“I am in my first year at the University of Exeter and I recently spent five days on placement at the Harris, working with the history collection alongside curator James Arnold.

On my first day we jumped into the extensive job of cataloguing the social history collection, which is situated in the storeroom of the Harris. It was interesting to see how many objects the museum has that aren’t currently on show to the public. There are lots of artefacts that can be used for new exhibitions and to rotate with objects already on show. An ongoing aim for the Harris is to make more collections accessible and useable for the public, while also looking after them for future generations.

I have been helping with photographing and cataloguing the collection, for example, updating locations using a system called MODES, so that in the future all of these objects can be seen and researched online by anybody. So far I have enjoyed the placement. My favourite item is an old 1922 Preston Guild badge that was given to members of the Textile Trades Federation. It gave me a real insight into how the Preston community has cherished the traditions of the Guild for centuries.

What I have already got out of my placement is the archival skills that I can potentially take further into my history career and the ability to handle fragile artifacts, which is useful for further research in my university life.”

Portia Riding