The Penny Black Changed the World - project report

This project allowed the BPMA to digitise an important philatelic collection, both ensuring its long-term preservation and increasing accessibility. At the same time, it has allowed us to develop educational resources based on the collection and undertake schools and community outreach.

Between October 2005 and July 2006, Rhiannon Looseley, the Project Officer, has managed the digitisation of 2,300 pages of philatelic material and the production of webpages to display these on the internet. You can now view the digitised Phillips Collection online.

At the same time, Project Outreach Officer Natasha Ludlam developed a KS2 education pack (with a print run of 1000); including teachers’ notes, activity sheets, facsimile documents and a timeline poster. Extensive consultation with teachers has taken place and during this process strong links with a number of schools have been built.

The education pack is free to schools, and a printed copy can be ordered by emailing info@postalheritage.org.uk. It can also be downloaded as a PDF, supported by an online image gallery specifically for schools.  This Gallery follows similar themes to the pack and includes material drawn from the Phillips Collection. The information sheets in the pack are also available as History pages, allowing pupils to undertake their own online research.

During the summer term of 2006 Natasha ran several history workshops, working with some 400 children. She also organised a parallel series of art workshops, working with an artist and pupils to produce collages based on the Penny Black. An example of one class's artwork can be seen here, and there are many more in the Kids Gallery.

In addition, Natasha worked with family learning groups in Haringey and met with a group of elderly people in Fitzrovia. As a result, the Phillips Collection and the history of the post has been actively introduced to people with no previous experience of this part of our national heritage. 

If you would like to find out more about the work that has been done during the project, please download Rhiannon and Natasha's Penny Black project report (PDF, 1MB).