Special Collections & Archives: Snapshots from the Archives

Snapshot from the Archives: Wandsworth Heritage Festival 2024 at Roehampton

Roehampton University’s archivists, academics and students have been involved with the Wandsworth Heritage Festival for three years now, working in partnership with Wandsworth Council to host and curate exhibitions, and deliver talks and tours of the archives. This year’s festival took place from 18th May to 9th June with a theme of ‘health and wellbeing’. 

In this post, Gemma Bentley and Kornelia Cepok (Archivists of Whitelands and Froebel respectively) reflect on their part in the 2024 Festival.

Whitelands College Archives
Gemma Bentley

Whitelands College opened its doors as usual, with a tour of the college and visit to the archives on 20th May. We promised ‘to explore Victorian standards of hygiene, exercise, and wellbeing for the female teacher training students compared to our modern students’.  

Five borough residents attended a tour of the College led by university historian (and Southlands archivist) Gilly King, which was tailored to the Festival’s health and well-being theme. This was followed by a visit to the Whitelands archive to see material illustrating issues that faced administrators, staff and students in the mid- to late nineteenth century. These included outbreaks of smallpox and cholera, rat-infested and overcrowded buildings, and the strict rules and regulations relating to leisure time, dress and domestic duties that were enforced.  

Gilly King (left) demonstrates the Ruskin Cabinet of paintings; the Whitelands College Archives.

It was another interesting and informative afternoon, with plenty of interaction with attendees. We look forward to contributing to the festival again in future, and sharing the incredible building we are privileged to work within and the wealth of archives and artefacts we look after.

Froebel Archive for Childhood Studies
Kornelia Cepok

The Froebel Archive for Childhood Studies (based in the University Library)  also opened our doors to the Wandsworth community two days later, with a talk by the Archivist and a display of historical material. In true Froebelian spirit, our focus was on the child. The goal was to unpack the advertised title of “The Holistic Approach of the Froebel Educational Method and its Impact on Children” using reports and photographs of the nursery settings associated with the Froebel Educational Institute, as well as Elinor Goldschmied’s Treasure Basket to discuss tools and means, such as nature, every-day objects, key-person and the extended family and friends circle, which contribute to a positive development of the whole child – physically and mentally. 

The Treasure Basket

The group of seven visitors, including  the Archivist of the Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service, were fascinated to learn about the impact of the women of the Froebel Educational Institute on today’s early childhood education in England, and spent much time looking through the archive material put together for this visit. One person had signed up for the talk because she completed the online Open University course on  Young children, the outdoors and nature, which included content presented by our Archivist and items from the Froebel archives that she was keen to see and experience first-hand. This kind of personal connection to the past through historical objects is one of the unique attractions that archives have to offer.  

Pages from Fanny Paul’s notebook, The importance of Play, from 1893.

Some reports of summer holidays organised for inner city children from Somers Town Nursery Schools in 1927 and 1930.

Participants also had the chance to view the exhibition that has been hosted in the Library foyer as part of the Festival.  ‘A Wandsworth Childhood’ was created by students on the  Applied Humanities module in Roehampton’s School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The students were introduced to the Wandsworth Heritage Collection and worked with Wandsworth Arts and Culture staff to select objects that they felt captured key aspects of childhood through materials reflecting the social history of Wandsworth over more than a century.  

Antique and vintage toys from the Wandsworth borough collections, including a local Womble, dolls, dolls houses and teddy bears. 

Under the guidance of Antia Dona (Wandsworth) and Dr Dustin Frazier Wood (Roehampton), students were trained in collections handling and condition assessment, objects-based research methods, and best practice in museum display and interpretation. They researched each of the objects, contributing new information to the museum collection catalogue.  

'A Wandsworth Childhood' marks the third year of an exciting partnership between the University of Roehampton and Wandsworth Council Arts and Culture. The exhibition will be displayed in the new Wandsworth Town Library later this year. We have enjoyed participating in the Festival and look forward to opening our doors and sharing the wealth of this material with our local community again next year.