*** Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control we have had to cancel this online skill sharing event. ***
Dr Michele Matthews on Historic Time Capsules: 19th century petitions, letters and report held at the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre (BRAC)
Celebrating forty years in 2023, since she commenced working as an Historian, Dr. Michele Matthews describes herself as a passionate social Historian, who loves nothing more than to delve into the stories encapsulated in primary source documents. Michele has cultivated a long-term passion for the Petitions, letters and reports, now part of VPRS 16936 City of Sandhurst/Bendigo Council Inwards Correspondence, which she first met in 1983, while undertaking research for her Honours thesis.
Twenty-five years after that first encounter, Michele was appointed the Archives Officer at the newly-created BRAC, a position she held from 2008-2018. In a wonderful arc of serendipity, she cared for, continued to catalogue, and educate researchers and the public about that same correspondence series.
When Michele was seeking a project that would both showcase and preserve an aspect of the BRAC collection, she turned to the hundreds of Petitions held within VPRS 16936. A successful Community History grant application enabled the purchase of a state-of-the-art digital camera. Armed with this, and a team of dedicated volunteers, Michele (and co-staffer Marg) set up a system for identifying, transcribing and digitising over 500 Petitions. Issues covered in these primary source “time capsules” included Infrastructure (roads, footpaths, bridges), Lighting, Women’s concerns, occupations, parks and gardens, nuisances, and staff.
Michele will discuss examples from these Petitions, as well as from letters and reports. Light will be shed on fascinating stories of individuals’ lives, the issues locals were passionate about, the success, or not, of united people power, personal appeals to the Council, and the day-to-day workings of a nineteenth century regional Council. Reports by Council staff, penned between the 1870s-1890s, span topics as diverse as industries, health, parks and gardens, bye laws, street trees, and racism.
To register for the event, visit our website here.
