Behind the Scenes of the NHSN Transactions Project 

Heritage Researcher Rachel Anderson reflects on the process of digitising our archive of Transactions and making them freely available online for the first time ever. 

Over the past few months, a team of dedicated NHSN volunteers and I have had the pleasure of uploading the digitised Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumbria to their new home here on the NHSN website. 

It’s been a privilege to work with such rich material, not only because of their scientific value but because they document almost two centuries of regional history. The Transactions  are a lens into the ways in which people have related to nature, place, and each other across generations. They reflect how people in the region have valued and protected their local environment, long before conservation became a common word. 

As someone relatively new to NHSN (I began working here in October 2024), the experience has been such a lovely education. These volumes reflect how the society has grown and evolved over the centuries, chronicling its scientific discoveries, evolving priorities and, most importantly, the people who shaped it, all in constant dialogue with the wider currents of social and cultural change in the North East. 

I am delighted that this material will now be freely accessible to researchers, members, and curious minds around the world. 

The process of uploading each volume has required such care and attention. From checking dates and titles to ensuring the scans are clear and complete, every step matters. Here are some thoughts from two of our wonderful, dedicated team of volunteers who have made this project possible.  

Sandra Bishop

“I’m a former community link worker, and a big part of my role was connecting vulnerable people to community resources. Working through the lockdowns, I became acutely aware of the barriers that some people face in accessing nature, particularly in urban areas. I took a career break to return to study, explore nature, and find new ways of contributing the wider community. Uploading the transactions was the perfect opportunity to combine all three! I love the inclusive values of the project, which makes these wonderful natural history archives freely available to everyone.” 

Julia Black

“When I heard that the Natural History Society’s Transactions were to be digitised and made available on the internet, I was keen to be part of the team that would prepare summaries about the contents of each Transaction which would help readers find articles about topics/authors of interest.  The Transactions are a wonderful history of scientific endeavour by members of the Society over the past nearly 200 years, and I believe it is really worthwhile to make them available not only to members of the Society, but to an international audience too. 

We had some training about the system we would need to use (seemed very straightforward and simple to use), and then we were allocated a few volumes to ‘have a go’.  My first Transaction was from 1867, and proved to be ‘A New Flora of Northumberland and Durham”; it started with a description of the geology of these counties, their climatology, key physical geography aspects, and then followed 200 or so pages describing plants and where they were found.  It would be interesting to compare with the more recent Flora of Northumberland published in 1993. 

My next Transaction covered 1868-1870 and included meteorological reports for 1867, 1868 and 1869; I was interested to see these had all been edited by a Reverend (in fact a number of papers have been written by Reverends!).  I was interested to see there was information of first flowering dates for plants, and first arrival dates for migratory birds for these years; with our warming climate, it would be interesting to compare with the data now.  There were a number of papers by Albany Hancock (one of the founders of the Hancock Museum, and the Natural History Society); he seemed to be very interested in fossil remains of reptiles and fish in the coal fields of Northumberland.  There are the notes from the annual meetings of the Society which include a list of members; spot the female! 

It has been an extremely interesting activity, and I have found myself engrossed in some of the papers as I have been preparing the summaries!  It has been a really worthwhile activity.” 

You can hear more from our volunteers across NHSN, including James who has led on digitisation, in our Volunteer Week Blog here: Where would we be without our volunteers!? Introducing the North East Nature Archive’s dedicated volunteer team  – Natural History Society of Northumbria 

As we continue this project, I hope more people will explore the archive and discover the many stories it holds. NHSN’s history belongs to all of us, and now, it’s just a click away.