How it started On November 4, 1889, the Birmingham Jewellery and Silversmiths Association (now the British Jewellers Association) held an historical meeting attended by representatives from the principal jewellery and silverware manufacturing companies to discuss setting up a school for training apprentices and others for the local industry. The Association achieved its objective and a new school opened in a former factory building at 84 Vittoria Street on 18 September 1890 – the site it still occupies today. In 1951 all jewellery and silversmithing teaching at the College of Art in Margaret Street was moved to Vittoria Street, creating a single School. Pictured right: A photograph of students at jewellery class at the School of Jewellery, photo produced by Logan Photographers, Birmingham The Collection Much of the collection consists of photographs of student and staff work, exhibitions, prize-giving ceremonies and student shows, trade shows, educational visits, workshops and the renovation of the School between 1993 and 1995. Other materials in the collection include exhibition boards, catalogues and flyers, course brochures, press cuttings and administrative records for the Design and Research Centre Trust and the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. The material largely dates from the mid-1960s to 2015, but there is also a small amount of earlier material relating to the history of the School. Much of it was found in situ in a staff office in the School of Jewellery, but the collection also includes donations by three former members of staff. Pictured right: A selection of medals from the Thomason Medal Collection. More recently, the ADM Archive has acquired a collection of 1000 medals that were found in the vault at the School of Jewellery. Many of these were bequeathed to the Society of Arts by the Birmingham medallist Edward Thomason on his death in 1849 and include examples from Russia, France, Prussia and the UK among others. There are also a smaller number of more recent medals by students and members of staff. These have yet to be catalogued.