Aims and objectives
EAP1364 aimed to digitise the East India Company (EIC) period records of the South Atlantic island of St Helena. The earliest records date from 1673, with the document sequence continuing through to the end of the EIC governance in 1834, when the island became a Crown Colony.
The St Helena Government’s Archives is situated in the Castle (the seat of the Government) in the capital Jamestown. It currently houses the physical records of the island’s first years as an English colony through to the present. The digitised data is also held at the Castle, on the Government’s server.
Outcomes
The project completed the digitisation of 325 volumes and 110,742 images. This collection, as a whole, captures the politics, society and everyday life on the island, a remote but highly significant British possession.
Two staff members of the St Helena National Trust were initially trained by Dr Andy Pearson from the onset of the project. Although there was staff turnover throughout the project, one of the initial staff members remained with the project and was promoted to Project Manager; they trained additional staff members until the project’s completion. The project not only developed technical skills, but historical knowledge.
Social-media posts were disseminated throughout the project to inform members of the local and international community on the continued progress, along with interesting snippets of history bites. These posts were very popular among readers. The project drew interest from the primary and secondary schools with visits from students. A year 12 student carried out work experience with this project and has expressed an interest in pursuing history.
The latest article on the collection was published in the WIREBIRD – the Journal of the Friends of St Helena, Number 52, 2023.
The following methodology report was submitted as part of the project outputs:
