Heritage Volunteers
The work can be practical; it can involve research, or working with the public - guiding or stewarding. No experience is necessary as appropriate training is given to all Heritage Volunteers by accredited, professional Conservators, Curators and Advisors on a project to project basis.
VOLUNTEER FROM HOME PROJECT FOR THE ROYAL PHILATELIC SOCIETY (RPSL) LONDON
The Royal Philatelic Society has an ongoing project to make archived material that it holds available online for research purposes, and would like us to help with this. The RPSL houses a vast archive, included in which are the records of the Perkins Bacon Company which was established in 1828 as a Security printer. They printed a large range of secure paper items such as bank notes and stamps, including the famous Penny Black.
This project deals with the Engraving Books, of which there are 17, each containing, typically, between 150 and 200 pages. These ledgers have been scanned so that images of each page are available. RSPL needs volunteers to read through scanned pages of these Engraving Books, pick out key words and phrases, and make a list of them. Once collated, these lists will enable these documents to be easily searched online for research purposes.
This project is open to all members and Supporter members of The Arts Society, and non-members too.
We are seeking volunteers to look at each page, pick out keywords and type these into a Microsoft Word document. This is not a full transcription of the page, just identifying important phrases that a researcher might put into an online search engine. Thus, we are creating a finding aid for a researcher to identify pages that contain information of relevance to them.
A sample of the end-result of our endeavours can be viewed here:
https://rpsl.org.uk/rpsl/PerkinsBacon/EngravingBook_PB136023/PBEngravingBookPB136023.html
Our endeavours will be made available on the web for anyone to view and should be of use to many audiences, including family tree researchers, numismatists, as well as philatelists.
A volunteer can undertake as many or as few chunks as they wish.
Click here for further information.
In Lomond and Argyll Heritage Volunteers, are working on three projects at the Royal Highland Fusilier Museum in Glasgow.
- Project One. Olivia Birch(Co-ordinator), Fiona Du Boulay, Dinky Fairley, Kate Ferrie
To identify medals, trying to match them to the medal roll and/or soldier if possible. then photograph pack and record. This three year project is nearing completion.
The first image shows the team at work
on the collection and in the second they are viewing Victoria Crosses and a George Cross and Albert Medal. They are joined by Michael, a post-graduate student working on various Museum collections.
- Project Two is about the start. It will involve three Volunteers and the transcription of Soldiers' Letters from WW1 to be held for reference puposes in the Museum Library, and is interlinked with wider library research into the Military Hisory of Regimental Families.
- Project Three To identify, clean and record the Regimental Silver.
The current Heritage Volunteers in Lomond and Argyll, "The Silver Surfers" are enthusiastic, work as a team and find the work rewarding and fun.
If any Member would like to join them, please contact Patty Stewart.
For more information about Heritage Volunteers in general, click on the link The Arts Society Heritage Volunteers.
