Photography - archives need to move with the times

An article in Thursday's edition of the Guardian entitled The cost of historical research: why archives need to move with the times was of particular interest to me, as it flags up something that was addressed at a recent archive conference in Scotland, by both historians and from a genie POV by yours truly. Written by Northampton based Nell Darby, a doctoral research student in history, the article flags up the inconsistent policy of many archives across England in charging variable rates for the right to copy documents in an archive with a digital camera. The full article is at www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/may/23/history-research-costs-archive-fees.

At present, national institutes such as The National Archives at Kew and the National Records of Scotland will allow free photography, so long as you don't use a flash. The point I raised in my talk was that this ability to do so can beneficially transform how genealogists work. The NRS in Edinburgh is a 5 hour round trip for me from the west of Scotland, and in the past I have often had to make repeated visits to the archive to consult documents for clients. The copying charges for documents were ludicrous - not to mention the travel costs. Thankfully that has now changed. To give an idea how dramatic a difference that can make, when I wrote a book last year about the murder of an ancestor, I previously had made several trips to Edinburgh to consult the precognition papers for the trial, and had still only managed to get about two thirds of the material transcribed. In one afternoon, following the introduction of permission to photograph material at the NRS, I was able to photograph the entire lot, including the material I had already transcribed, and was able to successfully complete the book without going bankrupt from travel costs! It made an enormous difference.

At TNA at Kew I was recently able to photograph an entire service history not yet available online for a WW1 ancestor - no questions asked! I also cited a client job where I was able to successfully take some 200 photographic images at the NRS of a range of 17th and 18th century estate papers, letters of horning, sequestration papers, and more, all written in Secretary Hand (the Devil's attempt to improve the style of old handwriting!), which needed to be forensically transcribed. Some of the documents were quite fragile, with one actually referred to the archivist as I was seriously worried about its condition. Being able to image the documents meant only one visit to the facility, less wear and tear on the material, and the ability to work on it at home for the client to extract the story I was pursuing. Such an ability means less costs for the client (travel mainly), and offers an ability to genealogists who don't live in Edinburgh (or London) to be more competitive, and productive. The national repositories may be based in London or Edinburgh, but they are there to serve the whole country/countries, not just the locals who can get there easily.

In Darby's article she points out that many institutions use photographic passes income as a way to plug the gaps in their funding. But she cites a horrendous inequality - in the piece she cites a charge of £25 at North Yorkshire to gain a photography pass, but only £3 at North Devon. TNA and the NRS don't charge at all. Whether a facility should charge or not is certainly an issue - but equally important is the issue about being allowed to photograph images in the first place. One other issue cited at NRS, is that some materials held there are held on behalf of private individuals, and permission is not given to photograph them. That's fair enough, though obviously if permission is granted by the relevant owner, I would hope this could be waived (I've not had to do this yet, as the need has not arisen, so not sure if this is possible).

So yes, archives do need to move with the times. The national repositories are leading the way - to everyone else, come on now, please let us photograph documents at your facilities as well. If we have to pay, fair enough - but as with academic historians, we're not a cash cow, so be gentle! But please do move with the times.

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers, starts May 15th - see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/scotland-1750-1850-beyond-oprs-starts.html. Time to smash a few brick walls...!