Ellie Smith, a Summer intern from University of Glasgow’s Student Opportunities Hub, reflects on her work cataloguing the papers of architect Elizabeth Marion Harvey.
I recently undertook an internship at the Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections, where I was given the responsibility of organising and cataloguing the papers of Elizabeth Marion Harvey, an architecture student in the 1940s. The papers in her collection are diverse. Together, they outline her journey from admission as a day student to the architecture diploma course in 1945, to her subsequent professional career as an architect.
Over four weeks, I familiarised myself with the wealth of material before organising it into categories and sub-categories and eventually cataloguing all the materials individually. I was then able to digitise some of the materials so that they were available to be publicly viewed online. This process allowed me to spend time with each individual item in the collection and gradually build up a picture of Harvey through her papers. In the end I felt as if I had really gotten to know Elizabeth Marion Harvey without ever having met her.
Harvey was born in the southside of Glasgow in 1927, where she lived and attended school before being accepted into the architecture diploma course at the Royal Technical College, which began on the 26th of September, 1945. Her collection offers insights into the life of an architecture student in this period; she made large scale, intricate coursework drawings of various structures and detailed lecture notes. It was not all hard work however, as her papers and photographs also show her dressed up alongside fellow students for the annual school Charity Day. Photographs also depict her attendance at the Christmas Ball hosted by the College in December; complete with trifle and the Gay Gordons.
Harvey’s papers are all the more interesting given that she was in the unusual position of being a female architect student at a time when such careers were not particularly common for women. We are reminded of her difference most pertinently in a letter where the templated salutation reading ‘Dear Sir’ has been crossed out in pen and replaced with ‘madam’.
Harvey’s papers give little away in terms of her personality, or character. I found, however, that this only made the small titbits of information I found along the way all the more interesting. For example, the little drawings and sketches in her diary, or the small cut-out of a newspaper ad for a summer job at Butlins in Ayr.
She later went on to enjoy a career as an architect. Just a few years after attending GSA she was working for the County Council of the County of Lanark in Motherwell, where she worked on a number of projects including the plans for a Protestant primary school in Airdrie. She also later designed the cafeteria for the new Caterpillar Tractor Co. Ltd (now more commonly known as CAT) plant in Tannochside. The plant would later be the site of an infamous sit-in when the factory was set to close thirty years later. While pursuing her career, Harvey continued her education, sitting exams with the Royal Institute of British Architects to gain further qualifications.
As a history student, cataloguing Harvey’s materials gave me a new appreciation for all the work that goes into making historical material available for use and research. This was particularly true in regard to the digitisation process. I had previously used digitised materials for much of my studies, with little consideration for anything beyond my own use. I enjoyed the experience of seeing this from the other side, and the care and effort which goes into the process.
In my short time at The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections I learned a lot, both about the process of cataloguing and digitisation but also about Elizabeth Marion Harvey herself. It was a particularly enjoyable and informative experience and I am grateful to all those who made it possible.
