Some people will tell you Everton don’t do Nil Satis Nisi Optimum anymore, but in many areas that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Fittingly it’s our history that offers an area where Everton once again lead the rest, with the Everton Collection, a mixture of the David France Collection and Everton’s own collection, being the world’s biggest football collection of its kind.

Max Dunbar the project manager of the Everton Collection agreed to answer some questions on this fantastic collection.

How did the club go about raising the funds required to buy the collection?

The Club did not want to purchase the Collection itself but wished to work with an experienced heritage partner. Therefore, Liverpool Record Office, the archive service for the City, based at Liverpool Central Library was approached in about 2006 to provide a safe and secure long-term home for the Collection. This would mean that relevant conservation and preservation standards would be met along with the benefit of being able to provide public access in the Record Office seven days per week and have qualified archivists and conservators to assist and advise on preservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and access.

The Everton Collection Charitable Trust was formed in 2005 as an independent charity to raise funds to acquire the Collection and to ensure its access and use for education. David Stoker, Manager of Liverpool Record Office, researched and compiled the successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund on behalf of the Trust with the Record Office as the heritage partner. The extensive documentation to support the application was submitted in March 2007 and a decision as part of the competitive and rigorous HLF process was made in September 2007 to award nearly £1 million – very close to the maximum amount possible. The overall project cost was £2.1 million which included acquiring the David France collection and carrying out the project to catalogue, digitise, exhibit, and make available the Collection, not least to schools and new audiences. Everton FC donated the Club’s own archive to the Trust, the value of which also counted as match funding, and Lord Grantchester made a significant contribution.

Of course it already was a huge collection, and then Everton combined their collection with it.  How difficult was it to catalogue this massive collection together?

Both collections were organised differently and located in different places. With much of the Club’s Collection at Goodison under the Park End Stand, the priority was to ensure these valuable items were re-located to Liverpool Record Office. It took over a year to finally integrate both collections together. With David’s collection largely paper-based and the Club’s collection including trophies, shirts, boots and other players’ memorabilia, I’m sure you’d agree the two collections complement each other perfectly!

Has the archiving of the collection unearthed many interesting facts about our club?

Every page of every minute book is now on our website for everyone to read – that’s 10,000 pages of original Everton history! A new perspective on the Anfield Split and the characters behind the split have been revealed through the minute books. There are also 1,000s more pages of match programmes, contracts, reports, letters, etc now freely available to read on our new website, so I’m sure plenty more facts will be unearthed in due course.

Has all the collection now been sorted and archived?

The vast majority of the Collection has now been sorted and archived at Liverpool Record Office. But we’re constantly acquiring new memorabilia, so this is just the beginning!

How much of the collection is available to view online at evertoncollection.org?

The entire Everton Collection is now fully searchable online. At the moment we do not have images of every item. There are currently 40,000 images of the Collection online and we will be adding more images in the future.

Is all the collection currently available to view for the public in its current exhibition?

All the treasures of The Everton Collection are on display in the free exhibition at Liverpool Central Library. However, due to limited space, the displayed material equates to just 1% of the Collection. To search everything you need to go on our website. If there is an item on the website that has no image, you can visit Liverpool Record Office and see the item in person.

Are there any events taking place involving the Everton collection?

Since we launched the Collection in September, we’ve had many events going on to coincide with the exhibition. Football historian and author, Peter Lupson, has given a number of history talks about the shared histories of Everton and Liverpool FC, including topics such as the Anfield Split and the joint match programmes. His last talk will be about Sir John Moores and will be held on Monday 21st December at 2pm in Central Library. We’ve also had Everton legends coming in to do talks and answer questions – including Duncan McKenzie, Derek Temple and on the 22nd December, Graeme Sharp (2pm).

During the school holidays there have also been family events, including hands-on tours of the exhibition and a special children’s trail around the displays – the same applies for the Christmas holidays coming up.

Is there any way fans can contribute and interact with the Everton collection?

We are always looking out for more items to add to the Collection. If we haven’t already got it, we’re keen to speak to people willing to donate their memorabilia to the Collection. Fans can also share their Everton stories on our website at www.evertoncollection.org.uk/storyteller.

The Collection is owned by a charitable trust, which relies on public fund-raising to continue its work preserving and promoting Everton’s heritage through the Collection. To support the Trust and its work you can donate online at www.justgiving.com/evertoncollection or purchase replica Everton Collection medals in the Everton stores or at http://evertondirect.evertonfc.com/stores/everton/products/product_browse.aspx?free_text=medals.

How else is the Everton collection being used?

We are also using the Collection in schools around Liverpool. Our Learning Officer delivers sessions to schools, exploring subjects such as history, literacy and poetry through the Collection. Our loan boxes include replica items from the Collection and are sent out to schools for children to handle. On our website there is also a wide range of learning resources for teachers to use in the classroom. To find out more about The Everton Collection Learning programmes see our website at www.evertoncollection.org.uk/learning.

Are there any plans for new exhibitions after the current one?

The current exhibition at Central Library ends in Spring 2010. After that, we hope to travel the exhibition around city centre venues. We will also be interviewing fans, players and officials next year as part of the Everton Collection oral history project. At the end of this we hope to have all these interviews available for everyone to listen to. The new Museum of Liverpool opens in 2011 and many of the Everton Collection treasures will also go on display there.

Up Next – “Everton At Christmas” to be put up on Wednesday 23rd December.

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