1 March 2021:
We all survived and no living organism was in any way endangered during our endeavours to produce, manage and host our first online events. Doing something completely new for the first time does bring a sense of trepidation, and that is without involving the wonders of modern technology. It is said never work with animals or children on the stage. Based on my experiences I would happily add modern technology to the list.
That said, with a huge sigh of relief, our first ventures online have been successful, albeit slightly clunky in places. Yet, that brings a charm and quirkiness of its own that a very slick and highly professional presentation could not do. We have begun an interesting journey planning online presentations and events that require new skills – a steep but enjoyable learning curve.
Zoom has now become an almost daily part of my life in governing and managing the charity. We are certainly doing things in a smarter, not harder way that has brought many benefits, not least cutting travel time and costs. Every cloud has a silver lining and another key benefit of moving online has been the loosening of the geographical grip of Kew. Our members will be able to become more involved with what we are doing. We can also draw on a wider range of speakers, some more far-flung who perhaps would have declined giving a talk at Kew because of the distance and travel involved.
We remain in strange and unusual times, to the point where the title of my blog has now become slightly misleading. I last visited TNA on 20 January 2020 and, as noted above, a lot has happened during the intervening period. Although we have a road map out of the restrictions there is no telling when we can fully return to ‘normal’ and life before the lockdown.
In the meantime, I am very keen to establish a strong online presence so we can reach out and connect with more of our members. With that in mind I am pleased that Annabel has recently joined the team to help establish and develop our talks programme. The intention over time is to create an interesting and diverse collection of talks. Some of these will hopefully be recorded and available for ongoing access.
Following on from TNA’s successful run of Summer Lecture Series, that we supported and funded, the intention is to undertake something similar with a series of ongoing themed threads, alongside talks on other topics. The initial four themes are climate and weather in the historical record; Spies in the Archives; the Cold War, and research skills to unlock the historical record.
The series of talks on climate and weather will explore how weather events were documented. Some of the talks will showcase how the historical record corroborates climate research on the impact of human activity. The spies in the archives theme will take the long view of espionage through the ages. It will highlight what the historical record reveals about some of the key characters involved, the clandestine operations and espionage in general.
The series on the Cold War will explore the key moments and its many different facets. It will also include the 75th anniversary of BRIXMIS, the British Military Mission in Soviet occupied Germany. The last theme, on research skills, will highlight the various research methods and approaches to accessing and interpreting the historical record, and the many dangers and traps that can lead to misinterpretation.
The themes will not be presented sequentially. The talks will be mixed, with a variety of other topics in between. Much will depend upon the availability of speakers. Our first talk will be at our AGM on 23 March by Dr Alexander Hall, the University of Birmingham: Who speaks for the flood? Exploring agency, expectations and the supernatural in extreme weather events. The talk explores how across the twentieth-century, institutional, community and individual responses to flooding and other extreme weather events have changed. It should be an interesting talk to begin the overall series, and the climate and weather theme in particular.
I am looking forward to participating in the research skills theme. It is a fascinating topic – how you can navigate and explore the archival record effectively and methodically to reach ‘safe’ conclusions. I have seen many classic errors over the years. Family history is one example where the mixing of generations can be a common trap to fall into. It is usually easy to find the right name, but not always the right person.
There is much to look forward to in the coming months as the programme of talks takes shape and develops. Of course, we welcome suggestions about speakers we could invite and also any particular topics, or specific issues within one of our initial themes.