Introduction

Discussions around museum and archival staff experiencing distress as a result of the material they work with has been increasing in recent years. In 2022, Nicola Laurent and Kristen Wright, Archivists working at the University of Melbourne carried out an international survey titled ‘Understanding the landscape of trauma and archives’. It showed a huge desire for guidance within the sector. This research was originally titled ‘When Archives Make You Feel’ and was an initial attempt to fulfill this desire.

The aim of this work is to help staff work with distressing material safely and prevent the development of vicarious trauma. It’s also research and training that is intended to better equip staff for the future, whether in different jobs within or beyond Wellcome.

This work is still in progress and you are invited to keep adding to it. Particularly, if you feel anything is missing or you don't feel the tools speak to your experience. What helps each of us individually can be completely different but it's important we capture all of it so we can better educate the team and new staff joining Wellcome.

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Terminology

Language used to talk about this issue initially centred around the term 'vicarious trauma'. Vicarious, or secondhand, trauma are traumas that can be created through the scope of our work. This happens through being exposed to other people’s trauma.

In the following pages, you will learn the symptoms of vicarious trauma along with methods of working and tools to help prevent vicarious trauma from occurring.

This does not mean you will avoid feeling any emotion in the course of your work. Archives and collections are full of records, objects, books and items that are born out of a wide range of different types of trauma. But trauma isn’t always the right word to use. Indeed, the survey mentioned earlier highlighted mixed responses to the use of the word ‘trauma’. Working with upsetting or distressing material does not mean you will experience vicarious trauma but it is important to know that this is possible if you don't work with it safely.

Archives and collections, instead, can simply make you feel. They can make you feel upset, distressed, disgusted, and horrified. They can make you laugh and they can make you cry. And that’s something that needs to be understood and acknowledged too when we embark on our work with collections.

Hannah Nagle, Collections Information Officer (2026).