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History: The past is the future

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE

A new archive project has launched at Aston University, preserving vital documents from its predecessor institution, Birmingham Municipal Technical School.

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H“ istory is more or less bunk,” remarked Henry Ford in 1916. Thankfully, the inventor of the Model T automobile did not operate in a world dominated by

‘fake news’ or need to grab the attention of a largely distracted public. These days, most businesses (Ford included) value history because it helps, not only to mark progress, but to remind everyone of their higher purpose. It helps to correct errors and to articulate who we are. It may be too much of a stretch to claim that it helps us to avoid mistakes – history, as we know, repeats itself – but it might keep us focussed; even honest. For universities, maintaining the continuous thread of tradition has always been important (just look at the pomp of a graduation ceremony) but now more so than ever. No longer monolithic; slow-to-change; exclusive; universities are diverse and populous institutions. Reputation is key – and what is it built on? History.

Harriet May Robinson: by kind permission of Herschel Girls' School, South Africa.

This year is a milestone for Aston University because it was 125 years ago that the seed of the current institution was first sown. Birmingham Municipal Technical School opened its doors on Suffolk Street (near to what is now New Street station) on December 13th 1895. It taught chemistry, physics, metallurgy and electrical engineering and by 1917 had expanded into other subjects, such as botany. Its ethos was to provide pupils with practical skills that could be utilised in Birmingham’s industrial trades. In 1911 commercial classes were introduced, and, in 1927, the School changed its name to Birmingham Central Technical College to reflect its changing approach to technical education. In 1951 it changed its name again to the College of Technology, Birmingham, and it was decided that the old building on Suffolk Street was no longer fit for purpose. Work began on what is now the Main Building at Gosta Green, and Her Majesty the Queen inaugurated it as the College of Advanced Technology in 1955. Another name-change and a decade later, the College gained a Royal Charter and university status. All this while, the old ledgers from its days as Birmingham Municipal Technical Birmingham Municipal Technical School opened its doors on Suffolk Street on December 13th 1895.

School had been preserved in the basement of the Main Building. Information was still sometimes needed, such as in 2015 when the alumni office was contacted by David Skidmore. David was writing a paper about his father’s cousin, Harriet May Robinson (1887–1962): a distinguished botanist who had attended the Technical School. Harriet was born in Staffordshire and was elected a fellow of The Linnaean Society in 1915 (female fellow had only been in existence since 1904, following years of campaigning by the botanist Marian Farquharson). Harriet was the headmistress at various schools, including Durban Ladies’ College in South Africa. David asked if we could verify what Harriet had studied and also sent us some portrait photographs of her. She had joined Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1909, he explained, following her education at Kidderminster High School for Girls. A search through the dusty ledgers revealed that she had been a pupil in botany and mathematics, and that she completed her course in 1913. Between 1910 and 1913 she was also studying for a degree at the University of Birmingham,

but during this period Birmingham Municipal Technical School’s adult education was confined to evening classes, so it would have been possible to study simultaneously at both institutions (she graduated from both in 1913). Without the ledgers we would not have known so much about Harriet but during recent years, storage space has begun to reach a premium. In November 2018 an interdisciplinary team of staff members rescued the ledgers and transferred them to a safe, dry area provided by Aston University Library. Volunteers (including students) surveyed and provided a preliminary description of the collection. Particularly interesting were documents related to wartime activities and to foreign visitors from both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Another good reason for their preservation was the existence of a complimentary archive, belonging to the Library of Birmingham, comprising floorplans and architectural details of the original building, which was demolished in the 1960s to make way for Suffolk Street Queensway. Having consulted the Library of Birmingham’s collection in 2015, this writer found a rich

If you are interested in supporting the conservation work on the Aston archive, please drop us a line at alumniinfo@ aston.ac.uk

source of information about the Municipal Technical School, not least its relatively enlightened attitude towards female education. However, a survey recently undertaken by conservationists found the precious ledgers to be suffering from ‘red rot’: a problem whereby leather book-bindings degrade and give off potentially harmful chemicals. At the time of writing, staff are putting together funding bids to have the collection professionally cleaned and made safe to handle. With Aston now teaching a BSc in history (a course which focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries) it’s hoped that the Technical School materials will eventually come into their own as primary source materials for study. Today, teachers of history seem to spend almost as much time defending its purpose than explaining the past, but far from being ‘bunk’, ‘bunkum’, ‘nonsense’ or whatever you want to call it, there is enormous value in preserving the fragments of our past. For, without them, how can we preserve the heritage left by generations of graduates?

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