Working at the Archives Centre, it is often through looking for material to use in displays that I come across collections that I didn’t know we had. Of course we have catalogues, or at least collection level descriptions, for most of our collections, but with nearly 600 individuals’ personal papers there is always the chance of discovering a collection you have never noticed before.
It was whilst looking for display material relating to Shanghai that I came across the papers of Sir Malcolm Robertson, a British diplomat working at the beginning of the 20th century. When serving as 2nd secretary of the Diplomatic Service in Peking (now Shanghai) in 1905 to 1908 Robertson wrote letters home to his mother. These letters are full of rich descriptions of Peking and his life there. In an early letter Robertson had even drawn a diagram of Peking, showing how it was split into two halves. It was this letter that I chose to use for display.
In the same box as the letters from China (1905-1908), there are also letters that Robertson wrote to his mother from Berlin in 1903-1905, Madrid in 1908-1910, Bucharest in 1910-1911, Rio de Janeiro in 1912, Monte Video in 1912-1913, and Rio de Janeiro again in 1913-1915. I am sure these letters will also be full of descriptions of the countries that Robertson travelled to, and I will definitely remember these if there is ever a need to find display materials relating to these countries.
One of the challenges of displaying early letters, such as Robertson’s letter to his mother from Peking, is that the paper was often folded in half and then the 4 sides were written on like it was a small booklet. This means the letter is double sided, and even if one side of the letter is scanned for display as a facsimile, it is sometimes hard to see what order it should be read in. Thankfully, our onsite conservator kindly made a facsimile of the letter to look like the original, so it could be read as originally intended without putting the original at risk from handling.
The catalogue of the papers of Sir Malcolm Robertson is available online, on the Janus website.
Madelin Terrazas, March 2013