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Eighteen months ago Nicky Hilton starting the enormous task of cataloguing the archives of Conway Hall Ethical Society, the British Humanist Association and also the National Secular Society, and now that work is complete. The archives of all three major institutions have been catalogued. Funded by the National Archive, Nicky’s work was spread across the Bishopsgate Institute and Conway Hall as the two repository buildings, with the BHA archives being held at the Bishopsgate and the other two organisation’s archives held at Conway Hall.
Throughout the course of the cataloguing Nicky kept a blog regularly updated – https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/the-atr-blog – with the work she was doing and archives that caught her eye. There are over 40 posts in her blog ranging from the 1961 NSS campaign outside the British Transport Commission Headquarters when the BTC bowed to religious pressure and removed family planning posters from the underground to Conway Hall Ethical Society’s letters from William Morris and George Bernard Shaw to 1966 BHA Christmas card designs replete with the Happy Humanist icon in various poses.
In readiness for the Open House week-end at Conway Hall, 20th and 21st September 2014, Robin Ince was invited along to Conway Hall to be filmed looking at the archive collection of the three organisations and a video of this visit can be found on the ‘A2R’ page of Conway Hall’s website: https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/alternatives-to-religion
The catalogue itself is in two parts and can be found online at the following locations: https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/catalogue
https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/Library/Library-Catalogue
Jim Walsh
Chief Executive Officer
Conway Hall Ethical Society