Business Archives in 2010 - August

Pringle of Scotland
In the year of their 195th anniversary, Pringle held a 'day of record' at the site of their former factory in Hawick. It is part of an appeal to the public to help it create an archive of its 195 year history.  A review of the day appears here.

Excise Records
The NAS announced that a letter from Robert Burns was discovered in a collection of papers belonging to a Commissioner of the Scottish Excise.

Glenmorangie Company Ltd
Glenmorangie celebrated 100 years in Colorado with a series of events.  The celebration is based on an Operations Register, 1908-34 held by the archives that provides details of customers’ orders for Glenmorangie single malt Scotch whiskies during that period, and the recipes for the different expressions of Glenmorangie that were created to suit the customers’ preferences.

The Register included details of orders for Glenmorangie placed by the famous Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado, beginning in 1910 and continuing until business was disrupted by the First World War.

[Image copyright of Glenmorangie]

Colorado is a key market for the brand in the USA, and information about Glenmorangie’s historic links with Colorado gleaned from the Register and from other sources was used as the cornerstone for a publicity campaign and a series of promotional events entitled “Glenmorangie: 100 years in Colorado”.  The campaign culminated in a100th Anniversary Gala Dinner at the hotel in August 2010, attended by some of Denver’s leading business and political figures, and the ledger was flown first-class to the US to be displayed in a special display cabinet throughout the month.

Financial Times
The Financial Times ran an article about the benefits of business archives and the advantages of employing a professional archivist. The news is not all bad. It commented that "in defiance of the downturn, businesses as diverse as Bulgari, Marks and Spencer and Audi are using milestone anniversaries to celebrate their heritage. Other companies are delving into their archives to learn from past recessions, inspire new products and arm lawyers with evidence to win trademark disputes."  Read more here.

BAC Cataloguing Grant Winners - Full steam ahead
The Business Archives Council announced that the winning applicants of the BAC cataloguing grant for business archives were to be the Dorset History Centre (Dorset County Council) for cataloguing of the archives of Cosens of Weymouth, Paddle Steamer Company (ref: D/COS), and the National Railway Museum for cataloguing of small railway engineering and business collections.