The Everton Collection was deposited in Liverpool Record Office by The Everton Charitable Trust in January 2008. A three-year Heritage Lottery funded the project began in June 2008 with the appointment of three members of staff - Max Dunbar (Project Officer), Belinda Scarlett (Creative Learning Officer) and Karen Sayers (Archive Assistant).
The project team immediately set to work by cataloguing the vast range of material in the Collection. Many items were still located at Goodison Park, so the team's first challenge was to intergrate all material into a single Everton Collection at Liverpool Record Office. With over 18,000 items, ranging from minute books and programmes from the 1800's to medals and shirts from the 1980's, the project team spent all 2008 cataloguing this incredible collection.
Many fragile items, such as early programmes and photographs, underwent conservation work by the Liverpool Record Office's conservation department. A team of 12 volunteers were also recruited and have played a vital role in labelling all the items in preparation for the digitisation process.
A key part of the project is digitising the Collection. A specialist digitisation company, UK Archiving, began digitising the minute books in January 2009 and have now digitised all significant items in the Collection. These images will be available on microfilm for Record Office users and will be published on a new interactive website.
The website will allow users to access the Collection through various searching and browsing options. Interactive elements of the site will offer users the opportunity to create their own Everton Collection and submit their own Everton stories.
The site will also offer online learning resources for schools, including interactive whiteboard resources.
Items from the Collection have already been shown in various exhibitions and displays in 2008/09. Focusing on the history of football supporters, 'The 12th Man' exhibition in August 2008 highlighted some of the fans memorabilla in the Collection. Items were also displayed on the F.A. Cup Trophy Tour bus in Williamson Square.
A major chapter in Peter Lupson's new book, entitled 'Across the Park', came directly from the joint Everton and Liverpool match programmes of 1904 to 1935. Other privileged guests to access the Collection include the grandson of Will Cuff, Charile Cuff and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham.
To fully search The Everton Collection and learn more about what's on offer, please vist:
www.evertoncollection.org.uk
