Edge Hill celebrates 135 years of history with launch of Think Creative Archive Competition

Historians and archivists from Edge Hill University are launching a new competition, asking the public to create an artwork or piece of writing inspired by the University’s extensive archive.  

Edge Hill has collected over 135 years of the University’s history and created an archive that traces its roots from the start of its journey as the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England to today, where the University holds The Times and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year title. 

The competition is open to both teenagers and adults and entries can be anything from a historical essay, a poem or a short story, to a drawing, painting or digital artwork, as long as it is inspired by something in the Edge Hill University Online Archive Showcase. 

Professor of History Alyson Brown said:

“We’ve collected over 135 years of the history of Edge Hill into a unique archive that details our journey from 1885 right up to 2022. The range of materials our archive holds is huge. It includes university documents like copies of the College Magazine, photographs and friendship books as well as donations from the public like an incredible World War One diary written by a local man. 

“These amazing artefacts offer us glimpses of how our students and the community around us lived, worked and played in the past as well as what they did after graduating. I’d encourage everyone to take a look at the archive and get inspired by this fascinating history.”

There will be three age categories, 14 to 16-year-olds, 16 to 17-year-olds and 18 and over. There will be one winner and two runners-up as well as 15 commendations selected in each age group. 

Winners will receive cash prizes of up to £200 and young winners will have up to £100 awarded to their school or college. All winners and runners-up will also have the option to visit the campus and investigate the archive first-hand.  

Anyone looking to take part can visit ehu.ac.uk/archiveshowcase to see a range of archival material made available online, ideas for potential submissions and examples of academic and student research that has already made use of the archive. 

To enter, email your creation to lsarchives@edgehill.ac.uk with Think Creative Archive as the subject line. Make sure you include your name, age, school year or ‘adult’ if 18 or over. The closing date for entries is 16 December 2022 at 5pm. For full details, including terms and conditions please visit: ehu.ac.uk/ThinkCreativeArchive.

This competition is run by Research Catalyst, with support from the Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE) and the Institute for Social Responsibility (ISR) at Edge Hill University. 

To discover more about courses at Edge Hill University, please visit ehu.ac.uk/study. 

Friendship book

Historians and archivists from Edge Hill University are launching a new competition, asking the public to create an artwork or piece of writing inspired by the University’s extensive archive.  

Edge Hill has collected over 135 years of the University’s history and created an archive that traces its roots from the start of its journey as the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England to today, where the University holds The Times and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year title.  

The competition is open to both teenagers and adults and entries can be anything from a historical essay, a poem or a short story, to a drawing, painting or digital artwork, as long as it is inspired by something in the Edge Hill University Online Archive Showcase. 

Professor of History Alyson Brown said: “We’ve collected over 135 years of the history of Edge Hill into a unique archive that details our journey from 1885 right up to 2022. The range of materials our archive holds is huge. It includes university documents like copies of the College Magazine, photographs and friendship books as well as donations from the public like an incredible World War One diary written by a local man. 

“These amazing artefacts offer us glimpses of how our students and the community around us lived, worked and played in the past as well as what they did after graduating. I’d encourage everyone to take a look at the archive and get inspired by this fascinating history.” 

There will be three age categories, 14 to 16-year-olds, 16 to 17-year-olds and 18 and over. There will be one winner and two runners-up as well as 15 commendations selected in each age group. 

Winners will receive cash prizes of up to £200 and young winners will have up to £100 awarded to their school or college. All winners and runners-up will also have the option to visit the campus and investigate the archive first-hand.  

Anyone looking to take part can visit ehu.ac.uk/archiveshowcase to see a range of archival material made available online, ideas for potential submissions and examples of academic and student research that has already made use of the archive. 

To enter, email your creation to lsarchives@edgehill.ac.uk with Think Creative Archive as the subject line. Make sure you include your name, age, school year or ‘adult’ if 18 or over. The closing date for entries is 16 December 2022 at 5pm. For full details, including terms and conditions please visit: ehu.ac.uk/ThinkCreativeArchive.

This competition is run by Research Catalyst, with support from the Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE) and the Institute for Social Responsibility (ISR) at Edge Hill University. 

To discover more about courses at Edge Hill University, please visit ehu.ac.uk/study.