Research in the Archives

Most of the last session I was doing some research for an oncoming project. Archival research is a bit different than library research, the type I used to do for my studies. The archives are mostly first-hand material, raw data that is not ready for direct consumption. In other words, you can write your material based on the data found in the archives, but before you’ll get to the things you need, you’ll dig through everything else that is vaguely related to it. It may be relevant or not really, but it will consume your time nonetheless. What is interesting is that generally, people have no idea how the things stand, cue requests that need to be completed in a few days, but they are better suited for dissertation and involved. Example:
A request comes for a one-page of notes on history of turtle washing. But even if we have materials that pertain to the history of turtle washing. what exactly should that be? Marjon’s alumni that were known to wash turtles? The history of Marjon turtle-washing clubs? The involvement of the community in turtle washing around Plymouth? There is a short article about it in the old magazines and a newspaper clipping from the 70s’. Here is a picture of turtle with a shiny shell, will that do?
A vague request for a few notes might turn to hours of digging through articles, documents, pictures, books, recordings and various other materials more or less related to the topic- a single request that will consume hours of research, not to mention preparing the notes themselves. And finally, instead of asking for notes, why not to come to the archives yourself and do the work yourself if the clean chelonians are so important to you?

Students’ Cuisine, courtesy of Marjargon

I wrote about Marjargon before, a rather humorous student’s newsletter. Today I would like to point to the recipe that was printed in one of the issues. Because students have little in way of income and a lot in way of expenses(books, writing supplies, party essentials…) there is always need to be
creative with cooking. Here is how to make potatoes and beans, courtesy of Marjargon:
Ingredients:
2 potatoes,
A can of beans
1.Take wrapper off can.
2. Put can on hot ring
3. Puncture can (Very important, unless you want beans on the ceiling and shrapnel wounds)
4. Heat Can
5.Put potatoes into oven, Regulo HOT
6.Leave Kitchen.
7. Have a fag.
8. Return to kitchen.
9. Open tin
10. Remove potatoes from oven.
11. Dip potatoes in beans at leisure.

And there you have it- students’
cuisine at its finest:-)

Just joking

Well, remember what I said about my contributions to the archives? My first impression of Marjon, the programme I got when asking too many questions and the memories of my classmates? Well, there is this one more thing. I once brought a bottle of a homemade drinking mead, an old Viking recipe…and it’s still standing on a shelf within the archives. One hundred years more and it will be delicious😊

 

Falling Debris

Sometimes the archives seem to be a catch-all for random stuff that gets cleared out from somebody’s office. Like this issue of Executive Post- a publication from PER.

‘So what?’ you could say. ‘Shouldn’t the university be in possesion of those?’ Certainly, but this particular issue is exactly as old as I am. Uh-oh, somebody is way behind cleaning in their office.:-)

On unrelated note: hey, PER people! Do you have anything that this starving artist could do?:-P

Singing Over a Cockroach

There are many stories in the archives. Stories of great deeds, even if they were never recognized in the wide world. Stories of great minds, the thinkers and the doers. Stories of ideas, great and small. But the stories I enjoy the most are stories of student’s hijinks. Today’s story is from the memories of N. S. Curtis, who was a Marjon student in the years 1931-34. He later became a teacher and a principal of Landsdownre Boys’ School, Linwood Boys’ School and Soar Valley Community College. We have many of his things, including a blazer, a tie, some exercise books and photos. But the most interesting for me are anecdotes from his time in Marjon. One of them seems to me like an absurdist sketch.
The food in Marjon at that time was far from perfect. In fact it was really basic and plain. One day, after dinner, the boys were served rice pudding. Instead of it being completely plain, there were raisins in it. That was something unheard of. But the joy was short-lived as somebody found a cockroach in the pudding. The offending insect was put on a plate and passed to the teachers’ table, to the attention of the principal. The principal himself rose from his seat, ordered Non Nobis to be sung and the meal ended. Many boys were absolutely convinced that the cook knew of the roaches infesting the pudding and added the raisins as a camouflage. As for me, I can’t get rid of the image in my head of the whole school singing a hymn over a body of a dead insect resting on a plate:-)

Irregular post

Due to the fact that I felt like a vampire squid for the most of this week(look them up, they can turn themselves inside out!) there will not be a regular post. Instead, here is a picture from one of Marjon publications, commenting on the mixed styles of the buildings on the campus:

Awkward Marjon Photos

Ugh! The doom and gloom of November is getting to me, so this time I decided to find something to laugh about. And since the archives always provide, here are the most awkward Marjon photos taken from the prospectuses. Most of those come from the prospectuses published in the 70’s. Something about the disco era that make them stand out. Weird.

I’m assuming that Marjon is haunted, because a pair of disembodied hands is operating this machine.

Two guys torturing a dragonfly. Macrophotography or mad science?

Student of the French language, caught in a bad moment

Not awkward but persistent. This photography of outreach programme was in the prospectuses from the 70’s well into the 90’s. Uh, isn’t that time to get a new photo, guys?

Awkward or just badly staged? And why there is a pig entangled in the ship’s rigging?

Took me a while before I realised what he is doing. Is he…uh, washing the dishes? Doing laundry? Nope, it’s just a student of arts and design at a potter’s wheel.

Nothing awkward on its own, but that picture was the only thing under the big caption ‘Facilities’. Soooo, we have a table? I guess in the 74 there was still not much in the facilities department.

Of course this is just a selection and there is much more where those came from. I guess where is history and photography there will always be awkward photos. Is that you on one of those? Recognized anyone? Tell me all about it!