Sir John Evans Centenary Project - image background is marbled paper from one of John Evans's books John Evans Numismatic Society Medal 1899

Cataloguing the Archive

In 2003 the Sir John Evans Archive was professionally organized, catalogued and re-housed in conservation-grade conditions. The catalogue, available at http://www.a2a.org.uk, includes listings of:

Various documents from the Evans archive
One of the books from the archive with inserted documents

1. Personal papers

Most of the personal documents are to be found amongst the family papers. They include correspondence, publications, diaries and many personal papers on the history of the Evans family, and some photographs.

2. Correspondence and other working papers

The remainder of the papers concentrate largely on antiquarian matters. The largest section is the correspondence files, which date from 1848 until the time of Evans's death. There are also materials which he created in the course of his antiquarian work, including scrapbooks, notebooks and draft manuscripts. The archive also contains many printed books and pamphlets, several of them written by Evans.

3. Papers on other aspects of Evans's Life

A final section contains papers on other aspects of Evans's life, including his work at the Dickinson paper mill and as High Sheriff of Hertfordshire.

 

Letter from Evans dated 22 Nov 1886
Letter from John Evans dated 22 November 1886 with sketch of the Abingdon Sword

Current work on the archival material aims to make the archive available as a research resource. This involves the enhancement of the existing on-line catalogue from broad file-level to detailed item-level cataloguing, and the incorporation of relevant additional information. Archival material found in the Heberden Coin Room will be included together with (for example) letters inserted in Evans's books or found in other contexts since the initial exercise was completed. The enhanced cataloguing will follow all National Archives guidelines for New Cataloguing, and will be fully compatible with the existing on-line catalogue.


Further References / Links:

Access to Archives