Archive acquisitions

[Archive Project]

As some of you may know, I have taken on the position of Archivist for the Association, with long time post holder, Phil Baildon, moving on to the Honorary position of 'Historian'.  One of the things I am keen to pursue is a continuation and expansion of the 'Acquisition' strategy we started a couple of years ago. One of the Project Team members is charged with watching Ebay and other auction sites for items that we may wish to acquire for the collection. I would like to expand that process and be a little more proactive in the approach by appealing to the Austin 7 owning community directly for specific items. It should be noted that since starting the Project, we have seen a steady stream of donations that have enhanced the collection for the good of all owners. From time to time, surplus and duplicate items will be offered for sale as well.

There will be a small, but growing list, of items I have an interest in.  As I start to understand the collection better, I will publish wants from time to time but I would like to start off by appealing for copies of the 'Austin Advocate' and the 'Austin Magazine', the latter I believe superceded the Advocate around 1927. If anyone has copies that they might like to donate to the Archive or provide in some other way, please do get in touch.

Until I have configured the email accounts for both the Project and Archivist Accounts, could I ask you drop me a PM on friends with any offers...

many thanks

Hugh Barnes

[Nick Salmon]

Good call Hugh. I am sure everyone will do their bit.

Meanwhile, I cannot ever read or hear the word 'archivist' without instantly thinking of the wonderful 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue' and the kindly exploits of Samantha with the archivists... as in:

As is customary, record researcher Samantha made her regular visit to the gramophone library earlier. The kindly old archivist keeps a small terrier for company and Samantha makes a point of taking a treat of a biscuit or two. The archivist says he always loves to watch his little dog as he scampers up to Samantha with her couple of crackers held out and pants around her ankles.

or

As ever, Samantha spent several hours down in the gramaphone archive, giving the teams' discs a trial spin on the library record deck. The nice old archivists have recently been a bit worried about their early vinyl collection getting scratched, so Samantha ordered them a new mat for the turntable. She said they were very excited at the thought of getting felt under their old 7 inches.

These bring a vision Hugh, and unfortunately it is really difficult to shift...

[Archive Project]

I have now resolved the email account problems I was having so, anyone who wishes to get in touch regarding offers of Advocates or Austin Magazines for the Archive or has anything else they wish to be considered for donation can now mail me direct on

archivist@a7ca.org

Thanks in advance for any offers that may come in. I'm still very keen to start the collection of Advocates so would be particularly happy to hear from anyone who has any they might wish to part with or know of any that might be available...

many thanks..

Hugh Barnes

[Mark R]

I don't know if this is relevant enough but would this cup be of interest to the archives?

Captain Waite horse racing cup

[Archive Project]

Thanks for pointing that out Mark. We've had a think about this but have decided the Cup isn't quite appropriate to add to the collection. It is an interesting item though.

best..

Hugh