Sophia Patel (left) and Marcus Wardle (right) work their way through the Pat Rowley Journalistic Archive.

A photograph of two people in front of filing cabinets with a scanner may not appear to be the most riveting of subjects, however they are working on one of the most valuable and important collections that The Hockey Museum (THM) possesses.

Our Archivist Marcus Wardle and Research Assistant Sophia Patel are seen working on the Pat Rowley Journalistic Archive that was acquired by THM in 2017. The archive represents the lifetime work of hockey journalist Patrick Rowley who reported on hockey for more than sixty years. We have more than five filing cabinets with the drawers tightly packed full of all manner of hockey-related material. Patrick was one of the most renowned hockey correspondents working in an era when journalism was the principal means of communication. He also did much work with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) editing their World Hockey magazine.

Being a professional museum, we are duty-bound to protect the integrity of this amazing collection. This means that whilst recording and conserving these tens of thousands of documents, photographs, programmes etc. we must retain the original method of its assemblage. It is fair to say that the logic of this is not always apparent, but when all the material is digitised and recorded the collection will be able to be fully interrogated. We don’t believe that any other such archive exists in hockey so hopefully it can be appreciated how important this work is.

Mike Smith, THM Curator
10.02.2020