Southampton Archives has a wealth of material deposited by community groups and individual community leaders, who have worked for change on a variety of local, national or international issues. Archives of pressure groups or campaigning organisations can represent communities who are not always as visible in more traditional archival collections; they can tell stories of community engagement and identity; they offer insights into social change. The Archives are keen to collect and catalogue material that reflects the work of our local community champions.
This project, which will be grant aided by HAT for £3000, was inspired by cataloguing a small collection of records from Southampton Women’s Centre, which was active in the 1970s-1980s. The Women’s Centre aimed to provide an environment in which services and facilities could be offered to all women, ‘regardless of race, class, disabilities, sexuality, age, education, marital status, religion, political affiliation or any other distinction, and to enable them to achieve their full potential’. The collection comprises only one box, but it contains valuable source material relevant to women’s history in the city. Producing a detailed catalogue has allowed us to identify items of interest to women’s history, Black history, and LGBTQIA+ history. Some of the newly catalogued material was then able to feature in the ‘Southampton’s Queer Stories’ exhibition at God’s House Tower in 2024).
Several of Southampton collections would benefit from a similar approach to that used with the Women’s Centre Collection. Some are uncatalogued whilst others only have a manuscript or typed list and could be re-catalogued to find references to underrepresented groups or topics. We would be able to make the collections more widely accessible through our own online catalogue, but also through the National Archives’ ‘Discovery’ site. There is scope to produce small exhibitions or selections of catalogued material on Spydus, which could highlight project discoveries.
Specific collections that are likely to be catalogued are:
Southampton Amnesty International — a recently deposited collection which includes a mixture of paper and digital material. Southampton Amnesty International has been at the forefront of campaigning for human rights, upholding rights of refugees and drawing attention to human rights abuses. (approx. 10 boxes plus digital material)
Southampton Anti-Apartheid Group (later ACTSA), covering 19762000. Records include minutes, annual reports, correspondence, campaign files and newspapers cuttings. (2 boxes)
Families Against the Bomb, formed in 1982 which described themselves as ‘a group of active people brought together by … common concern for the survival of children and future generations in the nuclear age’. The collection includes references to the Women’s Peace Camp at Greenham Common. (2 boxes)
Southampton CND and SCANS (Solent Coalition Against Nuclear Ships): campaign papers and administrative material. (7 boxes)
Southampton Anti-Poll tax group, 1990: campaign papers and administration (approx. 2 boxes)
Southampton RSPCA branch minute books, 1902-1952, which include references to the use of fur and feathers in ladies’ fashion, the treatment of war horses 1914-1918, the aviary in Southampton and the transportation of animals at the Docks. (1 box)
Southampton Trades Council: we have several different collections include Trades Council records, as well as a digitised oral history project, the catalogue and summaries of which could be made available online. (approx. 15 boxes plus digital material)