We’re happy to welcome the East Riding Archives from the United Kingdom to the Flickr Commons. The Archives collect, preserve, and make accessible the cultural heritage of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Their collections originate from a variety of sources including, local government, courts, hospitals, churches, parish councils, businesses, societies, charities, landed estates, as well as private individuals and families. The Archives formed in 1953 and moved to their current location, called the Treasure House, in 2007.
“One of our long-term goals is to enhance online access to our collections and we have begun to do that on social media,” said Sam Bartle, Archivist for the East Riding Archives. “By becoming a participating institution of The Commons we will continue our agenda for improving online access to our photographic collections, under the condition that there are ‘no known copyright restrictions’ on the content we publish.”
The Archive is designated a ‘Place Of Deposit’ (POD) for public records in the county and holds over 3000 separate collections, which together contain a total in excess of 370,000 archival items. Their digital archive contains a further 150,000 digital files, equating to 825GB of data. An estimated 88% of this is digital photographs (a combination of born digital, and digital surrogates of originals).
For people physically present in the region, the Archive has a research room facility where the collections can be used for a wide range of purposes, including family history, local history, buildings history, general interest, academic research, education, legal and official evidence-gathering.
We look forward to seeing the growth of their digital collection on Flickr and we encourage the Flickr community to engage with their work, share with them, and enjoy the images they have made available.
If you represent an organization that seeks to promote the free sharing of digital imagery without copyright, you can read more about the Flickr Commons here. You can also encourage your local historical, cultural, or arts organization to participate.
