We are proud to be working with and guided by advice from an amazing panel of LGBTQIA+ community consultants experienced in rail, oral history, and heritage fields.
Panel members:
Raye Fullard
Mark Beresford
Kit Heyam
Darran Brown
Richard Sandell
Lilly Connors
James Flinders
Amy Clare
Nina Wakeford
Ashlynn Hudson-Welburn
Hi, I’m Ashlynn. I joined the National Railway Museum in 2014 and have been a part of our curatorial team since 2017. I’m delighted to currently be responsible for managing People, Pride and Progress, a project built out of my passion to see LGBTQIA+ history better recorded and for our community’s experience to be more visible and understood across the past.
In my role I look after our wonderful team of community volunteers helping us to record these stories, coordinate with our colleagues and friends across the community and industry, and manage the day-to-day operations of the project.
Alison Kay
Hi, I’m Alison. I’ve worked in railway archives since 2007, I’m a qualified archivist and now a Senior Curator managing a team working on exciting projects to uncover and preserve railway history. I am currently the Project Leader for People Pride and Progress, I have overall responsibility for the project, making sure we are in budget and working to meet our aims. I am thoroughly enjoying working with the project team, the volunteers and interviewers learning more about LGBTQ+ experiences on the railways along the way. My passion has always been uncovering and understanding the voices of the past, reading diaries, letters and listening to recordings. The People Pride and Progress interviews add a rich dimension to our collections which will be kept in our archives forever.
Katie Baker
Hi, I'm Katie. I joined the Science Museum Group's Fundraising Team in September 2022 and work with Trusts and Foundations on funding for a range of projects taking place across all our sites. My role in this project is to primarily work with National Lottery Heritage Fund and the other funders who have helped support People, Pride and Progress.
I am excited to be a part of the team for this important project, helping enable the museum to collect untold stories from the LGBTQIA+ community and make them more visible
Izzy Rhodes
I joined the National Railway Museum in 2023 and have spent the last 18 months strengthening our offer to our local communities, our accessible provisions on our site and getting to know as many people around the museum as possible. I have a background in community arts development and events management, so my role as Community Partnerships and Events Manager is the best of both worlds.
I’m excited to be a part of the People Pride and Progress project and have been mainly supporting the research team with their engagement methods and advising on best practice.
Angelique Bonamy
I look after the National Railway Museum’s film, video and sound collections. My role is to preserve, develop and make these collections accessible. The analogue and digital formats we hold come with an array of challenges, which I enjoy investigating. Our audio-visual archive enriches the stories that objects and other archive items tell us. I have been working to increase accessibility, through enhancing our cataloguing and digitising content when possible.
I regularly work with colleagues across the organisation, contributing to exhibitions and learning events, identifying film, video or sound recordings for research or display. Our collection represents well the decline of steam and I want to grow our collection so it also documents the contemporary railways and tells the stories and experiences of its people, workers and users.
Rosie Hicks
Hi, I'm Rosie. I joined the National Railway Museum Development team in February 2023 and have spent the last few months getting my feet under the table and meeting as many of our corporate partners as possible. I have a background in funding and museums so was really excited to hear the People, Pride and Progress project had been awarded funding.
In my role I look after our corporate partners, which includes businesses and organisations that support our work here at the National Railway Museum. We have a lot of partners from the rail and engineering sector, so I was keen to get involved with the People, Pride and Progress project to help reach out to our partners and invite their staff to take part and get involved.
Lorna Hogger
I have been working in museums and galleries for more than 15 years as exhibitions and interpretation manager and curator. Much of this time has been with the NRM working on projects including Wonderlab and various exhibitions. I’m very pleased to be a part of the People, Pride and Progress project that is enabling the museum to collect untold stories from the LGBTQIA+ community and make them more visible.
Oli Betts
Hi, I'm Oli. I joined the National Railway Museum in 2015 to help shape and supervise research across the organisation. As Research Lead I'm thrilled to be able to offer my support to People, Pride, and Progress which offers so much more depth and diversity to the stories we tell in the museum.
My role on the project is to help provide academic context and contact, helping bring the voices of experienced historians of the LGBTQIA+ community to assist with the project work.
Katrina Ferguson
I’m the NRM Volunteer Manager, responsible for leading the volunteering programmes across both Locomotion and the NRM. My role involves looking after the volunteers we have at both sites, ensuring that they are supported and have a great experience with us. I also think strategically about how we can develop the programmes by increasing the variety of projects and roles that people can get involved in, whilst striving to respond more to the diverse needs of the local communities surrounding both sites. Within the Science Museum Group we aim to create a culture of volunteering by embedding it throughout the organisation, and following this I am excited to help facilitate getting volunteers involved in such a pivotal project.
James Rose
Hi, I'm James. I am the National Railway Museum and Locomotion’s Press and PR Manager. If we have an exhibition to promote, a story to sell, or a question from the press on any aspect of our amazing collection, I’m here to help. People, Pride and Progress is an important project because it gives unheard individuals and untold stories the chance to take their rightful place in rail history.
