NEW VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY 

The National Archives, Kew – Heritage Volunteering COPY-1 Project

The National Archives has a wonderful collection of artwork that was registered for copyright protection between 1862 and 1912.

The artworks can be the size of a cigarette card or a poster for a billboard, and everything in between. They range from commercial packaging and advertising to railway excursion posters and fashion plates.

Each artwork is attached to a registration form giving the details of the artist, the copyright owner and the date. These are all stored in large boxes which each has an average of 500 different items inside.

Volunteers on this COPY-1 Project are currently working through these boxes, transcribing the information into Excel ready to be uploaded into the National Archives digital catalogue. There’s more to be done, but already they have finished transcribing 120 boxes or around 60,000 artworks.

Come and join the other volunteers on this fascinating project. For more information, contact Suzy at swrtase19@gmail.com