Latest Acquisitions
Bristol Record Office Film Archive digitising equipment
Following the successful launch of the film-viewing facility at Bristol Record Office in April 2010 and the overwhelming interest shown in the Bristol Record Office Film Archive (BROFA) collection by broadcasters, film producers, the media, members of the public and local history and other groups, the Executive Committee has agreed £10,000 to fund the acquisition of telecine transfer equipment to help further the digitisation project.
The equipment will make the growing BROFA collection more widely available and enable the creation of archival and broadcast copies; previously digital copies had to be made indirectly via videotapes. Over time the Record Office will, as a result of our grant, be able to transfer the whole collection (plus material that is donated in future) to a consistently high quality. Clive Burlton, a member of our Executive Committee and a very active volunteer at the Record Office, is playing a leading role in thedigitising work.
Bristol-built Vespa Scooter
We have also agreed £900 to cover 50% of the purchase of a Bristol-built Vespa scooter. The scooter has been on loan to the museum for many years, but the lender has died and his family now wishes to sell it. Many people recognise the Vespa as an Italian design icon, and you may remember Gregory Peck riding one very stylishly, with Audrey Hepburn sitting side-saddle behind him, in the 1952 film Roman Holiday. It is less well known that Douglas Motorcycles of Kingswood held the contract to build Vespas to supply Britain and the Commonwealth, and to a great extent it was this work that kept Douglas solvent in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The remaining 50% of the funding will come from the Science Museum’s PRISM fund. The Vespa is on display alongside the Norman Parkinson fashion photographs in the M Shed exhibition which runs to 15 April.