TRAC 1 - 1991, Newcastle University

I found some paperwork belonging to my setting up of the first TRAC Conference which may be of interest.

(1) BELOW - the original delegate list from the first TRAC in 1991 in Newcastle upon Tyne. I'm pretty sure the handwriting below mine belongs to Richard Reece (x2 pages)

(2) BELOW - the same list, colour-coded to show who gave papers, who chaired, and who read papers in absentia (and for whom) (x2 pages).

(3) BELOW - for ease of reference - the contributors to the first TRAC volume.

(4) BELOW - a typical letter I sent trying to establish initial interest, in August 1990, writing from Jerusalem. This particular letter was sent to Martin Jones, then at Durham.

This letter was the original 'trawl for interest' and sent to people I thought might want to attend and contribute such a weekend. It was sent snail-mail from East Jerusalem in August 1990, to Martin Jones, Martin Millett, Ian Hodder, Kevin Greene, Richard Hingley, Ross Samson, Richard Reece, Richard Bradley, John Barratt, Paul Lane, and Margaret Nieke. It was a tentative, 'Does this idea have legs?' set of letters. I was already in touch with Lindsay Allason-Jones, Karen Griffiths and Pat Southern. I then sent out a fairly basic 'Call For Papers' to go on the noticeboards of university departments, field units, statutory agencies, museums etc. Sue Alcock and Sarah Scott saw these. Word-of-mouth (pre-internet) was also crucial and Lindsay Allason-Jones and Carol van Driel-Murray were hugely significant in this regard, and helped to spread the reach of the first TRAC into Europe. Sue Alcock subsequently helped take the idea to the USA.

The final set of papers included in the published volume was pretty self-selecting, to be honest. A number of contributors didn't want to publish their papers, feeling that they were best placed to remain part of TRAC oral history. Meanwhile, Rob Poulton and Ken Dark, who couldn't attend the conference, had papers that were 'good to go', so I included them instead. I co-wrote the pewter paper with Rob and it's one of my favourites.

If I find any more archives I'll publish them here.