The Merton@750 Project's Anniversary Collection: A window on the College's past

Following the launch of the Merton@750 project’s online Anniversary Collection in June 2014, Mertonians from all walks of life have been sending in stories and items from their personal collections to add to the archive.

Now the anniversary year has ended, the project has also drawn to a close, after a year collecting and sharing stories of Merton.

The project was born out of our desire to expand our record of Merton’s more recent history; the 750th anniversary felt like the perfect opportunity to stop and take stock. So for the past year the Project Officer, Catherine Farfan, has been working with the College Archivist, Julian Reid, the Fellow Librarian, Dr Julia Walworth, and a group of very willing volunteers to collect and share recollections and stories of the college.

As well as recording events such as the Time Ceremony and the college’s Ascension Day service on the Chapel roof, throughout 2014 the project collected stories from Mertonians themselves. This involved two ‘Roadshows’ at the Merton Birthday Weekend in September, with current students gathering tales from Old Mertonians, and a selection of oral history interviews conducted by student volunteers. These records have now been added to the college archive, enabling generations to come to gain a greater understanding of life at Merton in years gone by.

The Project Officer, Catherine Farfan, commented:

"It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to be part of this project. As the first Oxford college to undertake such an endeavour, it has been an exciting year and we have benefitted from the enthusiasm of the whole Merton Community, as well as help from the University’s IT Services and our website designers at Olamalu.

"Since launching the Anniversary Collection last year, we have been inundated with tales of college life. We have not only had contributions from alumni whose matriculation years range from 1938 to 2010, but we’ve also been lucky enough to speak to college tenants, members of staff, fellows and others with a Merton connection. In total we have collected 373 stories, 234 of which are available to view online at http://share.merton.ox.ac.uk. Highlights have included an unusual photograph of a life-sized chess match in the Fellows’ Garden and many fond reminiscences of hijinks and sconcing."

We really hope that the many stories we have managed to collect as part of this project will enrich the understanding of life at Merton for future generations. Although this marks the end of Merton@750, we plan to keep the momentum of the anniversary year going by keeping the Collection available online and open to new contributions.

The Merton@750 Anniversary Collection is located at http://share.merton.ox.ac.uk: visitors to the site can browse items in Merton’s historic archive, as well as donate their own stories, images and memorabilia to a digital archive to be stored for future generations to enjoy.