The University of Hull will be 100 years old in 2027!
In summer 2023, Hull University Archives began an ambitious project to catalogue records created by the university during its century-long existence. This project will enable Hull University Archives to better support research activities contributing to the university's centenary celebrations.
Follow our progress below and on the History Centre's blog (filter using the category 'University Centenary').
We're cataloguing new collections all the time but these are not yet available online. Please email archives@hull.ac.uk if you have any questions.
Don't forget to keep an eye on our Stories from the Strongrooms talks. So far we've posted the following videos exploring the University's history:
The University of Hull - Early Years in Pictures
Update: April 2025
This month we've been working on an old Library collection containing an undiscovered trove of historic pamphlets, alumni newsletters, and internal communications bulletins. Highlights include a leaflet about the University Air Squadron (yep, we had one!), articles of association for the University College of Hull, and a pamphlet detailing and explaining the meaning of the university's coat of arms.
Update: March 2025
In March, we finished cataloguing the papers of Professor Edwin Dawes, a Biomedical Sciences academic. We also started sorting the papers of Professor Colin Creighton of the Department of Social Sciences, so we're ready to begin cataloging next month.
We also said goodbye to Pete, our first alumni volunteer. He's done a fantastic job digitising the first couple of hundred negatives and has uncovered some fantastic images of the University Library under construction. Helen, our second alumni volunteer, is staying with us for a bit longer and we're very happy to have her around!
Finally, we met with the family of Alan Marshall, the first university photographer. We had a fascinating chat and heard some great stories about Alan. The results of our chat will help inform part of an exhibition relating to Alan's work in 2027.
Update: February 2025
This month we finished work on the archive of a WWII Oral History Project undertaken by Professor Doug Thompson. Professor Thompson worked in the Italian Department and this project was undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s to capture the experience of East Riding veterans of the Italian Military Campaign.
We also finished cataloguing the records of the Drama Department, which include publicity material relating to the earliest shows staged by staff and students of the department in the 1960s.
Last but not least, Lucy has joined our growing team of student volunteers working on the scrapbooks. We're very happy to have her with us and we're looking forward to hearing about her discoveries!
Update: January 2025
At the beginning of the month we were joined by two alumni volunteers, Pete and Helen. Before Christmas we were busy working with our lovely colleagues in the Alumni and Development team to set up the exciting Centenary Archives Photo Project. Find out more here: CAPP.
We've also been joined by two more student volunteers, Toby and Annabelle. They'll be with us for ten weeks and will be joining Alice in her indexing of the university scrapbooks. We're very happy to have you both with us!
As for the cataloguing, we've completed work on a collection relating to public lectures at the university. The collection contains printed texts of lectures given as part of various series, including inaugural lectures of professors, St John's College Cambridge lectures, and the Josephine Onoh Memorial lectures.
Update: December 2024
Everything is ticking along nicely. Our brilliant volunteers keep on volunteering, and our cataloguing work keeps on going! Check back next month for further progress.
Update: November 2024
This month we welcomed Anna to the volunteer programme. Anna will be looking for evidence of the international student experience using student newspapers. Her research will help us uncover hidden lives within the records.
Update: October 2024
After a few months of quiet work in the background, we've finally completed a catalogue of the Student Administration Services collection! We've also started and completed work on a small collection of records of the Institute of Education, which includes material relating to a library established to support the institute.
Update: September 2024
Jonathan finished his volunteer placement with us this month. He's done a great job finishing off digitisation work on the early student newspapers. He's even had time to do some research, so look out for his blog exploring the work of the Physical Recreation Committee during 2027! We also say goodbye and good luck to another volunteer, Lydia, who has finished her studies and is joining the world of work! Her trawl through the City Archives for mentions of the university will be so useful when we come to compile a research guide to university related records at Hull History Centre later in the project.
Update: August 2024
Work continues without much to report this month. We've all been enjoying our summer holidays and we hope you are too!
Update: July 2024
We've taken a break from the Student Administration Services collection this month to complete cataloguing work on a series of Council, Senate and Committee minute books. We've also revisited some legacy work relating to a set of proceedings volumes, dating back to the founding of an establishing board in 1925, to improve their discoverability.
Update: June 2024
June has seen the continuation of our volunteering programme. Ben has finished box listing a set of inaugural lecture booklets; Alfie made great inroads to digitising the earliest issues of Torch, the first student magazine; Louis has digitised around half of a collection of graduation ceremony DVD recordings; and George has made a great start enhancing descriptions of a set of annual calendars. We want to say a huge thank you to them for all their hard work and wish them well in their future careers. Meanwhile, Alice continues working on an index of university scrapbooks; Lydia is working her way through the vast Hull City Archives and Local Studies Library collections to compile a list of all records relating to the University of Hull; and Moses has researched and is now writing a blog based on the student newspaper Hullfire. We've also been joined by Jonathan, who has picked up where Alfie left off.
As far as the cataloguing goes, we’ve been concentrating on the records of the university’s Student Administration Services. So far we’ve catalogued a series of student lists going back to 1927, and we’re now working on an accompanying set of office files that capture the institution of foreign exchange programmes in the 1980s, as well as strategy work relating to student statistics… 6 boxes down, 18 to go, we’ll see you in July!
Update: May 2024
Our first cohort of student volunteers have started with us, so welcome to Louis, Ben, George, Moses, Alice and Alfie! We're very happy to have you with us so thank you for getting involved!
We've also now catalogued a series of files created by the Accommodation Office over a period of 20 years between 1958 and 1978.
Update: April 2024
Good news, we've finished cataloguing the University's Anglican Chaplaincy records, and we've even started working on a small collection of accommodation office files! And in further good news, our student volunteer programme is now live! Find our more here.
Update: March 2024
Nothing flashy to announce I'm afraid as we've had a month of quietly getting on with things. We've been working on the records of the University's Anglican Chaplaincy and hope to have the catalogue finished next month. We've also been planning several volunteer projects to help us get through some of the work.
Update: February 2024
Our sorting has continued, and we've been weeding a legacy Local Studies collection that was deacesssioned by Hull Local Studies Library and transferred to the University Archives. So far we've found a lot of duplicates for things we already have, but there have been a few items that we don't have!
Update: January 2024
This month we've been sorting through pamphlets and publicity material produced by Middleton Hall to advertise events held at the venue. There's lots of work to do here and we've been looking at how we might get some student volunteers to help us. Watch out for future updates, we'll be advertising opportunities on our Volunteer Projects page.
Update: December 2023
After an initial cataloguing flurry back in September and October, we’ve now reached some of the larger series of records. December has been a month of planning to get us ready to tackle material produced by Middleton Hall and our University Library in the new year.
Update: November 2023
November was a busy month for the project. Our first project intern completed their work to digitize a series of graduation programmes dating back to the early 1950s, enhancing descriptions along the way. Read all about the work in Montaha's blog post. With this work done, we spent the next few weeks updating catalogue records and listing an accompanying series of congregation recordings on VHS and DVD.
We also had a stocktaking week during which the History Centre was closed for us to do some behind the scenes work. We spent our time taking stock of University material in our audio-visual store. We discovered some fantastic photographs along with a reel of film recording the foundation stone laying ceremony, held in the late 1920s!
Update: October 2023
The project began back in July, when we started with a survey of what we have. Next, we got physical and moved the collections around in our strongrooms, giving us space to work and making sure successive accessions to individual collections were located together. Find out more about this work in our blog post 'All Change: The University's records move house'.
After this we could get cracking and the cataloguing work began! By the end of September we had catalogued the following collections:
- Records of the Students Union
- Records of Hull University Social Services Organisation
- Papers of T.W. Bamford on the History of the University
- Records of the Centre for Languages in Education
- Records of the Hull University Staff Cricket Club
- Records of the Lecturing and Administrative Staff Association
- Records of the University Staff Women's Club
- Records of the Senior Common Room
- Annual Reports and Accounts
- Annual Calendars
- The University Gazette
- Records of the Centre for South East Asian Studies
- Press Cuttings Books
Read more about the background to the project on our blog 'Introducing the University Records Project'.