June 9th is International Archives Day 2014, and here at TrowelBlazers we have many a reason to be grateful to archives and archivists the world over. It’s thanks to them – their support, help and generosity – that we can bring our trowelblazers to life with pictures as well as words.

From Gertrude Bell on horseback, headscarf billowing in the desert breeze, to Margaret Murray unwrapping an Egyptian mummy; from Bertha Parker doing her best impression of an Anthropologie model, to alternative fashion tips from Virginia Grace (warning: contains snakes); from capturing the uncompromising stare of Gertrude Caton Thompson, to the tender moments of friendship and family that happen on digs–like this between Dorothy Garrod and Yusra. All of these pictures have survived, been preserved, digitised and made available through the work of archives.

If we don’t value our archives, we risk losing them. This is why at TrowelBlazers we make every effort we can to attribute images, and obtain permissions from the copyright holders. Even though it slows us down, it pays off. Every time we’ve approached an archivist, from London to New York to Cape Town, we’ve received help above and beyond the call of duty. Even better, we’ve often been tipped off to new stories of trowelblazing derring-do.

So on #IAD2014 we want to say a huge thank you to every archivist and archive that have supported us by letting us use their images, free of charge.

 

THANK YOU TO:

  • Bibliotèque Nationale de France for their CC-BY online archive Gallica, and their image of Jane Dieulafoy
  • Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (especially Sue Giles) for their image of Adela Breton
  • The Institute of Archaeology at UCL (especially Katie Meheux) for their images of Kathleen Kenyon, including those online as CC-BY in Archaeology International, as re-used here
  • The Geological Society (especially Caroline Lam) for their silhouette of Etheldred Bennett
  • The Ghar Dalam Museum and Heritage Malta (especially John Borg) for their image of Dorothea Bate 
  • The British Geological Survey (and very, very especially Bob MacIntosh who is an indefatigable source of trowelblazer images) for their images of Eileen Guppy and Caroline Birley 
  • The Manchester Museum (especially Campbell Price) for their image of Margaret Murray
  • Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Archives (especially Kim Martineau) for their image of Marie Tharp
  • The Egypt Exploration Society (especially Joanna Kyffin & Carl Graves) for their images of Mary Chubb and Hilda Petrie
  • The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (especially Sylvie Dumont) for their image of Virginia Grace
  • Royal Holloway, University of London (especially Annabel Gill) for their image of Catherine Raisin
  • The University of Bradford Special Collections (especially Allison Cullingford) or their image of Jacquetta Hawkes
  • Aşıklı Höyük  Research Project Archive for their image of Ufuk Esin
  • The Honor Frost Foundation (especially Joan Porter MacIver) for their images of Honor Frost 
  • University of Texas Digital Repository (especially Dygo Tosa & Tom Palaima) for their image of a letter from Alice Kober
  • The British School of Rome (especially Stephan Kay) for their image of Molly Cotton
  • The Cambridge Archaeological Unit, Cambridge University (especially Andrew Hall) for their image of Margaret Jones
  • Penn Museum (especially Katherine Pourshariati) for their video of Mary Butler
  • Suffolk Record Office (especially Steven Plunkett) for their image of Nina Layard
  • The Natural History Museum Library and Archives (especially Hellen Pethers) for their image of Dorothea Bate
  • Marie Stopes International for their image of Marie Stopes 
  • Los Angeles Natural History Museum (especially Cathy McNassor and Leena Rogers) for their images of Hildegarde Howard
  • Buckinghamshire County Museum (especially Brett Thorn) for their image of Janet Glassbrook

 

by  Tori