1403 NLS Annual Report
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Life NATIONAL stories Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH National Life Stories When many people think about history, they think about of innovative interviewing programmes funded almost entirely books and documents, castles or stately homes. In fact history from sponsorship, charitable and individual donations and is all around us, in our own families and communities, in the voluntary effort. living memories and experiences of older people. Everyone has a story to tell about their life which is unique to them. Each collection comprises recorded in-depth interviews of a Whilst some people have been involved in momentous high standard, plus content summaries and transcripts to assist historical events, regardless of age or importance we all users. Access is provided via the Sound Archive’s catalogue at have interesting life stories to share. Unfortunately, because www.cadensa.bl.uk and a growing number of interviews are memories die when people do, if we don’t record what being digitised for remote web use. Each individual life story people tell us, that history can be lost forever. interview is several hours long, covering family background, childhood, education, work, leisure and later life. National Life Stories was established in 1987 to ‘record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present- Alongside the BL Sound Archive’s other oral history holdings, day society as possible’. As an independent charitable trust which stretch back to the beginning of the twentieth century, within the Oral History Section of the British Library Sound NLS’s recordings form a unique and invaluable record of Archive, NLS’s key focus and expertise has been oral history people’s lives in Britain today. fieldwork. Over the past two decades it has initiated a series PRESIDENT TRANSCRIBERS Earth: An Oral History of TRUSTEES Lord Asa Briggs Susan Hutton British Horticulture) Bob Boas Susan Nicholls Penelope Curtis Lord Briggs PAST CHAIRMAN (Artists’ Lives) Sir John Craven Martyn Goff CBE PROJECT WORKERS Rachel Cutler Sir Nicholas Goodison Sue Bradley (Oral History of British Crispin Jewitt FOUNDER (Book Trade Lives) Athletics) Sharon Johnson Professor Paul Thompson Niamh Dillon Barbara Gibson Penelope Lively OBE (Tesco: An Oral History) (Oral History of the Circus, Dr Robert Perks CHAIRMAN Anna Dyke HIV/Aids Testimonies) Dorothy Sheridan MBE Sir Nicholas Goodison (Artists’ Lives, Oral History Mel Gooding (Artists’ Lives) Sir Harry Solomon of British Fashion) Tanya Harrod (Crafts Lives) Jonathan Taylor DIRECTOR Hawksmoor Hughes Corinne Julius (Design) Professor Paul Thompson Dr Robert Perks (Crafts Lives) Vanessa Nicolson Caroline Waldegrave OBE Cos Michael (Artists’ Lives) David Webster ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR (Food: From Source Lydia O’Ryan Jennifer Wingate Jennifer Wingate to Salespoint) (Oral History of Theatre Polly Russell Design, Artists’ Lives) NLS ADVISORS TREASURER (Food: From Source Monica Petzal Sir Terence Beckett Bob Boas to Salespoint) (Artists’ Lives) Eric de Bellaigue Elizabeth Wright Shirley Read Sir Douglas Black PROJECT OFFICER (Oral History of (Oral History of Lord Blake Cathy Courtney Theatre Design) British Photography) Lord Bragg Wendy Rickard Dr David Butler ADMINISTRATOR FREELANCE ORAL HISTORY (HIV/Aids Testimonies) Professor Mary Chamberlain Mary Stewart INTERVIEWERS Eva Simmons Sir Roger Gibbs Martin Barnes (Food, Fashion, Dr Mark Girouard CATALOGUER (Oral History of British Artists’ Lives) Martyn Goff CBE Dr Alex King Photography) Jenny Simmons Dundas Hamilton CBE Susan Bright (Artists’ Lives, Professor Leslie Hannah VOLUNTEERS (Oral History of British Book Trade Lives) Dame Jennifer Jenkins Brenda Corti Photography) Jon Wood Jack Jones Margaret Lalley Louise Brodie (Artists’ Lives) Austin Mitchell MP Audrie Mundy (Pioneers in Charity and Victoria Worsley Professor John Saville Gill Owens Social Welfare, Down to (Artists’ Lives) Bill Williams Katherine Thompson Lord Young of Graffham Chairman’s Foreword Tom Phillips, Sir Nicholas Goodison, c. 1996 (collection of the London Stock Exchange) We have shortened our everyday name – to National Life We are currently fundraising for An Oral History of British Stories – and redesigned our literature and notepaper. We Fashion. Our partner in this project is the London College of believe that the new design will help us to attract more notice Fashion, who collaborated with us over the successful Fashion and support. The formal name of the charity remains the Lives exhibition at the British Library. The exhibition helped to National Life Story Collection, but we will promote all our raise awareness within the fashion industry about the project. activities in future under our new brand. We are also raising money towards Crafts Lives and for new projects on Authors (we are aiming to raise £125,000 over I am happy to report that the British Library has strengthened three years for a project starting in 2007) and on Water. its support for our work, with a very welcome further contribution to our core funding and help with fundraising We have made modest progress with Newspapers and have through the Library’s Development Office. We have also received support from the British Library for some interviews: transferred our accounting arrangements to the Library’s and we are considering a major project on Science, which we Finance Office, which saves us some more cost. We still are discussing with potential partners. If we can achieve it, need to find funds towards core costs each year, and I this could be one of our most exciting projects. would like to thank our advisor Sir Roger Gibbs for his continuing efforts in helping us to find donors. He has I would like to thank Eric de Bellaigue, who has retired as a been a splendid supporter. Trustee, both for his long term of office and for his sterling work as our Treasurer. Bob Boas has taken on the Our efforts to raise funds towards our projects are constant. Treasurership. Our new trustees are Sir Harry Solomon, We are particularly grateful this year to the Rootstein Hopkins David Webster, Caroline Waldegrave and Sharon Johnson, Foundation for their major donation towards our Artists’ Lives who bring us a wealth of experience and talent. project which, along with the continued support from the Henry Moore Foundation, will allow us to add a steady stream All in all it has been an active and successful year. of interviews with painters and sculptors in the coming years. We are grateful to Rob Perks, our Director, and to all our staff and volunteers for making it so. Sir Nicholas Goodison Chairman of Trustees 1 Review of 2005 Rob Perks, Director, National Life Stories Collections During 2005 the Book Trade Lives project was completed. Lives in the Oil Industry, a collaborative project with the Since it was launched with a grant from the Unwin Charitable University of Aberdeen, was completed in 2005. 177 Trust in December 1998, 118 interviews have been collected interviews were collected by Hugo Manson over a five-year by project worker Sue Bradley (with some assistance in 2000 period, recording the major changes which have occurred in from Jenny Simmons), totalling some 1600 hours of the UK oil and gas industry in the twentieth century, focusing recordings. Interviews range from bookselling in the 1920s particularly on North Sea exploration. Men and women (Tommy Joy at Thornton’s University Bookshop, Oxford and representing all sectors of the industry – management, off- Frank Stoakley at Heffers of Cambridge) and publishing in the shore workers, technical professionals and specialists and 1930s (Sir John Brown at Oxford University Press and Charles personnel from government and regulatory bodies were Pick at Victor Gollancz Ltd), to accounts of work at Simpkin interviewed, together with people from associated Marshall wholesalers both before and after the Second World organisations and communities, as well as Americans linked War (Bert Taylor, Ian Kiek, Karl Lawrence). Included are to what is arguably the twentieth century’s most important recollections about Leonard Woolf at Chatto & Windus industry. Along with intrepid bravery displayed by the deep- (Peter Cochrane), of Collet’s trade with Eastern Europe sea divers and engineers, the voices of those workers, such as during the Cold War (John Prime), of Collins (Ian Chapman), caterers and cleaners, who perform routine yet essential tasks Blackie’s, Nelson’s and Odhams from the 1950s onwards, as that ensure the smooth running of oil rigs, also feature. Aside well as of independent family bookselling firms (from James from the archive itself, project outcomes included a website, Thin of Edinburgh to Maureen Prime of King’s Lynn). www.abdn.ac.uk/oillives/, and On Charlie, an exhibition of Interviews with well-known figures such as André Deutsch, photographs taken by Hugo when he was offshore in the far and Max Reinhardt of The Bodley Head have been enhanced north of the North Sea on the Brent Charlie platform. The by recordings with those who worked with them. Secretaries, exhibition at the Marischal Museum Gallery in Aberdeen, sales managers, editors and publishers’ representatives was curated by Pat Ballantyne (Piper Alpha survivor describe their own perspectives on the book trade, and a series Bob Ballantyne’s widow). of recordings has been made with specialists in production and design (including Ronald Eames, Allen & Unwin; Ron Costley, Faber & Faber; Iain Bain, The Bodley Head). John and Maureen Prime’s bookshop, King’s Lynn, showing John and daughter Welcome Party II. Brent Charlie platform. Isobel c.1970. Photo supplied by John Prime and Maureen Condon. Hugo Manson 2 The Oral History of the Wine Trade, funded by the Vintners’ Patrick Reytiens (famous for his work at Coventry Cathedral). Company and the Institute of Masters of Wine, was completed Whilst ceramicists comprise the largest craft group, interviews with the recording of 40 key figures in the UK wine trade. A also cover glass-making, jewellery, furniture/basket-making, total of 252 recorded hours was gathered, an average interview metalworkers, and textiles.