Farewell to Arthur

HAT has an amazing group of dedicated volunteers who contribute immeasurably to the archive work programme every year. Some volunteers stay with us for a short period of time before moving on, while others are able to dedicate their free time for many years. One such stalwart is Arthur Pulford who is calling time on his volunteering after more than a decade, having joined HAT back in 2008. Arthur remembers attending a talk by former HAT Director Chloe Veale, following which he was so interested in HAT’s work that he joined the volunteer ranks, giving one day a week of his free time. 

His first job was working on HAT’s collections of advertising tearsheets, a daunting task given there are several hundred thousand to be sorted. During his career Arthur had worked in the tobacco industry among other things and so he began this monumental project by organising the large section of tobacco advertising. Over time he completed tobacco and worked his way on to spirits in the alcohol section, which he says was as good as it sounds! 


One of the many MEAL books Arthur completed during his time here

After eleven years Arthur completed over 90 binders containing thousands of ads which are now freely available to researchers in the archive study area. More recently he had been working on keywording some of HAT’s 30,000+ commercials which are available to view on the online catalogue. Continuing his sterling efforts he managed to keyword over 5,000 commercials in two years, making them even more accessible to our researchers. 

Although we are sad to see him go, HAT is hugely grateful to him for his amazing contribution to the archive during his time here. Bon voyage Arthur and thank you!

If you would like more info about volunteering at HAT or would like to enquire about joining the team of volunteers, see the volunteer page here.

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