Hanna Kilpi

Name: Hanna Kilpi
Club 21 Employer: University of Glasgow Archive Services
Degree Subject: History
Year of Graduation: 2010

My Club 21 placement was with the University of Glasgow Archive Services. I worked on the James Finlay and Sons Co records, reading through a book of exchanges about managers and assistant managers and recording this data. My role entailed recording their names, dates of employment, places of employment and so on. I found that the biggest problem at the start of the placement was reading the handwriting in the archives. Throughout the placement my paleography skills have improved as a result of experience and practice.

I think my favorite part of the project was reading about all of the many people, and being able to read their stories. I often found it difficult to eliminate from all the information about individuals which bits of information were unnecessary in the context; sometimes so much that I'd forget the time!

I would definitely like to do something like this again. The members of staff were all friendly and welcoming, and it was always fun being at Archive Services. Not only was the experience itself a good one, but has also made me feel much more comfortable about my own primary research skills and archive work. As a third year history student about to start a dissertation, I think the placement was very useful. It is important to gain skills in paleography and primary research, and this placement offered me the chance to develop both of these skills considerably. I would recommend a placement with Archive Services to any history student.