Tuesday 1 May 2012

When work and hobbies collide - again!

I try and not harp on about it too much but I really do love working as an archivist - today's 4.30pm cataloguing find is a real case in point.  I found a letter by Winifred Holtby, an author, journalist feminist and all-round interesting lady, who just happen to be the author of the book South Riding, which I'm currently reading!  In the letter, from 1935, Winifred Holtby talks about her admiration for all the work of the National Union of Women Teachers and is sending them a gift of a 'Speaker's Bell'.  I'm assuming from the context and subsequent correspondence that this was a bell which would have be used to announce each speaker at a meeting.  However the correspondence between Winifred Holtby and the NUWT makes reference to a Tortoise and I'm not quite sure whether this was part of an inscription on the bell or the design of the bell itself.  I'll need to do some archival detective work and see what I can find out!



©Institute of Education Archive
 I talked a wee bit about the book in my last post on my pyjamas (you'd need to read the last post to get the connection!) so I thought I'd just include a few links here:

The Tortoise... and the Hare? - this is the post I just wrote on my work blog about the letter I found

A review of South Riding which also talks about the television adaptation which came out in 2011. I'd love to see this sometime!

When work and hobbies collide - a blog post I did on another connection - this time relating to a vintage store dress I bought in Los Angeles

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