Sarah Castagnetti

Role: Author

Visual Collections Specialist

About

Sarah researches and advises on the visual collections at The National Archives. These include art and design records, photographs and films, largely from the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of these were produced when artists and designers registered their work for copyright registration, and the vast collection represents the changing tastes of Britain over 150 years.

Articles

Focus on

'I feel now that at least I have roots': Eslanda Robeson’s African journey

New

In 1936, anthropologist Eslanda Robeson took a three-month journey through Africa. As her letters show, it had a profound impact on her.
Focus on

Salvage on the South Bank: After the Festival of Britain

The 1951 Festival of Britain transformed London’s South Bank with an array of new buildings and gardens. What happened after it closed?
Blog post

On the Record: 700 years of the Thames

From frozen festivals to royal polar bears, from wartime recovery to medieval merchants this episode of our podcast explores extraordinary stories of the river.
Focus on

Bringing the Bethnal Green disaster to light

The government tried to keep the details of the Bethnal Green Tube shelter disaster of 1943 private – but a court case brought the terrible story to light.