Doing their bit - part 3

This week we have a guest post written by Marleen, Curatorial Assistant at the DLI Museum:

Preserving the Durhams:

Volunteering at the DLI Museum

Wrapping guns, mounting uniforms and cleaning medals: these are all day-to-day tasks for the volunteers at the DLI Museum.  A year ago we started a volunteer project which is still running successfully today. At the moment we have over thirty volunteers working with our collections.

Cataloguing uniforms

Some of our volunteers come to us for work experience, others because they want to find something interesting to do after retirement. Most of them are involved in an inventory of the entire collection. This means that they catalogue all the objects, including measurements and condition checking. After an object is fully catalogued, it is then labelled, photographed and repacked.

Another important aspect of our volunteer programme is metal cleaning. We have a very large medal collection and many other metal and silver items, which all tarnish over time. Some of our volunteers are trained by a metal conservator to clean these objects to a museum standard. Not only does this look better on display, it also helps in preserving them.

Metal cleaning

At the end of the collections’ inventory we will know exactly what objects we have, the state they are in and where they are. Of course this has been done in the past, but over the years people have used different systems and formats. The inventory is bringing all of these systems together, so it will be much easier to use the collection for research and exhibitions in the future.

So far we have audited over 3,500 objects, something which would have never been possible without our volunteers.

Mounting a tunic on a mannequin to be photographed

Doing their bit - part 2

D/DLI 2/7/18(116) 'Mining operations, Armentieres 1915', from the 7th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, Officer's Mess album

This is the second of our posts about the experience of volunteers on our project.  This piece has been written by Kate:

I first started volunteering on the Durham WW1 project back in September 2013 and have done so since in person and online, which has been extremely convenient.

The staff were so warm and welcoming and had no pre-conditions on how much they wanted you to do as they said it was totally up to the individual. This was great because it allowed me to ease into the work. The variety of work they have provided has been very interesting and I have done transcription, indexing and research using both original and online material.

The history of Durham is rich and diverse and having had the opportunity to delve deeper into it with this WW1 community project has brought me closer to the heritage of this city.

  

One of things Kate did whilst staying abroad was a survey of some our collections using the online catalogue.  This was to see if there could potentially be First World War related material in collections other than the Durham Light Infantry, such as our mining collections.  This project is an opportunity for the interrogation of collections beyond their initial focus.  On returning to the UK, Kate was able to follow up this survey by going through some of the records she had identified.

Doing their bit - part 1

D/CL 27/277/30 Image of a Northern General Transport Company bus, thought to be carrying First World War volunteers at Birtley in 1915

The First World War in County Durham has had a great response to its call for volunteers.  We took on our first set in August 2013, and this month we are holding our second series of induction sessions.  The majority of our volunteers are from the County Durham area, however, the fact that people can participate from home allows those who have connections to the county but live elsewhere to still be involved.

For the next few posts, you’ll be hearing about what some of our volunteers have been up to.  This piece has been written by Sue:

I recently retired as a teacher and having time on my hands I became a volunteer with Durham Record Office WW1 work and my first job was really to use my computer skills. I had to index the casualties of the DLI in WW1.

I was converting word documents to excel and was fascinated when I read surnames and recognised the place where they had lived or enlisted.

I had little knowledge of WW1 or the DLI and it inspired me to take a visit to the museum. Embarrassing to think I live in County Durham and had never been to the museum before.

My present task is to transcribe a diary written by a soldier and this has created a ‘bonding exercise’ in the house.

Brian dictates the pages and I do the typing. We source the place names mentioned in the diary as the battle front changes. It develops our understanding of the tragic events of the area, some of the villages he mentioned being totally wiped out.

Thoroughly enjoyed my new found hobby and would recommend it to anyone. 

Sue has been transcribing the diary from a scan that has been printed out.  The diary is one of several written by Private William Roberts, 18^th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (D/DLI 7/577/1-5).  The diaries begin in December 1915, and continue to a few days before he died of wounds in June 1917.