BHS 150 Digital Archive Campaign: the low down!
At March 2024’s biennial Bath High School Reunion we were delighted to launch the BHS 150 Digital Archive Campaign. Read on to find out what it is all about and how you can help.
What is the BHS 150 Digital Archive Campaign?
As we look towards Bath High School’s 150th anniversary since its foundation in September 1875, with the support of the RHBA Committee we have embarked upon a project to digitalise the entire Bath High School archive of photographs, documents and memorabilia. This project will preserve this precious material and make it accessible to all for research purposes both in school and externally, also enabling alumnae to recall their school days from anywhere in the world. Miss Winfield, last BHS Head and first Head of RHSB, has often said that the state of the archives has always been a concern to her and so, following the progress made with the digitalisation of the archives of RHSB’s other founding school, The Royal School, the RHBA Committee is particularly delighted to see this project come to fruition.
Who is creating the online archive website?
The online archive website is being created by the SDS Group who have worked with many companies, clubs and historical institutions and societies as well as numerous schools, including others in the GDST family. SDS has already been working with us to digitalise The Royal School’s archives and it is reassuring to know that all our archive material is in such safe hands.
The standard website functionality provides users with the ability to search all documents using key words (such as names) and to see documents within a timeline. There are however many additional modules which add exciting functionality to the basic site to improve the way the archive material can be searched and displayed.
What has been achieved so far?
To date, with historic funds inherited from BHS and individual donations, £4700 has been spent on Phase 1 to create a test website to which we have added all school magazines dated from 1940-1998, as well as a quantity of photographs and other documents from that era. This is, however, a small fraction of the overall amount, and we have yet to touch any material dating from 1875 – 1939. Inevitably this era will include less photographs, but we do have some quite old and fascinating documentation.
What comes next?
We plan to undertake the next two phases as follows:
Phase 2: we aim to add as much material as possible dated from 1940 to 1998 to the site by the end of 2024 ready to launch the online archive to alumnae as a usable resource early in 2025, the anniversary year. We will also add the ‘Who’s That Face’ module which enables digital archive users to tag and add the names of people within photographs, improving the searchability of the website.
Phase 3: we aim to either focus on adding material from 1875 to 1939 or invest in some of the interactive functions SDS have demonstrated that really bring the material alive – or combine a little of both as funding allows. We will invite your feedback on this once the site has been live and alumnae have had the opportunity to explore progress to date.
How
can you help?
It is hard to gauge how much we need in total to complete the project but as a guide, having spent £12,000 a significant proportion of The Royal School’s items have been added to their site, without the addition of any interactive features. We have set ourselves a target of £3000 each for phase 2 and phase 3.
Similar to the publication of Dr Ede's history of Bath High School 1875-1998, we are turning to our alumnae to fund this project - what better way to celebrate the School’s 150th anniversary than bringing the BHS community together to realise Miss Winfield’s dream?! We will also need to access BHS alumnae’s ‘hive mind’ when we launch the site to add context and information names and memories. The more information we can gather the better the site will be for everyone.
''Thank you all so much for giving me this memorable day but remember – I have a dream, a vision for the future, that is to make all these memories safe and secure by creating an archive that is preserved digitally. Please help my dream to become a reality.” MissMargaretWinfield,HeadBathHigh School1985-1998,HeadRoyalHighSchoolBath1998-2000atthe2024BathHighSchoolReunionon16March 2024.
Please help us keep Bath High School’s legacy alive and accessible in perpetuity.
Thank you for your support.
Donate to the BHS 150 Digital Archive Campaign