The Henry Salt Archive was established in 2000 to make information about the life, work and ideas of Henry Stephens Salt available online. Over more than two decades, it grew through the efforts of numerous contributors who shared their research, knowledge, photographs and other material.
The Henry Salt Foundation and the former Henry S. Salt Society website contain much of the same material because they share this history. This article explains how the two websites came about, why the Foundation became public, and the work undertaken to develop it since then.
From the Archive to the Foundation
In 2018, work began on a new website design and technical platform under the name Henry Salt Foundation. Initially kept out of public view, the site provided a development environment where new features and improvements could be tested without disrupting the existing Archive website.
Once the new platform was stable, it replaced the original Archive website and became the public Henry S. Salt Society website. The Foundation site was retained for testing further developments and contained the same archive material.
In 2021, after twenty years of developing the website, it was felt that the time had come for a fresh approach. New ideas and experience in website development were needed to take the resource forward. Several people expressed an interest, and after careful consideration, responsibility for the Society website and its domain was entrusted to someone we believed we could trust, who assured us that he and his “team” were ready to take the website to the next level.
The decision was made in good faith, on the understanding that the website would be actively developed and that the work accumulated over two decades would be taken forward. The assurances given were central to the decision to hand it over.
With responsibility for the website transferred, there was an opportunity to turn attention to an ambitious publishing project. The intention was to prepare for publication a previously unpublished version of Salt’s autobiography, Seventy Years Among Savages, followed by the republication of other books that had long been out of print. This was a rare opportunity to bring more of Salt’s writings back into circulation and make them accessible to a new generation of readers. The prospect of finally publishing these works was a source of real excitement, making the eventual abandonment of the project particularly disappointing. It meant losing not just a publishing opportunity, but a chance to give Salt’s work a new lease of life that might not come again.
The anticipated development of the Society website did not materialise. It received no updates after the handover and, at times, was unavailable for months. Errors and inaccuracies remained uncorrected, and the promised programme of development failed to take shape. Whatever the reasons, the outcome fell far short of the assurances on which the handover had been based.
The consequences extended beyond the website itself. The opportunity to develop the resource was lost, the publishing plans were abandoned, and a project built through the efforts of many contributors was left without the active care and development it needed. This was deeply disappointing, not least because the purpose of the original work was to promote Henry Salt’s life and ideas, not simply to establish a website.
We could not allow more than twenty years of collective effort to be left to stagnate. In 2023, the existing Foundation site was made publicly accessible under its own domain, providing a means of continuing the research, correcting errors, improving the material and welcoming new contributions. The Foundation website had existed since 2018 as part of the original development process; making it public was a way to continue the work when the Society website was no longer being maintained.
Developing the Foundation website
Although much of the material has a shared history, considerable work has gone into improving the Foundation website since it became public in 2023.
We have audited transcriptions against primary sources to identify and correct errors, improving the reliability of the information presented. Hundreds of images have also been reworked to improve their quality while reducing file sizes and speeding up loading, particularly on mobile devices.
Our comprehensive Henry Salt family history website has undergone a full audit, and the Foundation has welcomed important new contributions from researchers and readers since its public launch. These additions are central to the site’s purpose: to encourage research, share knowledge and continue expanding our understanding of Henry Salt and his world.
The archive itself is distinct from either website. The Society and the Foundation are separate projects through which material from the archive has been made available, while the archive’s history predates both the Foundation’s public launch and the transfer of the Society website.
Looking ahead
Having two websites containing similar material is far from ideal. It risks confusing readers and dividing attention between the sites, when a single, well-maintained resource would better serve the promotion of Salt’s work. We regret that this duplication has become necessary, but believe it is important to continue developing the Foundation website so that Salt’s writings and ideas remain accessible and reach new audiences. We hope this account clarifies their shared history and explains why the Foundation continues to maintain and develop its own website.
Henry Salt and Ernest Bell devoted much of their lives to advancing causes they believed mattered. We believe that preserving their legacy requires the same commitment to honesty, responsible stewardship and sustained effort. The handover of the Society website was made in good faith, but the trust placed in the assurances given at the time proved misplaced.
Our aim is not simply to keep the archive online, but to preserve the work of its many contributors, improve the accuracy and accessibility of its content, and welcome new research and contributions. The efforts of those who helped build this resource over more than two decades deserve nothing less.