Celebrating International Archives Week: spotlight on the Jean Carter Collection
Wrapping up International Archives Week, the Collections team are sharing a favourite new addition to our archival holdings, the Jean Carter Collection.
Jean Carter (1921-2007), from Kingston Upon Hull, attended Manchester University where she earned a BA. During WWII, she worked for the Admiralty. She engaged in further study at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before becoming a geography lecturer at her alma mater, Manchester University.
In the years around 1950 she engaged in climbing in Scotland, Wales, and the Dolomites. During her academic career, she lectured in Nigeria and Singapore, retiring in 1986. She was also a keen bee keeper, recorder player, gardener, and photographer.
The Jean Carter Collection consists of two volumes of diaries filled with notes, photos, postcards, newspaper clippings and other ephemera related to Jean's mountaineering activities.
This collection is an excellent example of the diverse types of material housed in the Society’s archives. Carter’s papers would be of interest to anyone curious about mountaineering, the history of geography, and of women in exploration and geography.
If you would like to see this or another of the Society’s archival holdings, take a look at our online catalogue and book a reader visit via enquiries@rgs.org. We are open to the public by appointment Monday to Friday, 10.00am-1.00pm, 2.00pm-5.00pm.
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Celebrating International Archives Week: Queer History Club visit the Society
To celebrate International Archives Week, we will be sharing some updates from our Collections team. Today, we’re featuring the first visit to the Society’s Foyle Reading Room by the Queer History Club.
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New Society and artist collaboration: integrating historical instruments in art
Artist and printmaker Kristina Chan's new exhibition at Canada House explores the accuracy of recording territories through maps, measurements and visual records. Her work is also the latest in a series of artistic partnerships for the Society.
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First blue plaque to include the word ‘geographer’ unveiled in London
On 8 August a blue plaque was unveiled to commemorate eminent photographer, travel writer and geographer, John Thomson FRGS. This is the 1,112th blue plaque in London, but the first to include the word ‘geographer’.
Monday 12 Aug 2024