MyGlasgow News

‌Meet Rachael Egan. She is the Business Archive Cataloguer at the University of Glasgow Archive Service. Rachael studied for a Classics degree at the University of Glasgow and jokes that she ‘hasn’t left since.’

After completing her undergraduate degree, during which she used the Club 21 scheme to gain experience in archive work, Rachael successfully applied for a traineeship at the University Archives. This experience made her to come to the realisation that she wanted to pursue a career in archives.

She said: “Doing the traineeship allowed me to learn so much about archivies. Before that I didn’t know that archiving was an actual job! I really enjoyed my year as a trainee and the experience helped me to write a good application to get on a Masters course to become a qualified archivist.”

Rachael maintained links with the University Archives during her master’s year by volunteering once a week in the office. After graduating with a MSc in Information Management and Preservation, it wasn’t long before she was back working at the Archive Service.

Currently her day to day job involves cataloguing business records and making them accessible to the public.

She said: “As well as the University records we also hold business records relating to many businesses in Glasgow. The first Professor of Economic History saw the value in collecting the records of businesses that were failing in Glasgow and the records were going to be lost. He saved them and collected them for the University.  The became part of the archive and since then our business collections holdings have increased.”

Carpet Factory

Rachael works with records relating to many well known Glasgow businesses including House of Fraser and Tennents Brewery.

She cites one of her favourite collections in the archives as the Stoddard-Templeton Design Collection. 

She said: “There is a beautiful building that looks like a Venetian palace on Glasgow Green. It used to house the James Templeton & Co carpet factory and we have the painted carpet designs.

 

"They are such beautiful visual records. A lot of archives tend to be textual documents but these are painted designs that are so beautiful and brightly coloured.

"This collection has recently been visited by a jewellery designer who was looking for inspiration and it is the great variety of uses for the collection that make it so interesting!”

Rachael states that one of the best parts of her job is that her working day is always varied. People use the archives for such a range of reasons: from people looking up information about relatives that attended the University to searching for gun records. They even have academics coming from as far as Australia to use the archives.

30 Seconds of Fame

A highlight from her working life was appearing on Reporting Scotland.

Rachael said: “It was the anniversary of the launch of the Queen Mary; a ship liner built on the Clyde. Sally McNair interviewed me for the BBC about the records we hold on the Queen Mary and I got my 30 seconds of fame!”

Like many working in the arts sector, Rachael has found it difficult to gain permanent work. Her hope for the future is to be in a permenant archivist post, preferably at the University of Glasgow.

“I’m very happy here, so why leave?” she said.

Her passion for the archive service and Glasgow’s long history is evident.

She said: “I’m really lucky to enjoy what I do every day. I want to encourage staff members to come and visit the archive. Any department is welcome to use the archive – that’s what we are here for!”

 Quick questions

Tell us one thing about you that most people might not know

I’m a triplet. We are not identical - one girl and two boys.  Growing up we were quite well known in Hamiliton.  I had a great time with my two brothers. We were all in the same class growing up, had the same experiences and the same friends. It was great because I always had pals.

What do you like to do to when you’re not at work?

I like doing crafty things. If you meet an Archivist then they will probably be a knitter and I'm no exception! I also love to play Minecraft – I’m an addict. You’re meant to be about 11 years old when you play it but I love it.

If you could have dinner with one famous person from history, who would it be?

I would choose Albert Einstein because he looks like such a lovely chap. We recently tweeted a picture of him for Movember, because he came to the University to get an honorary degree in 1933. We found a photo of the event and he has a cheeky wee smile and looks so happy. Although I don’t know much about physics I think he would be great to have a chat with and would be an interesting dinner guest.

What was the last book you read?

It was a Sherlock Holmes short story called ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip.’ I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan.

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First published: 4 December 2014