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Life NATIONAL Review and Accounts 2017/2018 National Life Stories When many people think about history, they think about series of innovative interviewing programmes funded almost books and documents, castles or stately homes. In fact entirely from sponsorship, charitable and individual donations history is all around us, in our own families and communities, and voluntary effort. in the living memories and experiences of older people. Everyone has a story to tell about their life which is unique to Each collection comprises recorded in-depth interviews of them. Whilst some people have been involved in momentous a high standard, plus content summaries and transcripts to historical events, regardless of age or importance we all assist users. Access is provided via the Sound and Moving have interesting life stories to share. Unfortunately, because Image Catalogue at http://sami.bl.uk and a growing memories die when people do, if we don’t record what number of interviews are made available for remote web use people tell us, that history can be lost forever. through British Library Sounds at https://sounds.bl.uk. Each individual life story interview is several hours long, covering National Life Stories was established in 1987 and its mission family background, childhood, education, work, leisure and is: ‘To record the first-hand experiences of as wide a cross later life. section of society as possible, to preserve the recordings, to make them publicly available and encourage their use’. As an Alongside the British Library’s other oral history holdings, independent charitable trust within the Oral History Section which stretch back to the beginning of the twentieth century, of the British Library, NLS’s key focus and expertise has been NLS’s recordings form a unique and invaluable record of oral history fieldwork. For nearly thirty years it has initiated a people’s lives in Britain today. FOUNDER PROJECT RESEARCHER FREELANCE ORAL HISTORY TRUSTEES (at 25 May 2018) Professor Paul Thompson Camille Johnston INTERVIEWERS Dame Jenny Abramsky Dr Zibiah Alfred Loakthar Professor Jon Agar CHAIR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT (An Oral History of Talking Bob Boas Dame Jenny Abramsky Eleanor Lowe (to June 2017) Therapists in the UK) Amanda Game Geraint Franklin Roger Gavin DIRECTOR BOOKKEEPER (Architects’ Lives) Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield Dr Robert Perks Pauline Morrison Kirstie Gregory Bill Knight OBE (Artists’ Lives) Dr Robert Perks DEPUTY DIRECTOR PROJECT INTERVIEWERS Dr Katharine Haydon Richard Ranft Mary Stewart Frances Cornford (British Library Staff Oral Dr Jo Reilly (Crafts Lives) History Project) Professor Paul Thompson ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Niamh Dillon Victoria Lane Dr Hodson Thornber Jennifer Wingate (Architects’ Lives) (Artists’ Lives) Jennifer Wingate Dr Thomas Lean Shirley Read TREASURER (An Oral History of British (Oral History of British NLS ADVISORS (at 25 May 2018) Bob Boas Science and An Oral History Photography) Sir Peter Bazalgette of the Electricity Supply Ann Sproat Eric de Bellaigue PROJECT DIRECTOR Industry in the UK) (Artists’ Lives) Lord Bragg Cathy Courtney Dr Paul Merchant Paula Thompson Professor Mary Chamberlain (Artists’ Lives, Architects’ Lives) (An Oral History of British (Legal Lives) Sir John Craven Science) Robert Wilkinson Sir Roger Gibbs SENIOR ACADEMIC ADVISOR Sarah O’Reilly (An Oral History of Oral Dr Mark Girouard Dr Sally Horrocks (An Oral (Authors’ Lives) History in the UK) Sir Nicholas Goodison History of British Science Dr Hester Westley Dr Jon Wood Professor Leslie Hannah and An Oral History of the (Artists’ Lives) (Artists’ Lives) Lesley Knox Electricity Supply Industry in Dr Elizabeth Wright Lord Rees of Ludlow OM the UK) (Crafts Lives) TRANSCRIBERS Ian Prideaux Susan Hutton Professor Dorothy Sheridan MBE ARCHIVIST COLLABORATIVE DOCTORAL Susan Nicholls Jonathan Taylor CBE David Govier STUDENTS Caroline Waldegrave OBE Emmeline Ledgerwood ARCHIVE AND Dvora Liberman ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Charlie Morgan (from June 2017) Chair’s Foreword Bill Knight It has always been a crucial objective for National Life the art works revolve around the oral histories, rather than Stories that we don’t merely gather unique first-hand as an adjunct. We continue to receive numerous requests testimonies, we also share them as widely as we can and to use NLS interviews in a range of exhibitions and displays, encourage others to do the same. As we have placed growing and later in this Review we highlight some of the most recent numbers of recordings online through the British Library’s examples, including last year’s exhibition at The Lightbox ‘Sounds’ website so users have increased. In 2017 NLS and in Woking, which was one of the outcomes of our NLS other oral history content on the BL’s website, both full Goodison Fellowships, now in their third year. Last year’s were interviews and edited clips, accounted for over 1.15 million generously supported by the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation page views. Our Voices of the Holocaust and Voices of with a focus on Artists’ Lives. This coming year our Fellow, Science web resources are especially popular and over the Rib Davis, will draw on our Holocaust holdings to write a play coming years we intend to develop more of these ‘curated’ script. We are excited to see what emerges. websites of interpreted audio clips drawn from the longer interviews, as well as working with BL colleagues on a brand- The challenges that the charity faces this coming year are new ‘Sounds’ web offer, supported by funding from Heritage once again mainly financial. We continue to seek significant Lottery Fund as part of the digitisation initiative ‘Unlocking start-up funding for our new collecting areas about the City Our Sound Heritage’. and infrastructure, and we still need funds to complete the original vision for An Oral History of British Science. Our Later this year, thanks to a generous digital project grant electricity project came to an end with a poignant event at from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, we the British Library attended by many interviewees and their will launch Voices of Art. This builds on our highly successful families; and after nearly twenty years we have decided to exhibition at Tate Britain – ‘Artists’ Lives: Speaking of the rest our Crafts Lives programme and develop a new project Kasmin Gallery’ – and will offer over 100 audio clips from on design. the exhibition alongside images and specially-commissioned essays, focusing on the British art world between the late I would like to thank our donors, trustees and advisors for 1950s and early 1970s, including an exploration of its another successful year, and our staff for their hard work. underlying economics at that time, the role of commercial galleries, and the relationship between dealer, artist and public collections. This new educational resource will also, fittingly, explore the years of expansion of the teaching of art history and the development of the professionalism of curators. Dame Jenny Abramsky The Tate Britain exhibition showed what is possible in a public Chair of Trustees space when sound is placed at the heart of the gallery, where 1 Review of 2017 Rob Perks Director of National Life Stories Collections and projects Steedman created important cultural buildings: the Lighthouse Museum and the music school at St. Leonard’s school in Fife. Our long-running Architects’ Lives entered a new phase led by Rab Bennetts as chair of the Advisory Committee, ably Niamh was able to conduct a single session recording backed by our other Committee members. Rab has brought with architectural critic Gavin Stamp in the weeks before a fresh vigour to fundraising initiatives, reaching out to a his death in December. One of the most influential younger generation of architects, centred on those who architectural historians of his generation, Stamp championed took part in a seminal 1988 exhibition, ‘40 Under Forty’. the preservation of Britain’s nineteenth century heritage at a Related recordings include Keith Williams, Bob Allies and time when it was regarded as lacking in architectural merit. Graham Morrison. Williams, originally in practice with John In particular he highlighted the work of George Gilbert Scott Pawson, has won awards in Britain and Ireland, particularly (junior), Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, and Lutyens, the architect for cultural buildings, including the National Opera House, who designed New Delhi as well as seminal First World Wexford (Ireland), the Luan Gallery in Athlone (Ireland) and War memorials. Stamp wrote extensively, for journals and the Unicorn Theatre, London. His Long House was described monographs, and was a founding member of the Twentieth as ‘one of the most beautiful houses in London’. Bob Allies Century Society. and Graham Morrison established their practice in 1984 and have completed a range of education, residential, civic and Several interviews were added to Crafts Lives in 2017. commercial buildings in the UK and overseas, among them the Frances Cornford completed a recording with Martin Smith, refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall, the transformation of covering his time as Professor of Ceramics and Glass at the Arsenal FC’s former Highbury Stadium into residential units, Royal College of Art (RCA) and how he maintained a balance and the Qatar National Archive in Doha. They specialise in between teaching and making; also about his recent work, masterplanning and were the winners of the competitions for which continues his interest in and mastery of ceramics King’s Cross and the Olympic Park, Stratford. technology. In 2015, he worked with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) to restore a Meissen fountain using digital With the last of the Monument Trust funding, Niamh Dillon scanning and computer numerical control (CNC) machining completed an interview with Max Fordham, a pioneer in alongside traditional press moulding. His most recent research ‘holistic’ mechanical and service engineering solutions, who project looks at the use of laser printing to print optically started his career at Arup Associates before establishing his complex ceramic transfers.
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