Archives and Special Collections at Founder's Day Celebration
Katie Ormerod, Library Services’ Lead Archivist, writes about her experience at Queen Mary’s Founder’s Day event.
Medha and Ginny from the Barts Health NHS Trust Archives
On 9 July 2025, I attended the university’s Founders’ Day celebration which took place in the Octagon. I was on a stall representing the archives, alongside my colleagues Medha and Ginny from the Barts Health NHS Trust Archives.
We offered a badgemaking activity using images from the archive collections of all four founding institutions (The People’s Palace/Queen Mary College, The London Hospital Medical College, St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, Westfield College), which have now all merged to form Queen Mary University as we know it today. There was also a pill making machine for people to try, and the opportunity for guests to try on cloaks from nursing uniforms!
The main part of the evening was the ceremony to award honorary degrees to four Queen Mary alumni: Navjot Sawhney (MEng Aerospace Engineering), Founder of The Washing Machine Project, Dr Nighat Arif (MBBS), Medical Broadcaster, GP specialising in women’s health, and author, Simon Borrows (LLB Law), Chief Executive of 3i Group plc, and Jamie Crummie (LLM Law), Co-founder of Too Good To Go.
It was inspiring to hear about their achievements and commitment to Queen Mary’s ethos of sustainability, social justice and improving lives.
Attendees really enjoyed the archives stall, and the badges were extremely popular; we made around 125 over the evening, in addition to raising awareness of the archives and connecting with potential researchers and depositors!