Celebrating the story of where higher education began in Wales
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St David’s College, Lampeter was established in 1822. As part of the bicentenary celebrations the Special Collections and Archives embarked on several sustainable and collaborative projects to both highlight the collections, as well as explore further those individuals and groups who played key parts in the narrative of the Institution. Alison Harding will explore these projects and the partnerships developed through this work.
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Celebrating the story of where higher education began in Wales
- 1. CILIP Cymru | Wales 20th May, 2022 Where Higher Education Began in Wales 1822 - 2022
- 2. Timeline 1822: St David's College 1828: Royal Charter 1848: Carmarthen Training College 1853: Swansea College of Art 1872: Swansea Training College 1895: Swansea Technical College 1976: West Glamorgan Institute of HE 1991: Swansea Institute of HE 2010: UWTSD formed: 1828 Charter 2013: Swansea Metropolitan: UWTSD 2017: UoW and UWTSD Integration
- 3. Projects • Exhibitions • Books • 200 Biographies • Events Series
- 4. Partnerships • Alumni • UWP • CAWCS • Marketing / Comms
- 5. Future • Welsh Biography Online • Permanent Exhibitions • Swansea Archives • Jazz Archive • Research Opportunities • Collaboration Opportunities • Future commemorations • WHELF and beyond
- 6. Final Thoughts "Archives exist because there's something that can't necessarily be articulated. Something is said in the gaps between all the information." Taryn Simon
Editor's Notes
- Welcome all to St David's College, Lampeter, now also known as the founding institution of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. This image is from our Archives and is of the Old College (now called St David's building), which was designed by Charles Robert Cockrell. The main founder of the College is considered to be Bishop Thomas Burgess, and it's primary aim was to support a liberal education and training to members of the clergy. Thomass Burgess was Bishop of St David's for a time, and was a founding member of Odiham agricultural society, and helped to establish the royal veterinary college in London, and was the first president of the Royal society of literature. He was also lastly the Bishop of Salsbury and is interred in the Cathedral there. Welcome and Croeso to where HE began in Wales
- I thought it might be helpful to briefly outline the journey of UWTSD, and talk a little more of it's main founder. There is an online exhibition which looks at the foundation of St Davids College (and it’s Library) and this is available via the UWTSD LLR website, this looks at the drivers for Bishop Thomas Burgess to establish a college in the west of Wales. It's worth taking a look should you have the time. The main image of Thomas Burges that is seen through this year at UWTSD is a large colour oil portrait of him in later life, in all his full pomp and glory. I much prefer this image of Burgess from our archives, it's a pencil and pastel drawing of him as a young man, Burgess was born in 1757 so this is likely to be from around 1780. On his death in 1837 Burgess bequethed his entire library to the College, this was of around 9k items and is one of the main foundation collections of our Library. Primarily a working collection gathered during a lifetime devoted to the study of classics, literature, history, antiquities, and theology, many of the works are annotated by Burgess and therefore offer an insight into his scholarly and theological preoccupations. This image is one a man at the start of his career, and I just love the eagerness and kindness in his expression. Summarised here of the slide is a brief outline of the UWSTD timeline, (talk through timeline a little) and one of the projects LLR colleagues have been working on is an interactive timeline linked to archival material enable further exploration of the narrative and our collections It is hoped this will be in place shortly, in time for Summer celebrations. This work is in collaboration with our Marketing and Comms. Unit. This is one of a number of collaborative projects we embarked upon to mark the bicentenary..
- SPA team met in early 2019 to explore projects we would like to look at the mark the bicentenary. We had been informed by some work our previous Archivist has outlined before she left for her new role in Ironbridge in 2018. Part of this original planning group was Prof. John Morgan Guy, in his role as University Historian. We were mindful from the outset that much of our archive content reflected this image, which is of academic staff in 1927. We felt that we should use the bicentenary to explore those hidden voices from our archives as best we could with the resources and capacity we have. If you go to our exhibitions pages there will be some exploration of those groups. It is worth noting women were not admitted as students to Lampeter until 1965, Carmarthen in 1957. However we are mindful that women would have played a role in the life of these Institutions in other ways and it is these voices we are keen to explore further. We would have also liked very much to exploit the Swansea Archive more fully for this work but this had only just come to the LLR from another Department and so discovery is not at a point where we could do that at the time. However we are aware that it's the 150th of the Swansea Training College and we are finding some wonderful gems already and will look to share more news soon, and hope you can come along the journey with us as we delve into the complex history of Welsh teacher education. Swansea Training College was Women only for much of existence. COVID meant we decided to manage risks around physical exhibitions, and so we have ensured exhibitions are made available online. This had been the approach pre-COVID as we recognise Lampeter can be a challenging place to get too; we also have facsimile exhibitions in our main Swansea Library on the Waterfront. A year long exhibition programme was defined by our Special Collections Librarian, Ruth Gooding, and Special Collections Archivist, Nicky Hammond. The schedule attempts to reflect the story of the Institution, as well as the key players in its establishment. Please do take a look should you have the opportunity. The LLR has worked in collaboration with a number of partners to publish two books to mark he 200th; Library Treasures and the Unfolding Vision. English and / or Welsh. Published this Summer, and details available via the UWP catalogue. The 200 biographies project is a piece of work to write on the lives of 200 alumni of St David's College and this is online now, and will be added too from a Carmarthen and Swansea perspective over the coming years. Our archivist has taken specific care to include a range of voices, and it's hoped that once we explore our Swansea Archive further this will become easier to do. Please do take a look and we would welcome suggestions for inclusion. Events series is called the Lampeter Treasures series, and we have guest speakers through the year exploring their research and the links to our Special Collections, and this stated with Prof. Nick Seagar from Keele who has a significant interest in our unique Tract / Pamphlet Collection. His talk is now online via our Youtube channel,. The most recent of these was Prof Mary Ann Constantine talking on Travellers in Snowdonia, to complement one of our current exhibitions. This was a hybrid event, and will be available to view in due course. Mary Ann spent some time in her talk discussing the women travellers, which was fabulous.
- This image is of a team of students working together on some form of manual labour exercise, mainly mowing lawns it looks like, at Trinity College Carmarthen in the early part of the 19th C. Clearly highlighting that teamwork and collaboration is a skill we have always valued at UWTSD! There have always been close links with Lampeter Alumni through the Lampeter Society, for example the Library receives an annual donation which we use to support the work of the Special Collections and Archives, which is gratefully received. UWP Great to work with UWP on the two books, and as we now reach the finish line then we are now looking to collaborate around the marketing of the two books, and the launch event(s). We are looking to a celebratory event in National Libraries Week at St David's Cathedral, working in partnership with their fantastic Librarian, Mari James. CAWCS Martin C Mary Ann Translators Research Projects Academic Staff / Library Comms Regular meetings Collaborative comms Look to a joint comms plan for 22 / 23 Internal Design work and LLR Marketing
- The future is female, and this is an image of one of the first cohort of women graduates from Lampeter, so this would be 1968. One of our aims was to ensure our projects were sustainable, and not just for 2022. The 200 biographies will input into the Dictionary of Welsh Biography . Regarding DWB, we have submitted seven biographies. One of these (on Helen Wyn Thomas) has reached the www; the other six will still be in translation. Continue to develop re: Carm/ Swansea If you have any suggestions please let us know. Our exhibitions will be available online beyond 2022 and continue to inform wider University projects, e.g permanent Foundation Stone exhibition. It's clear that the LLR 200 projects have raised the profile of the SPA in the University. We have also been able to create a new Team within the LLR for SPA, led by a new senior member of staff and this shows that the institution is willing to invest in this area of work. Look to explore both the Swansea Archive and Jazz Archive, which is deposited with UWTSD to shine a light on all those hidden voices. Should you be interested in Jazz Archives then please do attend the Documenting Jazz conference in November, which is being held in Swansea in the Dylan Thomas Centre. The work has also raised the profile of the Collections with other specialist Institutions, and it is hoped these relationships can be nurtured further to explore research opportunities within the Collections, and to explore funding opportunities to aid and improve discoverability of them. We are aware that this year is also the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Swansea Training College and as noted we are beginning the open up this archive for discovery, so we'll be sharing more on that soon. Next year is the 175th of Carmarthen Training College so I am sure there'll be some celebratory projects for 2023! Finally to also embed SPA within the Institutions civic mission and engagement agenda, and to continue to build on current partnership and build new ones which we now have the increasing capacity to do. IF you would like to work with us please do get in touch.
- An image of the Founders Library, the original Library of St David's College. I myself am a Librarian by training, although my interest in Special Collections does stem from my early carrer where I did explore areas relating to Rare Books. I have never worked closely with them until now as no such collections existed in my previous Institutions, so it is a privilage to be able to share them with you today. Also to take this opportunity to highlight and credit the work of Nicky Hammond and Ruth Gooding in making all of this happen.