When and why is a collection “hidden”? Awakening interest in the Hornung Papers at West Sussex Record Office

IntroductionSCOLMA's 2013 conference was based on the Research Library UK (RLUK)'s 2012 report, Hidden Collections, which SCOLMA defined as "material for which there is no online presence" in its pre-conference publicity. Many researchers are made aware of collections and documents in the custody of West Sussex Record Office via online sources such as the National Register of Archives (NRA), Access to Archives (A2A) - still an extremely useful resource, even though new catalogues and additions to existing catalogues can no longer be entered - and our own website, using our Search Online facility. The purpose of this paper is not to dispute the importance of an online presence in our increasingly digital world. However, although an online presence is undoubtedly vital, this paper will argue that this alone is not enough to bring collections to prominence - especially those specialist or niche collections which researchers might not expect to find housed in a particular repository.The collection which forms the basis of this paper and which will be used to demonstrate that an online presence is not, on its own, enough to bring specialist collections to prominence - the Hornung Papers, deposited at West Sussex Record Office in 2009 - has had an online presence of sorts since early 2010, when a record of its deposit and a necessarily brief indication of its content were made available via the NRA. Although the collection remains uncatalogued, in December 2012 a basic collection (fonds)-level description was created using Calm ALM cataloguing software and this description is accessible via West Sussex Record Office's Search Online facility. Since March 2012, this basic collection-level description has also been accessible via the Archives Hub, "which provides a gateway to many of the UK"s richest historical archives" by hosting both collection-level descriptions and full catalogues on its website;2 in addition, the collection provided the Hub's feature page during June/July 2013, providing further exposure.3 One of the key benefits of contributing to the Hub is that its content is accessible via Google searches - unlike the content of most in-house online archive catalogues. The anticipation is that this link to Google will enable researchers to identify and access archive collections of which they may not have been aware.Nonetheless, despite this increased online presence, the Hornung Papers remain largely unused and, in effect, can be considered a "hidden collection".4 The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine why the collection remains hidden and to identify the barriers which prevent it from being identified and used. The paper will also outline the various attempts which are being made to break down these barriers, and to bring this collection - which has been described as a rare and unique survival by several academics - to light.Background: "Pitt" Hornung, the Sena Sugar Estates and the Hornung PapersIn essence, the Hornung Papers comprise the administrative records of Hornung & Co. Ltd., whose primary business concern was a swathe of sugar plantations in the Zambesia region of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), which eventually became known as the Sena Sugar Estates. The first cane sugar plantation in the region was established by John Peter "Pitt" Hornung in 1889. The son of Transylvanian immigrants who had successfully settled in the north of England, Pitt moved to Lisbon in 1881, where he met and married Laura de Paiva Raposo, whose father, Inacio Jose de Paiva Raposo, leased a number of concessions in Portuguese East Africa, in order to cultivate opium.Following his father-in-law's death in 1887, Pitt took on the concessions, but - like his father-in-law - was largely unsuccessful in making them pay. On the verge of relinquishing the concessions after a devastating flood in 1889, a chance encounter with a French planter in Durban, South Africa, persuaded Pitt to give the concessions one last chance, and to try his hand at growing sugar cane. …