Vaughan Postcard Project

 The Vaughan postcard project is a key strand of ‘Know Your Bristol On The Move’. Throughout the project community volunteers are researching historic postcards of Bristol and uploading their findings to an online historical mapping website called ‘Know Your Place’ (http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/knowyourplace/).

The postcards that volunteers are researching come from the Vaughan Collection, an 8,000-plus archive of early 20th century postcards of Bristol which were collected by Roy Vaughan and are now held at the Bristol Record Office. The postcards have already been ‘digitised’ (scanned-in and saved as images on computers) but, beyond some very basic information, there is very little information recorded about each card. This is where volunteers come in. The aim is to find out as much as we can about each postcard – Where and when was it taken? What does it show? What do you find interesting about this picture? – and upload this information to the ‘Know Your Place’ map.

We have a growing number of dedicated volunteers already researching the collection.

With over 8000 postcards in the collection, there is still plenty of work to be done!

If you are interested in volunteering on the project please contact Dr Nick Nourse on:  n.nourse@bristol.ac.uk You can see two worked examples showing the research process on another blog post here (link opens in new window)

The postcards are currently arranged into groups on the Bristol Record Office online catalogue (link opens in new window) under the reference number 43207. This follows the catalogue put together by Roy Vaughan himself.

In order to help our current and new volunteers to choose a set of postcards which will interest them and is not being worked on by anyone else, we have outlined below the sets which ARE currently being researched by volunteers. So any new volunteers should choose a set from the catalogue which is not listed below. This list will be updated regularly.

If you have any questions then Dr Nick Nourse, volunteer coordinator for the Know Your Bristol on the Move project will be in the Bristol Record Office (link opens in new window) Search Room every Tuesday morning from 10am – 12.30pm.

Postcards already being researched:

Record Number Name of set
43207/1 Advertisements
43207/2 Lawrence Hill, Easton, St George, Greenbank
43207/3 Staple Hill
43207/4 Fishponds
43207/5 Frenchay
43207/6 Stapleton
43207/7 WWI
43207/8 WWI
43207/9/5  (some available) Trams
43207/9/7 Whiteladies Rd & Blackboy Hill
43207/9/11 Postcards of Queens Rd.
43207/9/12 Clifton
43207/9/13 East St, Bedminster
43207/9/14  (some available) Railways
43207/9/17 Horfield & Filton
43207/9/19 Stokes Croft, Gloucester & Cheltenham Rd
43207/9/24 Sea Mills
43207/9/29 Cumberland Basin
43207/9/40  (some available) Brislington
43207/9/43 Park Row
43207/11  (some available) Brandon Hill
43207/15  (some available) Central Bristol
43207/17 Docks and harbourside
43207/18 Cotham
43207/19/1 Bristol University
43207/19/12 Clifton College
43207/21 Factories & Work
43207/22/3  (available) Bristol International Exhibition
43207/22/6 Circuses and Fairs
43207/22/12 Proclamations, Coronations and Jubilee Celebrations
43207/22/14  (available) A trip for wounded soldiers
43207/27  (some available) Military
43207/29/7 St Edyth, Sea Mills
43207/30/1 Social Groups
43207/32 Public houses and restaurants hotels
43207/35 Shops and trades
43207/38 Theatres
43207/30/1 Social Groups

You can download a copy of the instruction document here: KYBOTM Vaughan postcard project instructions

And you can also download a copy of the copyright flow chart: Copyright Flow Chart (Tim Padfield)