The Master’s outing to visit the London Metropolitan Archive in Clerkenwell on Friday 24th July proved to be an outstanding event.
The tour of the LMA was superbly organised by Dorota Pomorska-Dawid along with her colleagues. As background to the visit, the LMA have appointed Dorota as Project Archivist to catalogue material deposited at the LMA by the Clockmakers' Charity. The project will allow the records to become more easily available for consultation and to ensure their ongoing preservation.
The visit started with a welcome by Dorota’s and an overview of the history of LMA. The tour group then moved to the conservation studio where one of Dorota’s colleagues talked about the types of conservation and preservation work carried out. This included viewing items from the ‘Rogue Gallery’. These are documents damaged beyond repair by fire and pests, including a 17th century freedom register burnt in the Chamber fire of 1786, (see photo above). The group also had a very special opportunity to view some ‘iconic documents’ including Robert Hooke’s diary from 1672-83, (listed in the UNESCO UK Memory of the World register); Isaac Newton’s sacrament certificates from 1701; and a yet uncatalogued draft petition to Parliament by Harrison in 1763, with notes by Humphrey Quill. This document is part of current cataloguing project. These items proved totally fascinating for the tour group of Clockmakers.
The tour then went behind-the scenes moving down to the basement to view one of the LMA’s enormous strong rooms full of floor to ceiling mobile shelving. Time was then spent in the Archive Study Area. Set aside were a selection of items from the Clockmakers' Charity collection which are currently being catalogued. Some examples included pages cut from Justin Vulliamy's daybook, a description by John Harrison of his first longitude timekeeper or "sea clock" (1730), and a volume of the Stone Collection of trade cards & watch papers dated to c.1769. The tour concluded with a look at the current LMA exhibition of ‘Magnificent Maps of London’ followed by an excellent lunch at a nearby restaurant.
Our thanks to Dorota Pomorska-Dawid for her kind assistance with this visit report.
Richard Fox
