#CrowdCymru

#Crowd Cymru is a digital volunteer project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and run jointly by Gwent Archives, Glamorgan Archives and Cardiff University Special Collections & Archives.

Accessed via a crowdsourcing platform established by the National Library Wales, this bilingual digital system enables remote volunteers to tag, annotate and describe the digital heritage collections held within these exceptional repositories. Archive services across Wales hold millions of irreplaceable records, but many are only minimally catalogued and therefore difficult to identify and find. This project will harness the knowledge of individuals in communities across Wales and beyond to enrich our collective heritage for the benefit of current and future generations - locally, nationally, and globally.

It is hoped to engage the interest of those who may wish to become involved volunteering with South Wales archives but are unable to travel to the sites, and especially for those who have an interest in Welsh heritage but live abroad. This project is completely digital, and available to anyone, anywhere in the world if they have Wi-Fi access. Plus, volunteers control how much or how little they wish to contribute. 

The project partners have made an exciting variety of collections available to work on.

Glamorgan Archives have put forward the Cardiff Dockland Community Photographs; portraits of individuals and groups, from the Cardiff dockland community, taken between 1900-1920.

Cardiff University Special Collections & Archives have put forward three collections. Two for transcribing; The Edward Thomas Archive, an unusually broad and detailed personal archive of one of the lesser-known war poets killed in action during WWI, and the wartime diaries of Priscilla Scott-Ellis who volunteered as a nurse during the Spanish Civil War and in Northern France during WWII. For tagging and identification, they have made available the Cardiff University Institutional Archive, a visual memory of students and staff going back to 1883.

Gwent Archives have put forward a collection of nostalgic photographs from the earliest days of the Newport Rugby & Athletics Club, this eclectic archive contains mid nineteenth century photographs of numerous sports including women’s football and tennis tournaments. They are also putting forward a collection of correspondence relating to the Poor Law Act of 1834. This collection includes original correspondence between the Main Administrative Office in London and the county offices [known as Guardians] – a copy of each letter was re-written and saved in to a “Letters Book” and Gwent are putting forward a selection of these letters books from the Abergavenny Board of Guardians.

The partners intend to make more collections available as the project progresses.

#CrowdCymru uses an active Twitter account @CrowdCymru to promote progress, highlight collections and foster support for other archive, library, museums, and heritage accounts.

This initiative is a digital volunteer crowdsourcing pilot running until November 2023.

To find out more about the project, or to volunteer, please contact Jennifer Evans at Jennifer.Evans@gwentarchives.gov.uk.