We asked our team about their #FavouriteItem in our collection for #Archive30. Here's what they said:
Clare: EXT 11/159 (from BT43-422) I am very fond of the leather glove with a map on it showing the location of the Great Exhibition, the concept of the souvenir clearly evident.

Rachel: SP1/167 – Catherine Howard’s letter to Thomas Culpepper. It always makes me feel desperately sorry for Catherine & the impossible position she must have been in as a young teenage girl. A true victim of her family’s ambitions (just like her cousin Anne before her).

Kat: The marginalia in E36/274. The book is a gift that keeps on giving but this is a particularly lovely depiction of the ‘ordinary’ man in the late 1200s. The single shoe for grip gives an insight into technique and leave me wondering how accurate the impressive quiff is!

Jen: COPY1/437 - a view of the Crystal Palace from Anerley Road. The photograph was taken near where I live today, but in 1898. I always think the Palace up on the hill has an almost ethereal quality, & I desperately wish I’d been there to see it in the flesh.

Mike: A depiction of Erin (Ireland) from COPY 1/208B (297). It is a Gaelic postcard depicting symbols of Irish culture and the date of publication is significant as it is right in the middle of Ireland’s cultural revival.

Iqbal: a letter about Moulvi Sadruddin that captures something of the tension between the desire to honour Muslim troops, fighting & dying on the side of the British empire, and not quite getting it right... (1/2)

...and needing this very articulate Imam to make the case for why it is important to bury the soldiers in a cemetery near the Woking mosque which at the time was central to the lives of Muslims in Britain. WO 32/18578 (2/2)

Sara: INF3/1738 West End London street scene. I love this Grace Golden image. It’s so colourful and vibrant and the perfect antidote to our times - Everyone is out and absolutely no-one is social-distancing!

Rosie: ASSI45/11/1/93. The people of Denby sign a letter stating two accused women are not witches. I think the community in this document is incredible and proves how archives can disrupt our stereotypes of history.