9 Jan 2016 – Unlocking Our Past: Researching LGBT+ History in Bristol’s City Archives

Dec 142015

OutStories Bristol have researched and documented a fraction of the huge variety of LGBT+ lives past in Bristol and its surrounds – there is so much more to uncover!

Come along to our first workshop at Bristol Record Office (BRO) for a behind-the-scenes tour of the strongrooms where 800 years of historic documents are stored.

Following this we will have a short ‘research skills’ workshop lead by staff from BRO which caters for complete beginners upwards. Learn about handling documents, the variety of sources available and how to start researching the archives and online sources that can be accessed from BRO. Finally we will put our new-found skills into practice by finding and ordering some LGBT+ themed historic documents and revealing their stories ready to be mapped.

The workshop is free but places are limited – please book via Eventbrite.

Saturday 9th January 2016, 1.30pm to 4pm

Bristol Record Office, ‘B’ Bond Warehouse, Smeaton Road, Bristol BS1 6XN

How to get there and map

Accessibility information:

The searchroom and the room in which the workshop will be held are both on the ground floor which is wheelchair accessible. The strongroom tour is unfortunately not accessible for wheelchair users as the constraints of the listed building means there are not sufficient fire evacuation routes to evacuate wheelchair users from upper floors. Toilets including a disabled toilet are available adjacent to the room in which the workshop is held. A hearing loop is installed in the searchroom and we can arrange a BSL interpreter if required.

Mapping LGBT+ Bristol is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.