Documenting the HIV/AIDS epidemic: a survey of HIV/AIDS archives in England and Wales
In 2021 West Sussex Record Office took in the archive of AVERT, a Horsham based charity founded by Annabel and Peter Kanabus which developed and shared educational resources around HIV/AIDS. In 2022, WSRO was awarded a grant from Annabel’s Foundation to undertake a survey of HIV/AIDS related archives in England and Wales; both those already held by archival repositories and those which are still in private hands.
The project aims to facilitate the study and research into HIV/AIDS by identifying records of historical interest in archival repositories and private hands, and compile a report providing details and location information about collections across the country.
Through identifying vulnerable collections, the project will aim to help to safeguard them through the provision of advice (e.g. on appropriate storage conditions, digital preservation, and data protection) and by facilitating contact between record holders and appropriate repositories.
For further information about the project and how any collected data will be used, you can download the project’s information sheet here:
The 2-year project began in January 2023, and you can find more information about the survey and keep up to date with its progress by reading our updates posted on this page.
Blog posts
An introduction to the ‘Documenting the HIV/AIDS epidemic: a survey of HIV/AIDS archives in England and Wales’ project
By Chris Olver, Project Archivist Until 2020, many people living in the United Kingdom had not experienced living through a pandemic. In a bid to understand Covid-19, many media outlets drew comparisons to the Great Influenza epidemic of 1918-1920, yet it…
Margaret Thatcher to Geronimo: HIV/AIDS archives available online
By Chris Olver, Project Archivist In this post, our project archivist documenting HIV/AIDS archives in the UK highlights some of the history of HIV/AIDS sources currently available online. A surprising aspect of my current work surveying HIV/AIDS records in the United Kingdom was discovering how much archival content was available to view online. Digitised records…
New ways of seeing: independent HIV/AIDS web-based archives
By Chris Olver, Project Archivist In this post, our project archivist documenting HIV/AIDS archives in the UK gives a short tour of some of the online HIV/AIDS archives in the UK. This is second blog in a series and the first part can be found here. In the course of my work so far surveying…
Giant red ribbons, AIDS quilt and a marathon dance-off: The history of World AIDS Day in West Sussex
By Chris Olver, Project Archivist The 1st of December is World AIDS Day, the international day dedicated to raising awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This year marks the 36th World AIDS Day since it was launched by the World Health Organisation in 1988. To commemorate this year’s World AIDS Day, our Project Archivist, Chris Olver,…
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