St. George’s Scout Group visit Archives+

We were pleased to welcome St. George’s Scout Group, 3rd Chadderton to Archives+ to view the collection of scouting archives, many of which are stored off site in the salt mines. Copies of The Scouter and Jamborees were retrieved and placed on site for their visit, enabling the scouts to browse through and compare how scouting has changed over the last 100 years.

Using iPads, the scouts took photos of their favourites articles and images. Recording their experience on iPads, using a green screen to learn how to put themselves into the archive images and writing about their visit, below is their account of the 2 sessions.  

Jamborees were created to bring scouts together via service sheets. I looked at different world jamborees from different time periods such as the big worldwide jamboree in 1929. 

Scouting games – we chose the “wide game” one because some of them we would like to try. Our favourite is “House to house treasure hunt” where you have to go house to house and give passwords. 

The pages that I chose were about the camp routine. I chose this because it was a lot different to what we do now. When it said that at 1:30 to 2:30 you weren’t allowed to move or talk I was shocked. I found it the most interesting thing as it was a lot different. I learnt about camp tips on how to do stuff at camping and it taught me that camping isn’t just a piece of cake!

Books – The proofs of Baden-Powell’s little book, Aids to Scouting, just got out of Mafeking (South Africa) as the siege started. He then started to investigate existing organisations for training boys, not only in Great Britain but elsewhere especially what was being done by Thompson Setton in USA. 

The ambulance badge is the 1929 version of the Emergency Aid Badge. The requirements for the badges are different but are important for first aid. Emergency Aid Badge: The importance of help, what to say when you call 999, how to help someone who is bleeding or unconscious etc. Ambulance Badge: The fireman’s lift, how to improvise a stretcher, the position of main arteries, how to stop bleeding from veins, arteries, external and internal. 

I learnt about the Gold Coast Scouts Association. What I learnt was that they did lots of international camps. 

Having fun with the archives, learning how to use green screen.

Thank you St. George’s Scouts Group, 3rd Chadderton for sharing your experience of investigating our archive collections. We hope to see you again in Manchester Central Library!