I was lucky enough to secure an Undergraduate Research Scholarship in the summer of my second year, working with Dr Kate Smith on a project entitled ‘Lost Property Offices and the Emergence of a Modern Metropolis’. I was tasked with examining advertisements from newspapers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, searching for lost, found, and stolen notices. These compared various characteristics, for example the types of property, how they were identified, the value of rewards, where they were lost. It also tracked the number and type of adverts across time, allowing patterns and shifting characteristics to be traced.
The weeks spent on the project really were an excellent opportunity for me to be involved with historical research, and to engage in it. Meeting with an active researcher allowed me an insight into the life of an academic historian, and to polish my own skills in preparation for getting stuck into my dissertation. Whilst I was working on a very different topic, and not making any use of newspapers, I was working with electronic resources in the form of the state papers – which meant being familiar with Times Online was an immense help! I also had the chance to spend a day doing some research in the archives of the British Library, and that was a real eye opener. The skills I learned (or polished) were certainly very handy when it came to my dissertation, and I believe enabled me to turn in a better piece of work because of it.
During my three years at Birmingham I really fell in love with academia, and renewed my love of studying history, so once I had completed my undergraduate degree I just couldn’t stand the thought of moving on. As such I’m still here, now studying an MRes (Masters by Research) degree in Early-Modern History part time. The rest of my time is spent working in heritage – I’m lucky enough to be employed by Birmingham Museums Trust at a heritage site. The Undergraduate Research Scholarship, and the project and encouragement of Kate, really helped me to find and develop that love – and the skills and experiences have been helpful in finding opportunities both at university and at work.
I don’t know what the future holds, but as long as my enthusiasm and drive hold up I’m planning on being actively involved in historical research – even if it is only for my own entertainment and interest!
Rik Sowden, BA War Studies, MRes Early Modern History