Working in the Archives

My independent research is about how universities responded to conscription laws during the Second World War. Students were conscripted at different times in their academic careers depending on what they were studying, with science, technology, and medical students getting more time at university before going to war than those studying arts or humanities.

So far, I’ve done work in the National Archives and the archives of the University of London. I’ve really enjoyed working in the university archives because they apparently don’t get used often, so the staff and the university archivist were all really excited that I wanted to use the archive. They helped me navigate the finding aid and select materials to look at, and while I work they often check in on me and chat about my progress. Some of the documents I’ve looked at include the diary of a librarian during the war, the minutes of the Military Education Committee, and a memorandum sent to the University Grants Committee (essentially begging for more money because many university buildings had bomb damage).

I went to the National Archives for the first time last week with Allison and Rachel. Though much more efficient, the National Archives lacked the personal warmth of the university archives. It would be possible to do a whole day of work there without interacting with another human being. After making an online reservation for a seat in the reading room, you fill out an online order form for your materials and they arrive in a cubby corresponding to your seat number about an hour later. The reading room is huge and rather sad looking. It’s filled with dozens of tables in clusters. It’s silent. There are people in blue coats who monitor the room and scold you if you handle documents incorrectly. While working in the National Archives was a less friendly experience, I did enjoy getting to read Parliamentary discussions about the bills that affected universities during the war.

Archival research is much slower than I expected. Much time is spent waiting for documents to reach you, and then sifting through papers that are irrelevant to your topic. Even though I’ve barely scratched the surface of my topic, it’s amazing getting to see all the information that’s preserved in these spaces. Despite the tedious parts, it’s really cool trying to find a bigger narrative or meaningful message behind the words someone scribbled on a scrap of paper in 1944.