Welsh Business Awarded Contract To Digitise Margaret Thatcher’s Private Historical Papers
Swansea document management specialist, Transmedia Technology Limited, has won a prestigious contract with Churchill College, University of Cambridge to scan and digitally archive Margaret Thatcher’s entire private collection of papers spanning her career as Prime Minister from her election campaign in 1979 right through to her resignation in 1990.
The papers were very generously donated to the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust (MTAT) by Lady Thatcher herself with the proviso that the documents be professionally scanned and archived. The papers are considered to be priceless by those with a keen interest in social political history.
During Thatcher’s eleven years as Prime Minister, she collected and filed personal written notes, official letters, reports, minutes, memoirs, personal mementoes, photographs and letters written by her closest friends and personal advisors. During the course of the next fifteen months Transmedia’s expert staff will scan, process and digitally archive the entire collection resulting in more than 1 million images in nearly 3,000 archive boxes, occupying 300m of shelving. The collection is among the largest and most significant of late twentieth century political archives.
“The Thatcher archive is a marvellous resource for all those interested in her career as Prime Minister and in this country’s recent political history...”
Charles Moore - Lady Thatcher’s Authorised Biographer
The recent release of papers has given insight into how Thatcher prepared herself personally or her transition to power. A note, found tucked into the back of her 1979 diary contained details and hand written notes regarding a high protein diet of 28 eggs a week, that helped Thatcher lose 20lbs in two weeks.
Transmedia were one of nine document management specialists invited to tender for this high profile contract. Determining factors included security, confidentiality, trust, price and quality of work. After undergoing rigourous trials and demonstrating their professionalism and their ability to satisfy the requirements, Churchill College, University of Cambridge were delighted to award Transmedia with the contract.
"Following a rigourous trial conducted in the Autumn of 2009, the CAC was delighted to sign an agreement in February 2010 to work with Transmedia to produce a comprehensive digital surrogate copy of the Thatcher papers. Transmedia are delivering consistent high quality image capture, with added OCR facility, allied to the robust security arrangements required for the storage of the data. This is a wonderful partnership, that will enable unprecedented access to Lady Thatcher's papers as they open".
Andrew Riley - Thatcher Archivist, Churchill College, University of Cambridge