a visit to the archives of HSBC · 2012-04-12 15:24
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to the HSBC archives in a secret East London location.
I love archives, especially company ones. They’re getting rarer and rarer, often I guess perceived as a luxury, whereas being able to tell the story of your history should provide providence and security.
My interests are, however, often orthogonal to those of professional archivists. Most of the records in the archive are books – ledgers, official correspondence, meeting notes. I’m interested in the ephemera; building mock-ups, rubber stamps…
… and particularly the marketing material, the internal newspapers.
I mean, look at that. It was from the future.
And cats! Paying with cheques!
It’s all a fascinating look at how modernisation was perceived.
And, y’know, a Christo lying around.
See all the photos here.