What's new?
September 2011
Apologies for absence - we have now managed to access and edit the website again - hooray!
Laura Weston has been appointed as the Community Access Officer, tasked with getting the Collection out into the community and letting everyone know Sherlock Holmes was Made In Portsmouth! Watch this space for more information!
April 2011
Conan Doyle Projects Officer, Dr Fiona-Jane Brown left to return to
Scotland - the post has regretably not been extended due to the
budgetary cuts which affect the whole council. The collection has
a board of trustees who will be tasked with fundraising and promotion
in the future.
The archive is open for business!
March 2011
Lots of nice coverage of our archive opening in the press,
locally and nationally including a nice feature in the Portsmouth News
which showed pictures from the archive.
Pleased to welcome several classes of Adult Learners from WEA to the Conan Doyle room for a series of workshops introducing them to the author and his work. Amanda Burgess from WEA based at the Omega Centre is keen for the students to engage with this important local collection.
A group of drama students from Portsmouth University are gearing up
to present a new murder mystery play, inspired by the Sherlock Holmes
stories, featuring the great detective, his biographer Dr Watson, and
their old adversary, Irene Adler in 'The Prima Donna's Last
Aria'.
The play was presented as part of the Lost Hour activities on March 26 as we lose an hour when the clocks change to BST, and took place at the John Pounds Centre at 2pm.
A second performance took place at the Central Library's Menuhin
Theatre on Tuesday 29 March in the evening. Pictures of
Saturday's performance are on the Facebook page.
February 2011
A very successful opening by Andrew Lycett and Mrs June Lancelyn
Green. Very pleased to welcome to members of the Doyle family who
came especially for the event. A big thank you to everyone who
has worked with the collection so far and helped it reach this new
phase!
Archive catalogue report - 68% of the archival material has now been added to the catalogue and thus is available for public access. Volunteers are continuing to work on the collection to ensure that all 40,000 items are indexed - if you want to lend a hand, please contact us.
Facebook group experienced a boost this month - now up to 140 members
January 2011
31 January saw the re-opening of the Norrish Central Library
after months of closure due to flood damage. The new Arthur Conan
Doyle Research and Archive Centre is also ready in its splendid new
colour scheme for the official opening on 21st February.
Archivist Michael Gunton is available most days, but those who wish to
use the archive should phone in advance.
The new centre features a large graphical time line of Conan Doyle's
life, from his birth in Edinburgh in 1859 to his death in Crowborough
in 1930, studded with images of family photos, famous book covers and
film posters. The walls feature famous quotes from Sherlock
Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Conan
Doyle's
Casebook - our Facebook page clocked up 109 members
by the end of the month, so the word is really spreading!
Archive 2008
