Cyffredinol

This is a short introduction to one of the Archive collections held at St Fagans: National History Museum. The Paper archive consists of 35,000 items relating to Welsh Social and Cultural History.

Whose story does it tell?

This archive gives us a picture of people's everyday lives in Wales during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and up to the present day.

What does it contain?

It contains among other items diaries; letters; trade account books; memoirs; linguistic studies; local history and folklore; traditional recipes; notes on traditional medicines; records of traditional buildings; agricultural records; educational and school records and a large collection of folk music.

A Recent Donation – Letters written by Ffransis Payne between 1935-1936

Ffransis Payne was Keeper of Collections at the Welsh Folk Museum (now known as St Fagans: National History Museum) and worked alongside Dr. Iorwerth Peate. Recently, his son Ceri Payne collated and then donated to the Archive extracts of letters, his father sent to his mother before they married in the period 1935 to 1936.

Ffransis was born in Kington in Herefordshire and previously worked as a farm hand in Cardiganshire, Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire. He also worked in the steelworks of Ebbw Vale, in the rail yards of Neath, as a clerk in Glasgow and as a book seller back in Cardiganshire.

He became an Archivist in Swansea in 1934 and was then appointed Assistant in the Department of Folk Culture and Industries at National Museum Cardiff in 1936.

In his letters to his future wife Helly Bilek, a 19 year old from Austria, he discusses international events (the rising tensions on the continent pre Second World War); Welsh political problems (a clash between unemployed workers and the Welsh National Party in May 1936 during the Pwllheli Annual Fair, regarding the Government's proposal to build a new air base and bombing school at Porth Neigwl) and a comment from his friend Saunders Lewis on the event.

The letters also contain comments about his work at the Museum and items collected and researched by him, and finally domestic observations about living and working in Cardiff during this period.

Wednesday, 15th of April, 1936 - I have just been listening to the news on the wireless. The situation in Austria is serious, it was said, and frontier troop movements etc. .......there is a month for us to see what will happen...

Western Mail, Monday May 25th,1936 - "Fight at Welsh Air Base Protest Meeting, Nationalist Party Leaders Clash with Unemployed"

Tuesday, 26th May, 1936 - I had a talk with Saunders Lewis today. He says the newspaper report exaggerated. He certainly seems unruffled.

Tuesday, 30th June, 1936 - My first real job has been assigned to me, it is making a catalogue and guide to the Museum's collection of samplers!!

Sunday, 5th July, 1936 - As for my work at the museum. I was and am quite serious. If you are interested in people and ways of life, you will find plenty to interest you in my work.

Dyma flog i werthfawrogi gwagle.

Dydyn ni ddim yn cael llawer o gyfle i fyfyrio am ein gwaith, achos ma' wastad mwy ohono i'w wneud. Felly, cyn i mi fynd i'r afael ag ail-wampio'n tudalennau llogi preifat; gorffen paratoi ar gyfer cynhadledd Archif Menywod Cymru a dechre helpu efo tudalennau 'cynnig syniad am ddigwyddiad', dewch i ni eistedd am eiliad a syllu 'mewn i'r gagendor mawr tawel, ac anadlu.

Neis, ond'yw e? [The Sea's Edge, Arthur Giardelli]

Gan fod 'cadw'n brysur' yn un o'n chwaraeon cenedlaethol, dyw hyn ddim at ddant pawb - ond dwi'n licio'r syniad o bwyso a mesur, aros yn llonydd am ennyd, a gwrando. Mi ddoiff na alwad bob tro: ebost sydd di syrthio lawr cefn y mewnflwch; llyfr 'dych chi wedi bod yn meddwl ei ddarllen ers sbel; neu bydd cyd-weithiwr liciech chi dreulio mwy o amser yn dysgu ganddynt yn taro'u pen trwy'r drws i weld a ydych chi ffansi paned.

Gwerthuso ac Archwilio

Rydym ni'n newid fel adran ar hyn o bryd - bydd dau aelod newydd yn ymuno â'r tîm yr wythnos hon - a rydym ni i gyd wedi bod yn gweithio ffwl-sbîd, os braidd ar wahan, ar brosiectau gwahanol ar y we, mewn orielau, y cyfryngau cymeithasol, rheolaethol, ymchwil a chynllunio.

Mae Graham, sy'n arwain y tîm cynnwys, wedi bod yn cymryd rhan mewn prosiect sector-gyfan sy'n edrych ar fodelau gwerthuso, pwyso a mesur, o'r enw Let's Get Real. Yr wythnos ddiwetha, mi fuodd gerbron y 'Crit Room' ym Mrighton, yn cyflwyno'n gwaith ar gyfer ei archwilio a'i feirniadu. Diddorol a brawychus.

Mae canlyniad y 'crit' wedi bod yn galonogol iawn - roeddwn i wedi bod yn poeni braidd am faint ein rhwydwaith twitter, am fod cost amser hyfforddi pawb yn tyfu drwy'r amser i fi. Ond, cawsom adborth fod hyn yn arwydd da ein bod yn ffynnu ar-lein, ac i boeni llai amdano.

Dwi'n ceisio dilyn eu cyngor nhw, go iawn.

Adborth y Stafell Feirniadu

Tafod allan-o'm-boch, dwi'n hapus efo sut 'dyn ni'n gweithio fel rhwydwaith dyddie 'ma, ac yn falch iawn pan dwi'n gweld pobl yn llamu 'mlaen yn defnyddio'u sgiliau newydd ar y cyfryngau cymdeithasol. Wrth dynnu rhifau at ei gilydd ar gyfer adroddiad arall, fe sylwais ein bod wedi cyrraedd carreg filltir bwysig iawn yn y misoedd diwetha: dros y rhwydwaith, mae gennym dros 125,000 o ddilynwyr. Dwi'n gwbod mai nid o rifau'n unig yr adeiladir llwyddiant ar-lein, ond, dwnim, mae 'na rywbeth tawel, boddhaol am weld rhes o '000'au gwag, cegagored.

Mi gafodd Chris, sy'n gyfrifol am adeiladu seiliau ail-ddatblygiad y wefan (a llawer mwy), a gweddill y tîm, hwb gan y Stafell Feirniadu, hefyd - yn benodol, fod ein harlwy ar-lein yn 'werthfawr iawn, yn gyfoethog ac yn foddhaol'. Alla i ddim peidio â meddwl am goffi pan dwi'n darllen y geiriau yna. Amser i stopio blogio am stopio a dechre stopio am baned.

Astudiaeth newid hinsawdd ar dir eich ysgol!
Daearyddiaeth & Gwyddoniaeth (CA2)

Defnyddiwch eich dosbarth awyr agored! Ymunwch â'r 175 o ysgolion sy'n cymryd rhan yn yr arbrawf arbennig hwn!

Mae Bylbiau'r Gwanwyn i Ysgolion yn rhoi cyfle i ddisgyblion cynradd fabwysiadu, astudio a chofnodi datblygiad bylbiau'r gwanwyn fel rhan o rwydwaith gwylio'r gwanwyn. Caiff pob disgybl fwlb Cennin Pedr Dinbych, Crocws ac photyn gardd er mwyn cofnodi'r tyfiant a'r amserau blodeuo.

Trwy gasglu a chymharu data mae disgyblion yn darganfod sut mae'r newid yn ein hinsawdd yn effeithio ar ein tymhorau, a beth mae hyn yn ei olygu i ni ac i'r natur o'n cwmpas. Mae disgyblion yn cymryd rhan yn Her Athro'r Ardd i gael tystysgrif gwyddonydd gwych.

Gall ysgolion ledled Cymru gymryd rhan gan bod y canlyniadau yn cael eu casglu drwy'r we (neu'r post os oes rhaid). Mae'r prosiect yn un parhaus a gall ysgolion gymryd rhan yn flynyddol.

Er mwyn gwneud cais i gymryd rhan yn Bylbiau’r Gwanwyn i Ysgolion 2015-2016 llenwch y ffurflen gais ar-lein drwy ddilyn y ddolen isod.

Ceisiadau nawr ar agor ond mae niferoedd yn gyfyngedig felly wnewch gais yn fuan i sicrhau eich lle ar y prosiect! Ceisiadau ar agor i ysgolion yng Nghymru yn unig. Mae’r dyddiad cau wedi pasio ar gyfer ysgolion o’r Alban a Lloegr ond mae croeso i chi gysylltu ag Ymddiriedolaeth Edina am wybodaeth ar sut i gymryd rhan yn y project yn 2016-2017.

Bylbiau’r Gwanwyn i Ysgolion – Ffurflen Gais.

E-bost SCAN

A lot of people wander around exhibitions with phones in their pockets or handbags. We decided to utilise this idea and serve up a Wi-Fi audio tour for the Chalkie Davies: the NME Years exhibition (9 May - 6 September 2015) - the museum has a web-server and there is Wi-Fi broadcasting in the exhibition gallery, allowing us to give it a whirl. 

• We wanted to give access to the maximum number of people with phones from this decade (HTML5 compatible devices). 
• We didn’t want an ‘app' because it creates a lot of hoops for developers and the museum to jump through, plus visitors probably don't want excessive fuss when entering an exhibition especially as they might only use it for five minutes in total. 
• We didn’t want to bring in traditional audio tour guides because of the hire price for the museum and we weren't going to ask the visitors to pay, as it's free entry to the exhibition.
• We might want to use it again and would hope to do so with the minimum amount of technical fuss.

Free Wi-Fi but not sitting a Coffee Shop

Once the visitor has connected to the free Wi-Fi audio tour ‘Chalkie' the Wi-Fi capture software will direct them to the correct web page with the name of the exhibition and a choice of languages (see picture 1). All is going well. 

Language Choice

The english audio tour was written and recorded by Chalkie Davies and his team - it provides his personal insights into each of the photographs on display and some back stories. The welsh audio version was recorded in-house by Rhodri Viney (recording and editing) and Telor Gwyn (voice), using the Chalkie Davies translated transcript.

Choose a Number between One and Nine

The visitor is given a choice of nine numbers, each matching a number on the gallery wall which refers to a selection of photographs (see picture 2). Once the person selects one of these numbers the audio tour begins...

"Listen To What The Man Said"

For the best experience the visitor should have headphones, but it's not the end of the world if they don't, they can still listen through their devices' built-in speaker, although this can look and feel a little awkward. Alternatively they could hand over £1.50 for headphones in the museum shop downstairs.

If they don’t want to walk around with a mobile phone protruding from their head, or leave the exhibition and come back in again to buy headphones downstairs, or find that their mobile phone has a low battery percentage - there is a printed version of the audio tour available within the gallery. They are the same words.

A Perfect Circle

I used to have an analogue watch, but I left it accidentally next to the squash courts in the University - if anyone picked it up, could they hand it back please? Anyway, time can be measured within a circle. I like circles, so I built a large circle to indicate the progress of the audio track playing. The animated graphic uses SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), which meant the page avoided the usual graphical software - it's all written in code: HTML5, javascript and CSS [Well, I find it mildly exciting] (see picture 3 and 4).  

Pressing the circle will pause the audio. If the visitor listening to the audio tour wants to change to another number they can press the ‘Home’ button and the page will scroll up to the nine numbered keypad again. Another loop, of sorts…and repeat.

Before we go any further, maybe we could pause for a short film clip...  

Additional Details You Might Enjoy 

• The gallery has a capacity of 40 people at one time.
• There are two Wi-Fi hubs at each end of the gallery broadcasting wireless-N.
• A web-server streaming the audio.
• Each of the audio tracks are compressed to less than 2MB (MP3).
• It takes less than ten seconds to download the whole MP3 on a iPhone 5S and the audio plays almost immediately.
• We’ve tested it with various phones including one of the first Android audio HTML5 compatible phones (Gingerbread 2.3.6 ~ circa 2011) and Windows 8 phones.
• If the device is not capable of displaying a SVG there is a fallback to similar looking GIFs.

Media Monitoring

The web-server records each time a track is requested. Therefore, we will have some data to indicate how much the audio tour is being used - thinking about it, we shoud gather additional information about the type of browser requesting the audio (it's a closed network so we can't involve Google Analytics, which is the usual goto reference for 'what kind of computer has visited the website recently'). We will monitor things during the exhibition and conduct evaluation once it has closed.