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The V&A Museum is seeking a Project Archivist and Project Cataloguer to work on and support the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) digitisation project. The RPS Project is a vital part of the V&A’s broader programme of cataloguing, digitisation, collections care and access. It aims to safeguard the collection and provide meaningful access to benefit and inspire current and future generations. The initiative is headed by recently appointed Amy Mayhew, who reports to V&A senior curator of photography Martin Barnes. 

Project Archivist. The main purpose of the role is to catalogue the Royal Photographic Society archive in accordance with the International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD(G)) using the Museum’s Collections Management System.

Project Cataloguer. The main purpose of the role is to create new catalogue records for objects in the RPS collection and, with the Project Manager, to supervise volunteers to input basic cataloguing data. The V&A seeks to accelerate digitization through a new RPS Project Team, with cataloguing as a central focus.

Both roles are three-year, full-time, fixed-term contracts. 

The RPS collection is the largest and most important collection of photography at the V&A. It contains many items of global significance, including some of the earliest photographs, artworks by well-known photographers, invaluable documents of history and evidence of 200 years of technical and scientific advances. The collection numbers an estimated 310,000 photographs, negatives, pieces of photographic technology, books, journals and archive items. Some 90% of the collection remains to be catalogued, imaged and digitised. 

Applications for both jobs close on 18 July 2025. See the links above for full details. 

Amy Mayhew has been appointed Project Manager for the five-year digitisation project of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Collection at the V&A Museum. The job was advertised earlier this year as a five-year fixed-term contract. 

Amy joins the V&A from the British Film Institute where she spent over eleven years in various roles. Latterly she specialised in the management and delivery of large-scale digital access cultural heritage projects. Previous work includes the digitisation of film, videotape, and stills collections, as well as 35mm film printing, the Film on Film Festival, and Britain on Film.  She has a Masters in World Cinema from Birkbeck. 

The new role is to plan, budget, monitor, report on and drive forward the RPS Digitisation Project. The V&A's stewardship of the RPS Collection is at an inflexion point and the digitisation will start with the RPS photographs ultimately making them available online with full catalogue descriptions. Detailed plans are still being determined but the work may extend into some of the archival material and, perhaps, the technology colllection later in the project. 

The V&A is assembling a team to support the initiative and two new archivist and cataloguing jobs are currently open. The project will also be making use of volunteers to bring specialist and practical skills to the project.  

Image: courtesy of Amy Mayhew