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Palace Green Library
Palace Green
DURHAM
DH1 3RN
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)191 334 2972
Email: pg.library@durham.ac.uk
General
Resources for some specific areas are highlighted below, but resources for many more specific topics can be discovered by searching for the appropriate topic in Discover and by restricting the search to ‘Durham Archives’ or by searching the printed catalogue by selecting the topic, such as ‘management’ or ‘marketing’ as a subject keyword and restricting the search to ‘Special Collections’ or ‘Ushaw College’.
Management
Organisational management is widely reflected in the archive collections, covering the management of staff, resources, and property, and can be studied at specific periods or over a range of eras dating back from the present day in such as the archive of Durham University itself with an ever-growing estate, staff and student community to manage, to the twelfth century in the archive of Durham Cathedral, which even then had a wide-ranging estate, community of brethren and cells to manage. Inbetween, there are the archives of similar large organisations such as the palatinate and diocese of Durham and the Catholic seminary of Ushaw College also managing considerable resources, communities, activities and relationships.
Then there are the collections of the major families of the area, demonstrating the management of their estates, businesses, resources, and also family relationships, in the papers of such as the Earls Grey of Howick, the Lords Eden of Windlestone, the Baker Bakers, the Backhouses from Darlington, the Shaftoes of Beamish, the Headlams, and the Shipperdsons.
Also there are other organisations, reflecting the management of an activity and the resources to support it, in such as the archives of the Surtees Society publishing historic documents, the Durham guilds, national bodies such as the National Board of Catholic Women, religious communities such as the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Evron, and local solicitors such as of Clayton and Gibson (Co Durham, Newcastle and the wider estates of the Marquesses of Bute) and Booth and Lazenby (Co Durham, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, including mining and tile-making interests).
Marketing may not historically have been such an overt activity as it is currently, but there are considerable bodies of material in the collections that can be interpreted in this way. The extensive collection of medieval seals in especially the Cathedral Archive had very much a promotional aspect in projecting a certain image in what was then a much more visually-reliant society. On the printed side, the collections are rich in broadsides and the like for local elections intended to promote one or other candidate in the 18th and 19th centuries (papers of the Earls Grey). Also to be found are promotional flyers or prospectuses for books, and the printed Local collection has many examples of advertisements in such as directories, the Durham University Journal and Calendar, and of course especially local newspapers, mainly available on microfilm.
More ostensibly focused on marketing are the major ongoing organisations whose archives we hold, with again the university itself being very much involved in this with lots in the archive on how it has marketed itself in recent times, including its courses, its colleges, its extra-mural activities and its location, not just to prospective students, but also to its alumni, conferences and the local community. Other collections would include those of the Diocese of Durham and the Cremation Society (campaigning for the promotion of cremation), and the recent marketing activities of many more local organisations are reflected in the printed reports and journals held in the Local Collection.
Management and Marketing Beyond Britain
The Sudan Archive contains material relating to the management of various resources and activities in the Sudan in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the papers of such as H.G. Farbrother, J. Carmichael, and A.W. Shepherd.
Papers of various diplomats are also held in the collections for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reflecting the management and marketing of Britain’s interests around the world, information on which can be found in such as the papers of various members of the Grey family, the Eden family, the Wylde family, the 1st Earl of Durham (Radical Jack) and Malcolm MacDonald.
In a not unrelated vein, the management and marketing of British communities overseas can be explored in the archives and book collections of diverse communities such as the English College in Lisbon (1624-1973) and the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre, based in Bruges 1642-1794 until their evacuation back to England.
Project management in action with Bishop John Cosin (‘Jo Duresme’) controlling the development of his new library building at Durham in a letter to Miles Stapylton of 4 October 1670 (COS 4, 96)
