Grenada’s endangered archives programme (EAP295)
Update: Endangered Archives – Digitising Grenada’s Heritage
The British Library’s
“Endangered Archives Programme” (EAP) aims to contribute to the
preservation of archival material that is in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration world-wide.
They achieve this principally through the award of grants in an annual
competition. These grants provide funding to enable successful
applicants to locate relevant endangered archival collections, to
arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home where possible,
to create digital copies of the material and to deposit the copies with
local institutions and the British Library.
Thankfully, back in 2009, Grenada was awarded a research grant of
£39,297 (about US$60,000 or XCD$162,000) for 21 months by EAP’s
International Advisory Panel of academic specialists and archivists:
Anthea Case, Nada Itani, Paul Lihoma, Linda Newson, and Branka Prpa (on
behalf of the sponsor
Arcadia).
A word of
caution – this wonderful project has not ‘saved’ the heritage assets of
the Grenadian people or its National Archives. Far from it. The EAP has
merely conserved, in digital format alone, a small proportion of this
heritage. We are grateful for that much but the very documents
themselves are still in tremendous danger of being completely lost to
all for all time because of the continuing conditions they are under and
what is not being done to restore, conserve, preserve and protect them.
Project Overview
Lead by Dr Laurence Brown from the University of Manchester, this
project seeks to digitise the unique historical archives of Grenada
which record the island’s significance at the intersection of the
British and French Empires during the second half of the eighteenth
century, and provide a rare vision of how the Windward Islands
experienced the transition from slavery to emancipation during the
mid-nineteenth century.
The project focuses on attempting to
digitising 132 volumes
of deed records and local government correspondence which provide a
crucial source for understanding the major political, social and
economic transformations of the Southern Caribbean. These rare sources
can also be used to reconstruct the experiences of the everyday and
subaltern lives.
The material vital and rare and provides a micro-vision of how
Grenada was transformed in the late eighteenth century by imperial
conflicts, the expansion of plantation slavery and revolutionary
politics. The Supreme Court records reveal the multi-racial alliances
and conflicts that marked slave society while Government House
correspondence expresses the local negotiations and conflicts that
shaped the prolonged transition to a free society during the mid
nineteenth century. The French Records are held in a storeroom of the
registry and have
suffered considerably from heat, humidity, fading and corrosion. The
papers
are extremely brittle, the text is beginning to discolour, and the
bindings are in danger of damage due to cramped storage conditions.
Government House correspondence was
displaced by Hurricane Ivan which resulted in
significant loss, and the disruption of its original listing order. The Public Library
lost parts of its roof in 2004 which have yet to be fully repaired. Its
fragmented newspaper holdings are extremely rare.
The
French Deed Records provide a unique vision of
the social complexity of Grenadian society as it was being transformed
into a plantation colony during the late eighteenth century. They
provide a
valuable source for tracing the personal
trajectories of migrants from Africa, Europe and elsewhere in the
Caribbean and for understanding how the social and economic
relationships between Grenada’s white, black and large mixed race
population were being transformed during this period. The
Letter Books of Grenada’s Colonial Secretary offer a detailed narrative of local events which is particularly significant given the limited and fragmented
collections of local newspapers
held by Grenada’s Public Library and the British Library. These papers
provide a revealing counterpoint of local debates to the official
correspondence of the Governor held in the National Archives at Kew.
The
inter-island
correspondence of the Governor in Chief
of the Windward Islands during the transition of emancipation is a
crucial source for social, political and economic history of the
Southern Caribbean, which has remained unused by historians despite the
excellent scholarship of Woodville Marshall and Bridget Brereton on the
region.
Digitising these records would enable public and scholarly access to
these materials not only in Grenada and Britain, but also elsewhere in
the Southern Caribbean, where these records would be of considerable
interest in St Vincent, St Lucia, Martinique and Trinidad.
The project begins with the
newspaper collection of the Grenada Public Library as this allows for a small discrete collection through which
project members can be trained in best practice for digitisation and the management of meta-data. During the second third of the project the
French Deeds
will be digitised while the archival researcher re-orders the
Government House correspondence in preparation for later digitisation.
Digital copies of the
rare deed records, local
government correspendence and local newspapers will be deposited with
the National Archives of Grenada and the British Library; the Government
House correspondence and Registry records will be ordered and
preserved in archival boxes; a
digital photographer and archival researcher
will be trained in current best practice; and two training sessions on
best practice in digitisation and digital records management will be
open to relevant professionals within and outside Grenada – it is hoped
these would
attract public sector personnel from across the Eastern Caribbean.
The
project has the full support of the University of the West Indies and the
Grenada National Archives, with
Dr Curtis Jacobs and
Ms Lillian Sylvester project co-applicants from these respective institutions. The
Grenada National Archives Committee intends that within the life of this project the
Grenadian
government will have authorised the construction of a new National
Archive building which would be the repository for the originals and
digital copies generated by this project.
For the current status check-out our page at
Grenada’s Endangered Archives.
Dr Laurence Brown’s Profile
Laurence
Brown is Lecturer in Migration History. His main research interests are
the Caribbean diaspora (1760-present), labour migration in the remaking
of nineteenth century colonialism, and the impact of migration on
contemporary Western Europe.
After completing a doctorate in comparative history at the University
of York in 1999, he was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies
(Barbados) and at the American University of Paris. In 2004-2005 he
held a research fellowship at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at
the Australian National University that focused on exploring the
connections between colonial migration networks in the Atlantic, Pacific
and Indian Oceans during the nineteenth century.
The Project Begins
In November 2010 James W Robinson, the University of Manchester
senior photographer, flew to Grenada to assist and advise on a
digitisation project. Before the digitisation project began, we were
advised on the right equipment to purchase, and given some basic tips
for digitising the archives.
The British Library wrote:
“The project seeks to digitise the unique historical
archives of Grenada which record the island’s significance at the
intersection of the British and French Empires during the second half of
the eighteenth century, and provide a rare vision of how the Windward
Islands experienced the transition from slavery to emancipation during
the mid-nineteenth century.”
James says:
“The digitisation of the Grenada archives is an extremely important
project, both to protect the very fragile and ‘endangered’ material, and
to open up access to some incredible information and history.
“The project focuses on digitising 132 volumes of deed
records and local government correspondence which provide a crucial
source for understanding the major political, social and economic
transformations of the Southern Caribbean. These rare sources can also
be used to reconstruct the experiences of the everyday and subaltern
lives.”
Camillo Stewart is Grenada Archive’s project photographer, and
Dr. Curtis Jacobs,
the project leader. Camillo showed James some of the work that has
already been carried out, and the set up which we are using. Currently,
the project is using a
Nikon D700 to capture the images.
On 15 November James presented to the team, and some invited guests
from the Grenadian Government, on the importance of digitisation, and
what they do back in the UK. Hopefully, Dr. Jacobs and the team will be
able to expand our work, and digitsise a whole host of other material,
that is in desperate need of attention.
Laurence Brown joined me, and held a workshop on
best practice for digitisation. Hopefully, we will also be teleconferencing with other islands in the area, advising them on similar digitsation bids.
Presentation at the Univeristy of the West Indies
On the 16th James gave his presentation at the University of the West
Indies, to the team and invited guests from the public library and
government. He says:
“It’s a whole different ball game setting up
and working over here. Storage of items is a major issue, there just
isn’t the space to move archives into suitable conditions. Luckily,
thanks to this project, many positive changes have already taken place,
re packaging and organising much of the material.”
Miss Patsy Baptiste, and Miss Roxanne Edwards have been working in
the office of the Governor General and the Supreme Court Registry
respectively, cleaning, organising and repackaging the material to
digitise.
The office of the Governor General holds
Government correspondence,
letters and records, dating
back to the 18th century. The Supreme Court Registry holds
many records relating to slavery,
criminal records,
land deeds,
execution records and
other historical documents. The space the archives are held is actually the next room along to where the executions used to take place!
We looked at some material in
extremely poor condition. These documents are some of the
worst affected by hurricane Ivan in 2004. There are some
very worrying signs of mould throughout the manuscripts, and
some even still feel damp, which means mould spores could still be active. As some of the pages have dried, they have became
very brittle, and it is difficult to even turn a page without damaging it. The
advice was to leave well alone!
Perhaps future funding bids could be applied for which could pay for conservation of these incredibly important items.
One of the worst damaged manuscripts
On the 17th we took a look at some
very fragile documents, and working out the best way to photograph them.
Laurence Brown also presented his paper at the University about
migration of the Grenadian people during the 18th and 19th century. It
was a very interesting look at some of the social history that has been
gleamed from some of the material we have been looking at during my
visit.
James ends saying:
“It has been a pleasure staying here for the week, I
have had such a fantastic trip, and met so many incredible people.
Hopefully, other similar projects will get funding all over the
Caribbean, and our team will be involved on a much greater level. There is so much valuable material that is in danger of being lost forever.“
Project Gallery
Remember to check out the latest by joining our Facebook Group at
Grenada’s Endangered Archives
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Laurence Brown is Lecturer in Migration History. His main research interests are the Caribbean diaspora (1760-present), labour migration in the remaking of nineteenth century colonialism, and the impact of migration on contemporary Western Europe.
