By Daniel H. Mutibwa
Advance planning before visit to the Collections Resource Centre is important
On a wonderfully beautiful sunny day in early September 2023, I had the privilege of visiting the Collections Resource Centre (CRC) at Barrow upon Soar. I spent the afternoon learning about the behind-the-scenes work undertaken by CRC staff — thanks to a very enjoyable and illuminating guided tour and a very informative group interview conversation that followed. I was warmly welcomed by Alison Clague (Senior Curator), Sarah Nicol (Curator, Engaging Collections), and Lindsay Swift (Curatorial Assistant). Caroline Lockwood (Collections and Conservation Manager) joined us a short time later. I visited CRC in two capacities. First, as a scholar with a great interest in the ways that the heritage sector continually reorganises itself in response to evolving cultural, economic, political, social, and technological developments. That interest naturally extends to the impact that constant reorganisation has on the changing nature of the multifaceted work undertaken in the heritage sector. Second, in the context of VCCC that is putting together a blueprint to inform development of a Cultural Strategy for the Libraries and Heritage Services (LHS) at Leicestershire County Council (LCC), I was very interested in understanding the role that the behind-the-scenes work at CRC plays in contributing to the creative and cultural ecology across Leicestershire and farther afield. To make the most of my afternoon at CRC, I arranged my visit in advance. In retrospect, this proved to be a very good idea because it gave CRC staff time and space to plan in advance considering that they are a very small team with an extraordinarily busy work schedule behind the scenes.
As part of advance planning before my visit, Alison sent me important information for visitors to CRC. That information included travel directions and the procedure on arrival. On the basis of that information and the understanding that the CRC facility is located midway between Sileby and Barrow upon Soar, I elected to travel to Sileby by train and walk the approximately 20 minutes to CRC. In the event that the weather turned out to be unfriendly, Alison very kindly offered to pick me up from Sileby train station which, I thought, was a wonderfully kind and nice gesture. Even before I set foot in CRC, I had already got the impression that staff are a lovely team. And they really are! Following a pleasant welcome, Alison guided me on a tour of the CRC facility. The collections are divided into six categories: (1) Archaeology, (2) Fashion, (3) Fine Art, (4) Home and Family Life, (5) Natural Life, and (6) Working Life. It is worth noting that the Archaeology collection was moved out of CRC and is currently housed in the Eastern Annexe at County Hall in Glenfield. The tour started in the Fashion collection where we met Sarah at work. Sarah walked us through some key information about this particular collection noting that it includes a wide range of garments, accessories, photographs, fashion plates, catalogues and magazines that capture evolving fashion from the 1750s to the present day. One highlight for me was seeing women’s day and evening wear — including embroidered evening dresses, swimwear, sportswear, and foundation garments, particularly corsets from the internationally renowned Symington Collection.
Reinterpreting existing knowledge and generating new insights about collections
Sarah then kindly retrieved a specific style of corset from the 1890s from the Symington Collection. She described the shape of its patterns in a very accessible manner that enabled me to understand the great finesse that was involved in its construction. I learnt about the properties of the source materials that were used in corset construction over time. Inevitably, the exchange that ensued among Sarah, Alison, and I turned to the social history surrounding the corset in question: (1) whether age determined what style of corset a woman wore; (2) how occupation and income may have dictated what corset style a woman wore — including when and for how long during a typical day; (3) how social class and social standing determined whether or not a woman wore a corset style considered to be of distinctive and elevated fashion; and (4) how occasion dictated what style of corset a woman wore — whether for attendance at a social event or for sports activity. I found the conversation incredibly illuminating and insightful. I could not help but wonder what it felt like wearing specific styles of corset for different activities and/or occasions on any given day. For corsets that closed only at the back — and for which a woman needed help to dress, I wondered what it must have felt like if help was not immediately available.
A pretty housemaid corset circa 1890 © Leicestershire Museum Collections
In addition to researchers, artists, and members of the public who visit CRC to view the Fashion collection, I learnt about how some of its subcollections have been used by higher education students in the past. For example, in 2012 and 2013, Sarah explained that she worked on two large collaborative projects involving selected subcollections with two regional universities, namely De Montfort and Huddersfield. The project with De Montfort University (DMU) was exhibited along with the CRC wartime exhibition titled ‘Utility Fashion in Wartime’.
Because the CRC facility has no space to host display and exhibition events, Sarah and her colleagues took some of the subcollections manufactured by the ‘Utility Garments Company’ to DMU for the students to study. The students were then given their own brief to design some Utility garments of their own. The Huddersfield University project involved students engaging with the high street retailer ‘Next’ in 2013. The students studied the ‘Next’ subcollection from the 1980s and reinterpreted the garments which, in turn, were then displayed in an exhibition space within the Snibston Fashion Gallery before the Snibston Discovery Museum in Coalville closed two years later in 2015.
The space constraints at CRC meant that the Snibston Fashion Gallery at the time offered a large exhibition space to showcase both the students’ work and the extant garments that they studied. I learnt that CRC staff are keen to work with higher education students on collaborative projects on and around the Fashion collection in ways that generate value in various ways. Such value could encompass the production of new knowledge about the collections or offer a useful reinterpretation of existing objects and associated knowledge.
Alison then guided me through the Natural Life collection which comprises plant and animal specimens known to inhabit Leicestershire. She explained that they are divided into botany and zoology. This collection, Alison explained further, gives visitors to CRC an idea of how the natural environment in the county has evolved over time, and what this evolution reveals about Leicestershire’s changing plants and animals in relation to the rest of the world.
A highlight here was being shown plant specimens that British scientists travelling and researching abroad brought back with them. These scientists’ contributions are an invaluable resource that enhances the Natural Life collection. Likewise, the information that CRC staff collect and document about the numerous individuals, groups, societies, and institutions that contribute to a better and evolving understanding of the natural environment across Leicestershire and beyond is of great value. It was during the tour of the Zoology subcollection that Caroline joined us. Triggered, in part, by the various animal specimens that were awaiting documentation and cataloguing, conversation turned to the high levels of workload that the small team of CRC staff experiences on a daily basis. I learnt that a number of museum staff with different specialisms worked behind the scenes at the CRC facility in the past. These staff focused on specific tasks such as undertaking documentation of particular objects or looking after specific collections. This very specialist approach meant that staff undertook work within clearly designated areas of their specialism.
Transitioning from a specialist to a generalist approach to collections care
Whilst that specialist approach clearly had its advantages, one consequence was that crucial knowledge and practice did not diffuse across staff teams as effectively as would have been desirable. In the wake of the numerous redundancies owed to the persistent austere climate within which Leicestershire County Council has been compelled to operate, the number of CRC staff has considerably shrunk — leading to the high workload levels alluded to earlier. The current small staff team has drawn positives from a clearly very challenging situation. Finding themselves compelled to ‘spin plates’ for much of the time, CRC staff have had to embrace versatility to be able to cope. I learnt that staff have had to become more generalists than specialists in the processes of (1) making collections much more accessible, (2) documenting information in a format that can be used by others — including non-specialists, (3) retrieving information and connecting it with collections with relative ease, (4) rendering workflows much more fluid, transparent and effective, and (5) doing all of this without compromising professional standards and values. During the entire tour, I could very clearly see how some of those processes played out and aligned really well with my experience of the tour in real time which was brilliant to see. An illustrative example of those processes in action was a look at the working area that Alison and Caroline showed me after we exited the Natural Life collection. I learnt that there is always work going on with the collections — be it preparing them for exhibitions, sending them out on loan, processing them for audits, and photographing them for documentation, cataloguing and sharing on social media. Boxed up collections are never forgotten about; on the contrary, each box ‘will have its moment’ as Alison and Caroline aptly put it.
An old TV set © Leicestershire Museum Collections
Alison and Caroline then guided me through the Home and Family collection which accommodates just about everything relating to domestic life spanning decades. Of the many domestic appliances that have been a constant presence in many households across Britain, particularly well-to-do households with a consistently higher disposable income over many generations, is the television set. Although television sets have been relatively ubiquitous household objects over many years, their changing shape is something I have continually reflected upon with the wonder of a child. I believe there are many people who would say the same.
Later in the group interview conversation, Lindsay captured this so well when she shared her experience of taking visitors on guided tours at CRC. She spoke of one particular occasion when she took a family with two children on a tour. Although she did not intend to show the family old television sets, the children spotted them. Lindsay recounted how one of the children — a seven-year-old boy — ‘was just absolutely blown away’. Lindsay recalls explaining to the boy: ‘Yes’, she said, ‘this is what [a] television [set] used to look like’. Lindsay then summed up the moment as follows: ‘That [the old television set] was his favourite item on the whole tour. He just absolutely adored the idea of this old television [set]’. I admit I myself have done that time and time again.
Thomas Cook Collection: A unique journey of global influence in the world of travel
Next, the tour took us to the Working Life collection which is home to artefacts and objects relating to local trades, manufacturing industries, rurality, farming, transport, and commerce. What jumped out at me was the Thomas Cook collection which immediately became the centre of our conversation. Because of its truly distinctive nature as a company, we picked up on the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the Thomas Cook archive later on in the group interview conversation. The origins of Thomas Cook are as fascinating as are both its major influence on the world of travel and unparalleled longevity (1841-2019). These two aspects alone could form the subject of numerous blog posts. It is fascinating that Thomas Cook started out as a family company that provided sporting and social activities for its employees — with the first social activity being a ‘package’ trip that consisted of a train journey from Leicester to Loughborough. From then on, the company became a pioneering influence in shaping ‘package’ tours, and by extension, making travel at home and abroad much more accessible. Following the company’s demise in 2019, the entire Thomas Cook archive was acquired by Leicestershire County Council following a nationwide bidding process to find a new permanent home for the collection. Behind the scenes at CRC, I learnt that staff worked very productively with the Record Office to ensure that the acquisition process, and related logistical and practical operations, went as smoothly as they could possibly get.
Thomas Cook Tarzan uniform © Leicestershire Museum Collections
While the Record Office maintains the paper archive that encompasses unique letters, brochures, posters, passenger lists, and guidebooks produced by the company, CRC houses various Thomas Cook objects including uniforms, models, and advertising artwork. Naturally, the acquisition of the Thomas Cook collection attracted local, regional, national, and international interest — based on the sheer influence and iconic status that the company came to symbolise and enjoy over so long.
For staff at CRC and the Record Office, it was not surprising when members of the public and former Thomas Cook employees contacted them with queries about the collection. In the group interview conversation after the guided tour, for example, Lindsay talked about how ‘a woman who starred in the Thomas Cook adverts in the 1990s got in touch with the Record Office to enquire about the availability of some of the objects featured in the adverts — including props like a teddy bear’.
I learnt that CRC staff welcome the great and varied interest that different people have shown in the collection since its acquisition. One way CRC staff facilitate ongoing engagement with the Thomas Cook collection is through loaning out selected objects. Alison explained that a tartan uniform from the collection was loaned to the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum in Dundee for a tartan exhibition there. Alison put this in context by noting that the tartan uniform was part of Caledonian Airlines which Thomas Cook had acquired in 1999.
Being the pioneering influence that Thomas Cook was, the company is known to have bought out a number of companies in the world of travel at the peak of its business success. CRC staff noted that there is huge potential to maximise value from the Thomas Cook collection, and to share items much more effectively, if the paper archive and material objects were merged and housed under one roof. The same can be said of many other collections.
Indeed, many readers of this blog post may already be aware that Leicestershire County Council announced plans in 2018 to build a new heritage hub at County Hall in Glenfield that ‘will house over one million fascinating museum artefacts, archives and specialist resources for schools, currently stored at the Record Office and five sites around the county’ (Leicestershire County Council, 2018, n.p). Those five sites, including the CRC facility, are not only unhelpfully dispersed across the county, but are also accessible only by appointment which can be limiting, are in varying states of repair, and are fast running out of space.
Connecting members of the public to their material culture
The guided tour concluded in the Fine Art collection which reflects how artists have portrayed the changing landscape and places of Leicestershire as well as some of its people and their working and social lives — including their domestic pets and leisurely pursuits. One particular portrait that caught my attention portrayed a greyhound in a landscape. Another portrait showed men on horseback surrounded by foxhounds, something that immediately evoked associations of Leicestershire being considered as the birthplace of foxhunting.
'A Greyhound in a Landscape' © Leicestershire Museum Collections
Overall, the collection struck me as a magnificent assemblage depicting lived realities that appear to have been experienced very differently by some of the people portrayed. In the group interview conversation that followed the guided tour, I learnt much more about the behind-the-scenes work that CRC staff undertake on a daily basis. There were a lot of fascinating highlights discussed in the conversation which limited space does not allow to relay here — but one is definitely worth sharing.
Despite high workload levels, the compulsion to juggle numerous tasks simultaneously and the problems posed by space limitations at the CRC facility, Alison, Sarah, Caroline, and Lindsay all love the work they do. In their different ways, they take pleasure in (1) enjoying the collections and the stories behind them, (2) liking the challenge of looking after the collections, (3) making them fit in the limited space available, and (4) coming up with better ways to house them to improve their care.
Over and above these routine tasks, Alison, Sarah, Caroline, and Lindsay find greatest gratification in enthusing people about the collections. To them, I learnt, this involves figuring out what else people might be interested in — in addition to where those people are starting off on their journey to discovery. Here, I am immediately reminded of the seven-year-old boy that Lindsay mentions earlier and whose look of adoration for the old television set underlines the powerfulness of collections in telling stories about the past. This is also reminiscent of past research two colleagues and I have undertaken which calls for the facilitation of serendipitous discoveries that are so crucial to enabling people to make sense of their shared heritage in collaborative ways (Mutibwa, Hess and Jackson, 2020).
In cultivating enthusiasm about heritage, CRC staff are gratified by (1) finding out as much as possible about what might excite members of the public, (2) responding to enquiries and pointing people in the right direction, and (3) facilitating interaction with collections in ways that are not ordinarily available to the public. In this and other ways, CRC staff enthuse the public about heritage in ways that (1) enrich people’s knowledge about their past, (2) connect that past to the present meaningfully, and (3) forge important links between members of the public and their material culture. The establishment of the new heritage hub mentioned earlier will greatly support this endeavour. Councillor Nicholas Rushton, the Leader of Leicestershire County Council, substantiates this by noting that ‘[b]y housing a range of items together in one place — in a more modern, secure, and accessible location — we want to make it easier for more people to learn about the area’s rich past’ (Leicestershire County Council, 2018, n.p). When the heritage hub materialises, operating out of this new facility will enable CRC staff to take the behind-the-scenes work described in this blog post to a much higher level.
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