{"id":1580,"date":"2019-09-24T09:38:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T09:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=1580"},"modified":"2020-02-20T16:30:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T16:30:17","slug":"an-archive-at-threat-thomas-cook-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=1580","title":{"rendered":"An archive at threat: Thomas Cook, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Historic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE: Since writing this post, things have moved on – thankfully for the better. There was a tremendous response to the Business Archives Council’s (BAC) call for letters of support. The BAC worked with the liquidators, who have agreed that the archive should be preserved, intact, for the nation. Arrangements are now being made for its transfer to a professional archive. So – well done to all involved: advocacy really worked on this occasion!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official update is here: https:\/\/managingbusinessarchives.co.uk\/news\/2019\/12\/update-on-the-thomas-cook-archive\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How essential is the archive to the historian? In this post, Mike Esbester looks at the very real threat to one UK archive that is nearly 180 years\u2019 old \u2013 and the steps that are being taken to try to secure it, including a call to arms for all those concerned.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog post, I\u2019m going to practice what I preach. I tell my students to give me their conclusion in the very first paragraph of their written work. So \u2013 spoiler alert \u2013 here it is. The 178-year-old archive of Thomas Cook is under threat as a result of the firm\u2019s collapse: it might be sold off, piece by piece. If you, like me, are concerned about the potential loss of this archive, please contact Mike Anson, who is leading the response and the attempt to secure the archive: michael.anson[at]bankofengland.co.uk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just\nover a year ago, in September 2018, the National Museum of Brazil burned. In a\nlittle over an hour the huge expanse of the building was ablaze, and 200 years\u2019\nworth of collecting and archiving was lost \u2013 20 million items were in the\narchive, though some of that was in another building and thought to have been\nsaved. Underinvestment in the building and particularly in water supplies for\nthe fire hydrants were thought to be to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nApril 2003, in the midst of war, the National Library and Archives of Iraq was\nsystematically targeted for looting and burning. Questions have since been\nraised about how much the international forces did, or could have done, to stop\nthe destruction, but again, whatever the ins and outs of that, the damage was\ndone. Around 60% of the holdings were estimated to have been destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extremes, perhaps \u2013 this was archive loss through war and fire, in places to the western gaze far away; other, distant and therefore not possible in the UK. Our repositories are safe. Perhaps from those disastrous events \u2013 though fire is an ever present threat, of course \u2013 but not all archives are simply secure. We might think of the archive as being something held by public bodies: but plenty of large organisations have them, particularly the older they are, and they are particularly vulnerable to other things that can be destructive to the archive. Thomas Cook was one such firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nsay was<\/em> one such firm, because of\ncourse they\u2019ve gone bust. Terrible news for the staff and holiday-makers\naffected directly, and the suppliers and others reliant upon their business,\nand that shouldn\u2019t be forgotten in what follows. But there\u2019s a hidden victim:\nthe archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nthe plus side, we\u2019re not talking about the physical destruction of material \u2013\nbut in one sense we might as well be, as it\u2019s still in danger of being lost to\nresearchers. Thomas Cook has not gone into administration. Instead, it has not\npassed \u2018go\u2019, has not collected \u00a3200, but has gone straight to jail:\nliquidation. That means that debts have to be settled as fully as possible, and\nanything that can be sold to raise money is simply that: an asset to be\nstripped, seen only in pure monetary terms. A receiver will have little truck\nwith nuance or historical importance (and legally cannot do so). The archive\nmight well fall into this category of an asset, in the worst case scenario\nbeing broken up into pieces and sold to individual collectors, disappearing\ninto private hands never to be seen again. That the integrity of the archive\nmight therefore be lost, with 170 years\u2019 worth of material is \u2013 well,\nimmaterial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should\nwe be worried? Definitely. The Thomas Cook archive is huge and of international\nsignificance. It tells us so much about the development of the modern travel and tourism\nindustry, the history of mobility, business history, the history of marketing,\nsocial and cultural tastes and trends, soft diplomacy, and much else besides.\nThe firm’s connections and activities speak to the development of a modern\nglobally-networked economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date\nit has provided ripe material for academic research, though the surface has\nbarely been scratched. As Deputy Editor of the Journal of Transport History<\/em>,\nI know that over the years our contributors have made good use of the Thomas\nCook archive, as it\u2019s so revealing of the history of transport, mobility,\nmarketing and tourism. And we are only one journal that has benefitted from the\narchive, such is the variety of material it captures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nthe significance of the archive is not just confined to academic historians.\nThere is huge public interest in the archive, something clearly demonstrated\nover the last 36 hours in the responses to the threat to the archive. That\nresponse has not just come from within the UK, but from across the globe. If we\nlose this archive, we are all impoverished – not just historians, but as a\nsociety; and not just British society, but world-wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those on Twitter, this thread on Egyptian holdings<\/a> really sums the archive up nicely. At the same time, it represents a tiny peak into the wonders the archive contains \u2013 magnify this up across all of the nations in which Thomas Cook had an interest, and you\u2019re still just getting started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\ncan be done? Historians and archivists might be a relatively placid bunch most\nof the time, but when they\u2019re riled they\u2019ll move into action. The Business\nArchives Council is spearheading the response, via Mike Anson, the Archives Rep\nfor the Association of Business Historians and the Bank of England Archivist.\nHe writes: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo this end we need letters and statements of support from those who have\nused, or who have an interest, in the Thomas Cook Archive. Please contact me if\nyou can help in making the case for the value and significance of these records\nand for the need for them to be properly maintained and made available to\ncurrent and future users. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou \u2013 like me \u2013 are concerned about the potential loss of this archive, please\ndo contact Mike: michael.anson[at]bankofengland.co.uk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to see, at this\nstage, how this will play out \u2013 but we have to try to do what we can. Even if\nit\u2019s not your research area, your solidarity is appreciated. We all hope it\nwon\u2019t happen to \u2018our\u2019 archive \u2013 but one day it might. Let\u2019s hope we can save\nthis hugely important archive for all who are interested in it, now and in the\nfuture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Since writing this post, things have moved on – thankfully for the better. There was a tremendous response to the Business Archives Council’s (BAC) call for letters of support. The BAC worked with the liquidators, who have agreed that the archive should be preserved, intact, for the nation. Arrangements are now being made for its transfer to a professional archive. So – well done to all involved: advocacy really worked on this occasion! The official update is here: https:\/\/managingbusinessarchives.co.uk\/news\/2019\/12\/update-on-the-thomas-cook-archive\/ How essential is the archive to the historian? In this post, Mike Esbester looks at the very real threat to one UK archive that is nearly 180 years\u2019 old \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-public-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/history.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/thomascookhistory-1-e1569317696222.jpg?fit=500%2C300","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-pu","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1580"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1580\/revisions\/1606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}