Staff from our Collections Research, Collections Expertise and Engagement, and Collection Care teams have collaborated to produce three thematic articles about records held at The National Archives. Thinking thematically about our collections has involved looking beyond traditional chronologies, geographies and catalogue structures. In these articles, documents from the medieval period speak to records from the present, and records from across the world sit alongside each other.
Research activities at The National Archives are guided by core priorities in our Research Vision. These collaborative articles respond to several of these priorities.
One priority in our Research Vision, ‘The archive within and for our society’, encompasses the histories of welfare, health and medicine. It invites us to think about how archives contribute to individual and collective understandings of the past. In State responses to epidemic outbreaks and pandemics, our researchers investigate the history of official responses to public health emergencies. They highlight the development of quarantine during plague outbreaks, the growth of vaccination programmes against smallpox, and local public health measures during the 1918–19 influenza pandemic. The article also examines the UK government’s influential HIV and AIDS awareness campaign, ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’, and the digital communication strategies used during COVID-19. Together, these records reveal the expanding role of government in managing disease and protecting public health.
AIDS. Monolith. 40 secs.
There is a disease today that is potentially more deadly...
...than the deadliest bomb.
This virus can be passed during sexual intercourse, so anyone can get it male or female, gay or straight.
The numbers who are already infected are rising,
be very careful who you have sex with. Protect yourself, and use a condom,
and read this leaflet when it arrives.
Today AIDS is the fact of life you cannot ignore
ignore it and it could be the death of you.
Storyboard for the AIDS ‘Monolith’ advert, 1986. Catalogue reference: JA 235/57
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State responses to epidemic outbreaks and pandemics
From the Black Death to COVID-19, The National Archives holds numerous collections that shed light on official responses to public health emergencies.
Another priority in the Research Vision, ‘A responsible, sustainable future’, emphasises environmental sustainability and the long-term resilience of archival institutions. This underpins research into geographical, environmental and ecological histories. It recognises the potential of archival collections to inform contemporary debates and contribute to a more sustainable future. Weather and Climate in the Record-Keeping of the State explores the influence of weather and climate on trade, technology and empire. The article examines medieval windmills on the vanished island of Ravenser Odd, colonial-era scientific testing in Nigeria, and modern environmental monitoring at The National Archives. Across our collections there are records of storms, histories of meteorological research, and responses to extreme weather events. Together, these records reveal the long-standing importance of understanding, measuring, and adapting to weather and climate, including in the preservation of archival records.
Environmental monitoring of The National Archives' external conditions using IoT Weather Station software.
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Weather and climate in the record-keeping of the state
The British Isles experience particularly varied weather. In what ways – and why – do records at The National Archives feature weather and climate?
A further priority in the Research Vision, ‘Global, inclusive access’, seeks to promote open, equitable access to collections, research outputs and research opportunities. It asks us to critically reflect on whose voices are represented in or excluded from the archival record. This priority encourages projects that foreground underrepresented histories and global majority perspectives. Enslaved and Indigenous people: Reading against the grain in the colonial archive explores how records can be interpreted to recover the experiences, agency, and resistance of Indigenous and enslaved people. Through three case studies, it reveals Fante leaders’ influence over British trade on the ‘Gold Coast’, the possible resistance of an enslaved woman accused of poisoning in Barbados, and the challenges of interpreting colonial photographs of Indigenous peoples in Newfoundland and Labrador. While colonial archives primarily reflect the perspectives of colonisers, they also preserve traces of the lives, actions, and identities of those subjected to imperial rule.
A photograph of a group of people in Newfoundland. The top of the image may have been manipulated in the developing process. Catalogue reference: COPY 1/563/91
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Enslaved and Indigenous people: Reading against the grain in the colonial archive
Traces of Indigenous and enslaved people’s experiences, and crucially their agency and resistance, can be found across The National Archives’ collections.
These essays illustrate the rich potential of the millions of records held at The National Archives, which span over 1,000 years. Thinking about the collection thematically, in ways that cross conventional time periods, geographies, formats, and record series, enables us to understand how contemporary issues have extensive and often complicated histories in the archive.
