New archival fieldwork!

In the framework of the WWW project, data collection, its analysis and writing theoretically informed discussions of this have gone hand-in-hand. This continues, as another two archival fieldwork visits (aka data collection) are now taking place.

The first is that we hit the road on 8 October to start a very focused period of research in the London Missionary Society collection at SOAS, University of London. This offers an uninterrupted flow of missionary letter-writing from southern Africa from the 1790s through to the 1950s, and a 1 in 5 sample is being drawn from the collection. A chunk of this work has already been done, but further sampling is needed and the whole thing will eventually be completed probably around March 2017, as it’s a mammoth undertaking.

The second is that we leave for six also rather focused weeks of archival research in South African archives on 5 November. This involves archives in Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg and Durban, with the Forbes and Voss collections mentioned elsewhere on these webpages being fully completed, and a number of new family collections entering the frame. That is – riots and building burnings permitted.

Regular weekly blogs will continue, and will concern some of the ongoing issues and finds regarding the collections being worked on. In addition, in the period leading up to Christmas this year there will be new contributions to a number of other sections of the WWW website, including new Traces, another Curiosity and also a How To. These have already been ‘banked’ and will appear at intervals, so keep an eye on things!

Last updated: 13 October 2016