about the project
Black Country History is a searchable website which allows users to look for photographs and records held by archives and arts and museums services within the Black Country relating to the history of the local area.
The eight partners involved in this website are:
Archive services:
- Dudley Archives and Local History Service
- Sandwell Community History and Archives Service
- Walsall Local History Centre
- Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies
Arts and museums services:
- Dudley Museums Service
- Sandwell Museums Service
- Walsall Museums Service
- Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service
Each service holds thousands of items relating to the history of the Black Country including: books, maps and plans, photographs, newspapers, trade directories, local authority records, business records, historical objects, paintings, sculptures and decorative art objects.
Each archive office also provides a wide variety of sources for family tree research including: census returns, parish registers, electoral registers and General Register Office indexes to births, marriages and deaths.
Each of the museums and art galleries hold a wealth of objects with local connections as well as other objects and art works from all over the world.
To make this material available for public use, it is listed and indexed by staff at each service. These indexes are continually being added to computerised databases to enable quicker and easier searching. This process is ongoing and only a proportion of the services' total holdings are currently available to view online. If you cannot find what you are looking for, contact the relevant organisation for more information.
This website has been made possible through the 'Documenting the Workshop of the World' project, a three year Heritage Lottery Fund initiative. The project aims to digitise over 10,000 historical images and catalogue a series of important business records from across the region which, together, chronicle the important role played by the Black Country during the industrial revolution.
Addition of arts and museums catalogue items to the website has been funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives council under their Renaissance in the Regions programme with the aim of providing wider access to museum and gallery collections information.
