disabled communities.

Ref No: MSS.247/23

Nominated by: Ant Brewerton (Former Head of Academic Services, Warwick University Library)

What else could an ephemerist into ska music choose? This ticket for an early Specials concert is a real piece of cultural history. It was always strange that this multi-racial band on the 2 Tone Records label attracted a racist element to their fanbase. Jerry Dammers, leader of The Specials, has to remind members of the National Front and British Movement they are not welcome at their gigs! Nearly 50 years on from those Rock Against Racism events of my childhood, we still need the Black Lives Matter movement. Things haven’t progressed much…

Ref No: MSS.21/1571/1/1/1-2

Nominated by: Louis Finch-James

I understand through my own research that these issues of Spearhead contain abhorrent examples of racism, misogyny and antisemitism but I believe their preservation by the MRC to be an important part of coming to terms with British reactions to immigration and a part of our history that we should not forget when we consider modern discussions on the topic. In addition to this it is the responsibility of historians to preserve not just “good” history but also shine a light on the frankly terrible things that humanity has produced and created. Furthermore, it is useful to preserve these issues of Spearhead because, as I did so in my own research, one can draw from the content similarities to mindsets and practices of the modern far right and through this combat the ideology more effectively.

Ref No: MSS.171/3/12/12

Nominated by: Caroline Coon (Co-Founder, Release)

In 1960s West London, two groups experienced growing hostility from the Metropolitan Police around their use of illicit drugs: Caribbean migrants and people associated with the counterculture. Police racism and new drugs laws fuelled increasing numbers of people being stopped on the streets or having their homes raided. With little sympathy from the police and courts, those prosecuted often faced unduly harsh punishments. By 1967, it was clear that a crisis had developed, resulting in the formation of Release and its 24-hour telephone line to get legal help to those arrested on drugs charges. Release pioneered the ‘bust card’, a small, printed card given out at festivals or club nights that had its phone number and key pieces of advice. The Release bust card put civil rights into the pocket of anyone at risk of arrest. Caroline Coon’s design was powerful in its simplicity. The cards distilled the laws on arrest into the absolute essentials that could be read in a hurry – including having the ability to ask to make a telephone call. This helped the individual manage their interactions with the police until a call to Release to get legal assistance could be made. The bust card was a major innovation in helping people assert their civil rights, by being readily accessible when someone was arrested, and giving them the information that they needed at that moment. Bust cards were an essential tool in campaigns pushing back against the over-policing of marginalised groups, helping the individual as well as building a force for change. The bust card brought to light how the relationship between the criminal justice system, the police and the public in Britain needed – and still needs – remaking.

Text provided by Dr. Kate Bradley (University of Kent)

Ref No: CRER/MAA/Photos/2/372

Nominated by: Professor Meleisa Ono-George (Oxford University)

The photo always stuck with me because it shows the everydayness and the transnational nature of Black women’s political engagement in Britain. The women in the photo seem to range in age and maybe even motivation, but the causes are shared.

Ref No: MSS.159/3/C/a/143/72

Nominated by: Dr. Jessica Wardhaugh (French Studies, Warwick University)

Small enough to conceal in the hand, this resistance flyer of 1943 packs a mighty punch. It appeals to women in wartime France to demonstrate for food, risking their safety — and potentially their lives — in an act of public opposition. Phonetically spelled, and vividly contrasting the deprivation and misery of ordinary families with the luxuries enjoyed by Nazis and their collaborators, it was created by French women in British exile, working for the Comité Féminin du Front National and close to the French Communist Party. Other copies would have been clandestinely disseminated within occupied France itself. Flyers like this rarely survive. Their ephemeral existence was to be affixed to walls, buildings, and public transport, frequently ripped down by passers-by even before their removal by the police. This flyer — just one of the MRC’s remarkable collection of French resistance materials — offers a glimpse of both structures and strategies of opposition. Here is a reminder of the resistance that, whatever its attendant dangers, could be within anyone’s grasp.

Ref No: MSS.240/W/4/2/8

Nominated by: Lizzie Morrison (Archives Assistant, Modern Records Centre)

This item is one of many mentioned on the MRC’s online resource page which illustrates our archive holdings relating to Jewish East London - part of a wider set of webpages designed for the Warwick History Module ‘HI2D4: Race, Ethnicity, and Migration in Modern Britain’. Its contents provide a detailed insight into Jewish life, capturing information on the location of Jewish baths, hotels and cemeteries as well as businesses run by Jewish immigrants. The book opens back to front when compared to Western publications which means that it is also of interest to anyone studying the history of books and publishing. This item belonged to William Wess (1861-1946), a trade unionist, socialist and Jewish activist who assisted in the foundation of many Jewish trade unions, and whose archives also contain press cuttings, photographs, correspondence and subject files.

Ref No: MSS.127/NU/4/1

Nominated by: Dr. Emma Robertson (LaTrobe University, Australia)

Trade union journals such as the Railway Review are such a rich resource for labour historians and the Modern Records Centre have a fantastic collection. One of my favourite items would be the World War One cartoons satirising the employment of women as railway workers. I remember finding these images late one Friday afternoon, just as I was finishing my research for the week – and promptly deciding I would need to return to the archives as soon as possible to do more work on them! These cartoons became a key source in an article I co-published with Dr. Lee-Ann Monk, for a special issue on women’s and gender history in the Australian Journal of Labour History. We explored how the humorous portrayal of female railway workers reinforced masculine occupational identities at the same time as revealing ambiguities and anxieties over the gendered nature of railway employment.

Ref No: MSS.74/5/2

Nominated by: Dr. Edda Nicolson (Wolverhampton University)

This commemorative booklet for the fraternal delegates that attended a dinner held by the TUC Parliamentary Committee in 1911 does more than signify the importance of internationalism. Our understanding of labour leaders is so often informed by high politics, whereas these cartoon depictions – or, perhaps, Edwardian photoshop? – allow a glimpse of home lives, hobbies, and friendships instead. For instance, James O’Grady MP was depicted as a boxer, showing his love for the sport. William Brace MP had such an impressive moustache that he was made into a walrus. Will Thorne MP was most well know for his political and trade union achievements, but his busy household of 12 children transformed him into the woman who lived in a shoe. We can thank the artistry of Joseph Williams from the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union for these cartoons. He designed at least three booklets in total, so we can assume that they were met with good humour by everyone involved. Can we say for sure whether the labour leaders of today would have the same sense of self-deprecation?

Ref No: MSS.78/TC/Bel/1/1

Nominated by: Dr. Pierre Botcherby (Outreach & Widening Participation Officer, Modern Records Centre)

Described by one source as ‘the earliest authentic record of woodworkers’ trade clubs’, this handwritten book is the MRC’s oldest trade union document.

Ref No: MSS.78/ASCJ/2/2/3

Nominated by: Mark Crail (Society for the Study of Labour History)

The registration books compiled by the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners are enormously valuable as a family history resource for those with ancestors who worked in the trade. They provide information on the member’s area of work, any benefits they claimed from it, and even some family information (as the union provided benefits to members’ wives). Quite aside from this, the books are an important social and labour history record covering one of the key craft unions of the later 19th/early 20th centuries. And the huge handwritten volumes look pretty impressive too!

Ref No: MSS.15B/5/2/3

Nominated by: Alan Stewart

The Henry Sara Collection is an amazing resource which I first became aware of when the Twitter account of the MRC got in touch with me. I’d been researching the life of my great grandfather Bob Stewart - a Scottish communist and agent for the Comintern and these slides provided an illustration to his time in Moscow outlined in his memoirs. The slide I’ve chosen shows Bob, his wife Margaret and young daughter Annie with some of their circle of British communists. It would have been taken around 1923 or 1924. It seems to depict Bob and his comrades’ optimism at being part of a world revolution while also foreshadowing the tragedy of what would happen in the Stalin era. In the next decade, one of the women pictured, Rose Cohen, a British communist, would be arrested, tried and shot by the NKVD after her Russian husband met the same fate. Bob’s daughter, pictured in the front row would later marry a Soviet official who was also arrested in the purges in 1938. She had to escape to the UK with her baby son, my dad’s cousin. It wasn’t until 1956 after Khrushchev’s acknowledgment of Stalin’s crimes that they found out her husband had been executed in 1941. As a historical source on 1920s world communism this slide is fascinating. As an object of personal, family history, it is everything.

Ref No: 854/2/2/2/1

Nominated by: Naomi Shewan (Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

This poster is part of the Margaret Stanton papers on Chile, 1973-1976. A powerful image of a clenched fist featuring the colours of the Chilean flag, it is a call for a national demonstration to show solidarity with the Chilean people, three years after Pinochet’s coup. 2023 marks 50 years of the Chile coup, and the MRC marked this in conjunction with the School for Modern Languages and Cultures at Warwick. This poster was one of many to feature in our exhibition on Chile.

Ref No: MSS.292C/239.04/2

Nominated by: Professor Lucy Delap (Cambridge University)

When the Trade Boards system was first set up in 1909, it was intended to ensure minimum wages for workers in ‘sweated’ or exploitative workplaces who were mostly ununionised and often worked a 6 day week. It covered a kaleidoscope of workshop trades, including baking, chain making, dressmaking, laundry, the fur trade, food preserving, tobacco trades and tin box making. Ironically, for a measure designed to support fair wages, it also created a system of exemptions, allowing employers to pay less than the minimum to workers who were deemed less efficient than usual. This has created a bonanza of records for a historian of disability; detailed records show the kinds of impairments that were found in UK workplaces – survivors of polio and tuberculosis, workers who were ‘deaf mute’, blind, amputees, ‘cripples’ and ‘mental defectives’. Many were simply labelled ‘aged’; the records of the Boot and Shoe Repairing Trade Board, for example, showed in 1925 that ‘aged’ were the largest group in their trade who had wages under the minimum, followed by ‘deaf and dumb’ employees. This trade exclusively employed men, evidence of the deep gender segregation in UK labour markets. Employers negotiated with inspectors to set wages at levels they deemed economic, which might be as low as 7 shillings a week – paid to a 14-year-old in Bournemouth who had a leg amputated above the knee and was learning to repair boots. Older workers usually earned more, though a 23-year-old in Birmingham was only paid 16 shillings a week for ‘stripping and colouring’ shoes. He was described as ‘mentally deficient’ – a status that could have resulted in his incarceration under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act that had set up huge asylums offereing harsh, controlling ‘care’. But ‘mentally defective’ people were also common outside of these institutions, and the diagnosis appeared throughout the Trades Board records, often in vernacular terms and paired with other labels: ‘Deaf and dumb; not very bright’, ‘a bit soft’, ‘not quite normal’. The level of impairment was usually judged without reference to medical terminology or mental testing, and centred on what kind of labour was possible for an individual. The Boards sometimes perceived skills amongst disabled workers and were able to negotiate higher wages, or shorter working weeks for those who were physically vulnerable.

The lives that were glimpsed through these records were not always ones of marginality. The Boot and Shoe Repairing Trade Board records show a 20-year-old ‘mental defective’ leaving a job that paid under the minimum wage and taking up with a new firm that paid ‘the full rate’ in June 1922. A 22-year-old in Aylsbury who had polio as a child was paid 48 shillings a week to hand-sew shoes – about the same that an unskilled labourer might earn. The Trade Boards records sometimes show stigmatisation, but also accommodation and a willingness to use whatever labour capacity was available. Inspectors sometimes recorded the views of the workers themselves, or their parents. Britain’s workplaces were closely integrated with networks of relatives, and there were often siblings or parents present who helped to negotiate decent conditions and wages. The Trade Boards, in operation until 1945 then renamed Wages Councils, provide an alternative to sources in disability history that centre on hospitals, asylums and other institutions. They make visible a period when there was little to support the employment of disabled people in terms of anti-discrimination provision or quotas. Yet they reveal an astonishing range of forms of embodiment in British workplaces, glimpses of the social networks of disabled people, and a rudimentary corporatist system of oversight - jointly operated by the trade unions, state and employers - that tried to maintain fair wages for disabled workers.

Ref No: MSS.229/CO/G/3/14

Nominated by: Naomi Shewan (Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

One of the two largest trade unions in Britain today (along with Unite), Unison boasts over 1.2 million members. It was formed in 1993, following the merger of three public sector trade unions: the National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO), the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE, see also Object 14), and the Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE, above).

Ref No: MSS.296/REG/274.01

Nominated by: Martin Sanders (Senior Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

This comes from the Staff Side of the National Whitley Council for the Civil Service. It is a vital source for a major theme of modern history: the need to ensure that the work of civil servants was not rendered pointless but could be expunged when necessary.

Ref No: MSS.78/OB/2/2/19

Nominated by: Liz Wood (Project Archivist, ‘Mining the Past’, Modern Records Centre)

One day, 16 years after starting work at the Modern Records Centre, I opened a volume and found a 112- year-old letter from my great great grandfather. Samuel Adams was an Isle of Wight bricklayer and builder. As a young man, inspired by new unionism, he became the first branch secretary of the Operative Bricklayers’ Society at Ryde and spoke at local workers’ meetings, losing work at the Queen’s nearby Osborne estate as a result. This is an ordinary letter, a routine admission of accidental mistakes in the branch accounts, but it is an unexpected personal link in the collection – I know the Upton Road house it was written from, my mum remembers the man – and it serves as a reminder that there is always more to find in those archive boxes.

Ref No: MSS.15X/2/209/36

Nominated by: Mick Hamer

I’ve never seen it elsewhere. The pamphlet provides a good outline of who the people were behind the attacks on Labour in the 1920s.

Ref No: MSS.97/4/2/5

Nominated by: Joe Chick (Brunel University)

This is the magazine of the Welfare Workers’ Institute, the organisation that would one day evolve into the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). It was formed for the welfare workers employed by managers pursuing the paternalistic welfare schemes that were common after World War I. The early magazines made the case for the importance of welfare work through a series of short stories about a character called ‘the Welf’. This edition exemplifies why communication was part of the remit of a 1920s welfare worker. It highlights the potentially disastrous consequences of rumours spreading on the grapevine. It was not uncommon for 1920s magazines to have articles on communication within large businesses, but this stood out for me with its entertaining way of making its point through a short story.

Ref No: MSS.184/2/10/7

Nominated by: Naomi Shewan (Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

A reminder of a time when childhood play was simple and fun. It is a paper model book for constructing a children’s ward at ‘The Elastoplast Hospital’, featuring card pull-outs of equipment, staff, patients and parents.

Ref No: MSS.243/5/1

Nominated by: Naomi Shewan (Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

The image shows the new Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Institute Buildings in Liverpool, called Gordon Hall. There are illustrations of the Institute buildings, Bible class, gymnasium, library and excursions. I just love the detailed illustrations, but the gym equipment looks like an instrument of torture!

Ref No: MSS.78/OS/4/1/5

Nominated by: Caroline Shenton

I used the records of the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons when writing my book Mr Barry's War. Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament after the Great Fire of 1834 (OUP, 2016). These were some of the most interesting documents I encountered during my research at the MRC and consulting them had taken me right out of London where most of my other sources were. The construction of the new Palace of Westminster between 1836 and 1870 was plagued with delays, and the stonemasons strike of 1841 was the point at which the timetable really began to go off the rails. Two-thirds of British stonemasons at the time were members of the Society, founded in 1831, and 230 of them were employed on building the superstructure of the Houses of Parliament. They downed tools in September 1841 in protest at the callous and unreasonable behaviour of George Allen, the foreman of Grissell & Peto, the civil engineering firm which had won the contract to build the new Palace.

Their strike went on until May 1842, and the records at the MRC are full of fascinating ephemera as well as the minutes of meetings and correspondence. They include what today we would recognise as press releases, as well as flyers and posters defending themselves to the public which were pasted to the hoardings surrounding the eight-acre building site at Westminster - this one, a unique survival. What fascinated me most about tracking the stonemasons' story was how their strike began in a desperate but rather diffident way, their subdued and respectful tone at first reflecting the union's origins as a semi-religious, secretive brotherhood, but six months later the strikers had changed in their approach to become very vocal, radicalised and savvy about interacting with public opinion. This poster was reproduced in Mr Barry's War, which was a 'Book of the Year' in 2016 for both BBC History Magazine and The Daily Telegraph and has been cited many times in debates in Hansard, as the Parliamentary authorities try to decide how to restore the UK's most famous building, which is now falling to pieces and at serious risk of another catastrophe, 150 years after its completion.

Ref No: MSS.78/OS/4/1/5

Nominated by: Liz Wood (Project Archivist, ‘Mining the Past’, Modern Records Centre)

In 1834, six Dorset farm labourers were transported to an Australian prison colony for swearing an oath of allegiance to their trade union. After two years of political campaigning, the Tolpuddle Martyrs were pardoned and they returned to Britain in 1838. The London Dorchester Committee was set up to raise funds ‘to keep the families of their injured brethren from starvation’ and to provide the men with ‘a comfortable subsistence’ after their release. 1834 is also the earliest date of the fortnightly returns (members’ bulletins) of the Operative Stonemasons, a rich source for labour and social historians. Bound in with the returns are several fragile sheets of ephemera (now partially conserved) which provide a link with the Tolpuddle men – subscription lists for the Dorchester Labourers’ Farm Tribute. These documents provide a tangible link to one of the central stories in trade union history and give an idea of the range of contemporary public interest in the union pioneers – subscribers include the radical publishers J.P. and J.M. Cobbett, employees in named shops and factories, local workers’ groups and ‘surplus proceeds of a ball at Stratford upon Avon’.

Ref No: MSS.280/157/5

Nominated by: Dr. Jodi Burkett (Portsmouth University)

This is a rare and valuable insight into student life and activity in the period. I have used it in my research about student activism, and also use it with undergraduate students in my teaching (it shows them both the continuities and differences in student life and connects them to this history in a crucial way).

You can watch the full film here.

Ref No: MSS.292D/815.55/3

Nominated by: Dr. Andrew Burchell (History, Warwick University)

I first came across these documents during my MA – and later PhD – research into campaigns around the abolition of corporal punishment in schools and school discipline more generally. They represent a handful leaflets and posters produced by the National Union of Secondary Students, a radical organisation of schoolchildren and young people which attempted to affiliate itself to NUS. As might be expected, it was particularly vocal on questions of discipline, as evidenced in these posters and leaflets. Not only is this a great example of how the voices of a wide range of different and often unexpected groups – including children – are represented in the MRC (and a great window onto young people’s activism), but it also highlights the strength of the MRC in preserving ephemera and campaigning materials that would otherwise not survive elsewhere. The MRC served as a vital resource for being able to access this story of young people’s own resistance to corporal punishment, and for tracing the groups active in the abolition movement. Corporal punishment may have been abolished in schools since 1986, but questions around children’s rights in our society remain topical, as does the participation of young people in movements such as Black Lives Matter.

Ref No: 642/59/5

Nominated by: Liz Wood (Project Archivist, ‘Mining the Past’, Modern Records Centre)

There’s something about a good photo that can draw you in. This image, taken in the early 20th century, shows women employed by the Bermondsey biscuit-maker Peek Freans. Every person in the picture has paused their work - soldering sharp-edged tin boxes - to meet the eye of the interloping photographer. Peek Frean was regarded as a good employer, hence the publicity shot of the workroom, but the face I keep coming back to is the one closest to the camera: a woman wearing a look of weary irritation

Ref No: MSS.292C/239.08/3/5

Nominated by: Simon Briercliffe (Black Country Living Museum)

The 1910 women chainmakers’ strike is a central part of Black Country history, and is on permanent display at Black Country Living Museum in our Workers’ Institute. This building was originally constructed in the chainmaking town of Cradley Heath using leftover strike funds. It was translocated brick-by-brick to BCLM in 2006. By the early twentieth century, chainmaking was characterised by exploitative labour practices. Women worked long shifts in backyard forges for a dismal piece-rate. Pressure from trade unions prompted a new minimum rate of pay in the spring of 1910, but when employers refused to pay, the National Federation of Women Workers – led by the indomitable Mary Macarthur – undertook a ten-week strike for Britain’s first hourly minimum wage. Veteran chainmakers like 73-year-old Patience Round became unlikely media stars, before the dispute ended in October 1910, when the last employer signed up to pay the new rate. The trade board papers in the TUC archive at MRC are an invaluable source. They include social investigations, statistics, correspondence and records of negotiations, and ephemera like the song ‘Rouse, ye women’ which encouraged strikers to ‘beat no iron, blow no bellows’ until ‘ensuring pay that is your due’. Our Workers’ Institute houses a permanent exhibition on the strike, and school groups learn about researching the lives of exploited workers using documents from this collection. It’s not uncommon to meet Mary Macarthur herself out on the street, or see chainmaking in action too. The depth of information available about the strike has enabled this to become an iconic Black Country story, not just of manufacturing might but of solidarity and pride.

Ref No: MSS.292/252.62/24

Nominated by: Liz Wood (Project Archivist, ‘Mining the Past’, Modern Records Centre)

Britain’s 1926 General Strike lasted nine days and brought industry across the country to a halt. Inaccurate rumours – of revolution, murder, riot – spread. Striking printers meant that most national or local newspapers were only able to produce one or two sheet emergency bulletins, at best, which were unable to keep up with the public demand for information. On 5 May 1926, day two of the strike, the government and the Trades Union Congress both stepped into the breach and produced competing strike newspapers. The TUC-produced ‘The British Worker’ combined general statements on the dispute (‘There is no Constitutional crisis’) with ‘stirring messages from the areas’, human interest stories and practical advice. Like many of General Strike sources at the MRC, the newspaper has an immediacy to it, a sense of events unfolding, and gives us a vivid glimpse into an extraordinary time.

Ref No: MSS.126/TG/662/2/1-13

Nominated by: James King (Senior Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

A full-scale musical extravaganza at a London theatre is something that would definitely not be put on to celebrate a trade union’s silver jubilee today!

Ref No: MSS.338/RO/4/1/2/607/CA.1

Nominated by: Nick Owen (Grandson of Sir Alfred Owen)

A few short words capture and highlight the wonderful achievements of Donald Campbell, the Owen Organisation, which oversaw the creation of the ‘Bluebird’ car, and all others involved. A magnificent achievement for Great Britain and the culmination of many years of engineering teamwork. This document is just one of the many thousands in the huge archive of the Rubery Owen group of companies, which had extensive links with the motor industry in the West Midlands, including Coventry, where ‘Bluebird’ was built. It was also involved in the aircraft and defence industries, undertook major structural projects such as the sports stadia at Molyneux and Twickenham, and manufactured domestic appliances, office equipment, agricultural implements and many other products.

Ref No: UWA/B/44

Nominated by: Professor Mike Shattock (former Registrar, Warwick University)

When Coventry and Warwickshire combined to provide a site for a university (see also Object 2) no one could know what its local and regional impact would be. The Impact of a University on its Environment was an attempt to assess this and was written as a contribution to the University's 50th Anniversary. The research benefitted greatly from the University archive held in the MRC.

Ref No: Uncatalogued

Nominated by: Sue Pardon (Resource Acquisitions & Digital Access, Warwick University Library)

I chose the ‘White tile’ firstly because I was pleased that a simple item of social history was deemed worthy enough to be retained and was fascinated to learn that implementing the iconic ‘white tile look’, still evident on some buildings around the University, was not without its difficulties. The above picture shows the Physics building at Warwick, minus the white tiles which had fallen off. The picture and the actual tile chosen by Sue are both in our physical exhibition.

Ref No: MSS.5/7/9ii

Nominated by: Christine Woodland and Richard Temple (former Archivists, Modern Records Centre)

This item has been on long-term loan to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, as part of its ‘Peace and Reconciliation’ exhibition. Like the white tile (Object 47) or the ‘Student Life’ cine reel (Object 39), this is an example of how archives contain physical objects as well as documents.

Ref No: SPC PQ 2382.I9

Nominated by: Professor Kate Astbury (French Studies, Warwick University)

This best-selling melodrama by the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day, Guilbert de Pixérécourt, is part of the Marandet collection of French plays of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Marandet collection, part of Warwick’s ‘Special Collections’, is one of the most significant collections of French plays of this period in the UK. This volume contains hand-written annotations showing where music can be found in the original Parisian production (the points at which music occurs are not indicated in the published play text), made by a visitor to Paris who wanted to be able to recreate the play for an amateur performance in Lyon.

Ref No: UWA/PUB/7/1/2 & UWA/PUB/4/4

Nominated by: Anna O’Neill (Librarian, Warwick University Library)

These items form part of the University’s own archives and perfectly illustrate how much the University and its Library and Archives have evolved over time. They come from a 1967-68 prospectus and a mid-1960s library guide. I love that the Library was, and still remains, an important decider for both students and staff on whether the University of Warwick is the right place for them. These photos show that the Library has always been a place for scholarly study and research but also somewhere you are sure to meet friends. As we look to the next stage of the physical development of the Library and Archives it is good to be reminded that whilst rules may change, the commitment to an outstanding student experience and ongoing investment in the facilities that are essential to their success, has never faltered.

Ref No: MSS.159/3/C/a/140

Nominated by: Lizzie Morrison (Archives Assistant, Modern Records Centre)

Recent years have seen a rise in misinformation and 'fake news', making events of the 1930s seem not so far removed. Tiny leaflets such as these which tried to counter Nazi propaganda during the period now come to symbolise the fight to establish truth more broadly. They are ingenious documents - small enough to conceal about a person or hide in baggage so that they go unnoticed, and quick and easy to hand over so as to enable the dissemination of information. If recovered they are cunningly disguised as innocent publications - their anti-Nazi message buried deep in their pages.

Ref No: MSS.125/7/1/3

Nominated by: Prof. Ingrid de Smet (School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Warwick University)

Ref No: MSS.378/IMSW/A/17/6/1

Nominated by: Martin Sanders (Senior Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

Cartoon outline of almoners' work. A description of the qualities required by a 'lady almoner' (who would in later years would have been called a medical social worker). Probably the most entertaining job description in our holdings (modern HR departments take note).

Ref No: PQ4267.A2 (Library Special Collections)

Nominated by: Prof. Ingrid de Smet (School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Warwick University)

In addition to our archival holdings, the MRC stores the Library's Special Collections. Notable amongst these are Renaissance-era books, such as Boccaccio's Decameron pictured here. Decameron is quite relevant in a society still coming to terms with the recent Covid-19 pandemic, set as it is against the backdrop of the Black Death. It is also considered one of the first examples of the modern novel and is said to have influenced Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The book is structured as a frame story, in which seven young women and three young men who have fled plague-infested Florence tell one another tales of love, wit, practical jokes, and life lessons. Boccaccio is thought to have begun writing it following the plague epidemic of 1348 and finished it around 1353.

Ref No: PQ1985.0887 (Library Special Collections)

Nominated by: Pierre Botcherby (Outreach & Widening Participation Officer, Modern Records Centre)

This was one of the very first archive objects I ever used in person, as part of an undergraduate module on French Revolution-era theatre. It comes from the Marandet collection of plays, which is also part of the Library's Special Collections. I remember finding it really exciting to have these centuries-old manuscripts in front of me, a feeling I still get now when working with archive materials.

Ref No: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/exhibitions/art/adversity

Nominated by: Martin Sanders (Senior Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

Ref No: MSS.157/3/I/DM/1-43

Nominated by: Martin Sanders (Senior Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

Used with permission of Curtis Brown on behalf of the Chichester Partnership

Ref No: MSS.242/SW/13/1-5

Nominated by: Martin Sanders (Senior Assistant Archivist, Modern Records Centre)

This file gives insights into the early development of one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century. Young was Rugby works manager of British Thomson-Houston Co Ltd, who made the first experimental power unit for Frank Whittle in 1938.