Z1130

Alec Swain collection of Bedfordshire Postcards.

c 1904-1960s

From: 1904 To: 1990

The collection was originally arranged in ring binders, alphabetically by place. Each postcard was attached by corner pieces to a sheet of A4 paper upon which Mr Swain had written notes about the publication, postal details and a transcription of any message on the back of the card and now covered by the paper on which the card was mounted. Each sheet of paper was then put into a plastic sleeve and into the ring or lever arch file. Whilst easy to use this method of storage took up considerable space and did not identify each card causing a whole binder to have to be produced for searchroom users. The thin paper also sagged in the binders making them unstable and the poor quality plastic and paper was not up to conservation standards. The files gave no protection against dust. Therefore the decision was taken to repackage the cards individually and to give them a numbering scheme that followed that used in other collections within the Archive Service e.g. Z50s. This maintains the alphabetical arrangement by parish. Within each parish cards are arranged roughly by location and date.

fonds