3S researcher Martin Mahony has helped build the new Montserrat Volcanic Crisis Archive, which goes live this week.
The Archives Assemble! project team has worked closely with the Montserrat National Trust to build a new and accessible digital archive of materials which will tell the story of the 1990s eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano and its impacts on the people of Montserrat. The collection will continue to expand as it brings together materials from a range of different archives and makes them newly accessible to a range of audiences, via the Digital Library of the Caribbean.
The overarching project, Archives Assemble! Activating the Archives to Collaboratively Reimagine Volcanic Geoheritage, brings together researchers from three UK universities, the UK National Archives, and the Montserrat Volcano Observatory with specialists from the Montserrat National Trust, Montserrat Public Library, Montserrat Tourism Division, and the Seismic Research Centre of the University of the West Indies.
The project builds on findings from the interdisciplinary ‘Curating Crises’ project, which brought together volcanologists, human geographers, librarians and archivists to explore the colonial shaping of volcano science and its legacies in the present. It will create a lasting legacy of geoheritage materials which bring the archives to life, as well as exploring their silences and omissions.
The archival collection was promoted at a reception at the Houses of Parliament this week, hosted by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Government of Montserrat to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the start of the eruption. Further events in Montserrat and the UK over the coming months will bring together scientists, decisionmakers and community groups to reflect on the eruption and its impacts, and to share insights on Montserrat’s bright future.
The archival collection will continue to grow over the next few months, including with recently-released UK Government materials from The National Archives (UK), so check back regularly to see what’s new!
